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Show I Soauiy and Mck Ig SirPMlipGibW 1 (Continued from Last Week.) I Bean Copyrlcbt. bT "10 Povin Alair Comr-a-ij ( All Kipht Rrred jj CHAPTER VI. (Continued ) ,llt3F noon NIi K knew ho would feel Noif very lonely without the girl to (1 of the ground floor flat wit hi So he told her through th and railings of the garden in which NTlck she sowed 'seeds which neve wj(ll tamo up- r.ee I Joan, he saW. "I am going ,,om away now. T shall he frightfully story I alone without you." Loi Hut Joan was in one of her bad jrtyt I moods. Nick I "Good riddance to bod rubbish.'' fcappi she said, digging up a piece of imug I earth. He did not understand that that I she was angry wit li him because parin j he was going awny. aud that bjo give bad bowled her eyes out that verv City, naonl'rg because sh "knew ha Been I was going awny. print I Her words seemed like a slap ir. of N1 the face, and Nick became very gold I red. r(l st 1 "Crosspatch! he said. Then h namr spoke very softly book: "Perhaps we will never see soon each other again But I'll think of the c you till I'm dead." ! She was startled at thai 'ore. "You are not going awny to die. a sui re you?" she asked, letting hoi side trowel drop. wore "Going away is like dying." sal J thoug ! Nick. " J 1 He put his hand in his pocket, ,he P and after some fumbling pulled "Dd 1 out the same old mouth-organ fo" blmsi "which they had fought through the Aft railings when they had first met. V'", "Here 13 a keepsake for you," he . tl .aid J" Joan stared at it, and said very or ni rudely: fa,f;p "It isn't a keepsake. If? a flttln mouth-organ. Do you think I don't mo"x know: about N'lck let it drop through th-. Paper mailings. and 1 "Anyhow I shall leave it wlvi WnW you. I should like to think you Rm played your tune on it. You know a le Three Blind Mice." thaf , "Pooh!" said Joan. "I could pla searc dozens of tunes if I wanted to." Which "Well anyhow, I've got to go," efSK cald Nick, for Polly was calling celeb: to lain from the cab There waft wa-ft great lump In his throat whou he said, "Good-by. Joan!" Joan did not answer. She had become very red in the face The.i suddenly 6he put both 'landj through the railings and caught lilold of Nick, so that ho thought nshe was in one of her wild-cit moods But she drew him close and put her face up against the ralllnc- nnd U is Mm throne i them. Then she began to cry. and mm while the tears trickled dowu her mm cheeks, she tumbled lu her poeke. ! and pulled out a silver thimble mm "Will that do for a keepsake?" mW she said, holding it out through the railings. N'lck looked at It doubtfully. "Well I can t do needlework,' mWt be noiJ "That's girl's work. yo' He said it very gently, so as not !o on'cnd her. But she vuj B offended, tor she flung the Uumlli mm Into the road, and said: fl "Don't take it then!" B Nipk ran after it and caught It, Inst as it was rolling into the B will tdks It," he said, and be put it into his waistcoat pocket jest Polly was becoming io MmM Impatient that she threatened to go ...-ii. him. B So he left the top-floor flat and fl as he laj very still and quiet in the cab he felt ihat he was driving B away from an.,t of the things tin' bad made life a game to him It HL was only because be wan toj proud to cry before Polly that ho B did not let the tears get higher than hi.-, throat. That night he slept in a strange Bj little bed in a strange littla mW room, v lihin sound of the great B sighing sea, which fn hfin He was glad to hao Peter mM Rabbit on the chest of drawers, B and Joan's silver thimble clasped Bf Kgbtly in bis hand And he was mm tfelad to know that In a little while B Brlstlos would come to sleep in B the camp bed nearest to the window, so that if Nick woke un in the night bo would have fom1 MM ,ope to guard him from anything r which might Jump out of the dark-mw) dark-mw) ness of this unfamiliar room Bj Bristles himself had undergone B a change in the break-up of th - B top-floor flat. He was not the same 1 Bristles as before in his habits and way of life He had, for B Instance, left off being Something mW in the City, and that made all the B difference to him, Because now he did not have to leavo home early mW in the morning In a chimneypot bat and black coat, and striped .trousers creased under the mat- trc-us, which wag (be costume worn B 7 'people who have so much Hl money that they can't count It themselves. The chimney-pot hat, Hl the blnck coat and the striped UOU6em