The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 228: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

224 that Foster and Ross went to bed. The breeze was not so strong as to make it necessary to shorten sail, so all there was to do was to man the tiller. I took this, and when Mary had fin- ished her work she brought a stool and sat down near me. I had noticed of late, and the fact gave me a quicker heart beat, that she was near me most of the time. If she came on deck she would stand at my side. If we were all together on deck and sitting down, she would sit near me. All this was very pleasant, for I had by that time fully analyzed my own feeling, and knew that I loved her. I did not know how the others stood in the matter, and was resolved to use no unfair efforts to win her. I would give her ample time to learn the world to which she was going, and then, free from all restraint, she could give me her answer to the question I would ask. “My father has told me of London and New York,” ‘she said. “Is it so strange there? Are there so many houses ?” “Yes, Miss Donaldson,” I replied. “It would be impossible to give you any adequate idea of what either city is like. In the first place, in your mind a house would probably be something like that cabin or the hut you lived in before the big hurricane blew it away. But a house in London or New York is a very different thing. There are other buildings as well. There are great office buildings in New York twenty and more stories high.” “Do you mean one floor above an- other so many times?” she asked with a puzzled air. “Yes. There are stairs running all the way up, but in those high ones there is what we call an elevator. It is a little room, or car, managed by an attendant, and run by electricity, and 1t goes up and down in a shaft and stops at each floor.” “T don’t understand,” she said with a sigh. “I suppose I'll be a fool when I get there.” “You could never be that,’ I an- swered. “There are plenty of people living in the country who have never seen those buildings, and who, if they THE ARGOSY. did see them, would be much surprised. And they are not fools by any means.” “My father and I used to think I was wonderfully bright, and that he had given me a good education,” she said. “But now—after hearing you gentle- men so long—I find I know scarcely anything.” “ Well, if you are going to judge your knowledge by the aggregation of intel- lect in this crowd, you won’t have much of a criterion. Given our advantages against yours, and we stand in a poor light compared to you. You have done wonders.” “ Ah, it was lonesome there! We had nothing else to do. I did not know it was lonesome. But there was always a feeling as if I wanted something—I knew not what. A dissatisfaction with everything. “My father seldom spoke of his sor- row that no ship ever visited the island. But I know he must have been bitterly disappointed. And now I realize why. I could never go back to that lonely life again.” My heart went out to this girl, so beautiful, so pure, so perfectly unsul- lied by the contact with the world that brings often to a woman a coldness, a spirit of conquest, that was wholly lack- ing in sweet Mary Donaldson. All that day we sailed and saw no land nor another ship. It was fortunate that we had provid- ed for so long a trip. Still, I knew that sooner or later we must run across land of some sort. And if it was inhabited, it made little difference what land it was, for surely ships would stop at times. Toward evening the wind became al- most a gale, and we feared for the mast. But the raft was so steady and the speed so much greater that we chose to run the risk. There were signs of a storm, and we wished to reach land if possible before it arrived. That night I had the late morning watch. The professor, who was on duty with me, sat asleep with ‘his head rest- ing against the rear of the cabin. There was nothing for him to do, and one of us awake was enough. Almost as soon as the light became GOI OOoO SS (COL