had been sold, with most cif tin- other furniture, and witn Beauiy'K dresses, underclothing and ornaments. Bristles nlwas dressed now in his Saturday afternoon after-noon clothes with a soft collar, a Norfolk jacket without a button lo the waistband, llannel trousers without a creaso down the middle, and brown boots which it was .NMck's duty and pleasure to clea.i with brown paste until he could see the image of I1I3 own face in them . . priatlM had become a story teller. Looking back on this change in Brittle'. way of life in after oai. Nick Is of opinion that it did not happen quite so suddenly as h-imagined h-imagined at the time. He believed that Bristles must have been pr-paring pr-paring for a good long while to give up being Something In the City, and to take to story-telling. Became the first story which was printed in a book with his ramr of Nicholas Barton written In 1n.1l gold letters on the cover It seemed seem-ed strange to Nick to see his owe. name staring at him from the bookshelf was rdjady almost as aoon as they had settled down in the cottage by the sea. so that ho must have written it some tinv before be-fore Perhaps it was meant to be a surprise for Beauty, becaiif"' Inside In-side the cover, on the first page, wore the words. "To Beauty," as though it were a present to her. But Beauty had goii" away before the printers had been quick enough, and Bristles had to keep the book himself After that he was always writing books. In his memories of this cottage by the sea, the dwelling place of the second part of his life, Nick always sees h'.s father most clearly in the front sitting-room with a pipe in bi. mouth, and a wreath of 6moke about his head, and a pad of whit 1 paper in front of him on the table, and a penny bottle of Ink. into which ho dipped his nib, whlca seemed to suffer from an insatiable insati-able thirst, and. In his eyes Just that far-away look, as thougn searching for the Now World, which may be seen in the palntel eyes of Sir Nicholas Barton, hli celebrated ancestor. And thin sound of a bee buzzing about the, open lattice window, and the ver soft murmur of the ourf breaking on the sands beyond the patch of grass where the donkeys browse, und the faint fragrance of sea weed stealing through the open window, mixed with tho aroma of tobacco, and a subtle smell of tar and fishing nets, and a stronger strong-er perfume of stocks and hwco. willlams in a honey-Jar on the table The voice of Polly, pingtns a Cockney ballad It was generally : You'd look sweet upon phQ seat Of a bicycle made for twi' breaks In upou the Qlljeter ghost sounds and causes Bristle t Kroan and thrust his fingers through his hair and sometime! among these memory sounds there is the voice of the Mermen a Jolly, hearty volcc -'shouting through the window. win-dow. "Now, you two bookworms. J N fit I V-v? Hj j " Often Bristles Sighed, and His J Eyes Stared Out of the Window V to the Great Sea, aa Though He Saw Beauty's mermory portrait of Bristles, tha , . , riK . c U a,.i;u story-teller, is accompanied ly ihf ghost of a small boy sitting ai the opposite side 'of the tabb ith hi.s heels resting on the runs of a cane chair, with his elbow dug firmly into the n-l 1 able-clotti (on which were many littlo black spots, and one or two big blac spots, caused by the flourish of the thirsty pen and accidents to tho penny inkpot), and his face bent over an open book, of which be turns the pageu very quietly, & as not to disturb the man who is writing. This 18 the ghost of the boy Nick, In the second part of his life. Faint ghost sounds and faint ghost scents haunt the memory of this scene, nnd come into the picture. There is the come out and warm yourselves In God's sunshine!" It was a curious kind of life for a email boy who was no longer a child, ami wlm, as tie ye&TI P8 - led became a big boy, older in mind thiiji in body, because he lived very much alone, so that his thQllghta grew oid quickly, and who did not have mauy companions i,f his own age., but made friends wirli men and women who forgot how young he was. It would have been different if he had boon to school and plunged Into tho rough and tuuiblo of schoolboy life. But thore were two reasons why ho did not go tp j . . .-... school. One was because Bristles was still ns poor as a church f' mouse, and tho other was because 1 Bristles wanted Nick as his com- ''ffifi fr "t ft' ; 1 ' i Si ti l'! Ml f Pinion and could not bear the idea of parting with him. Bristles was so poor (none of hU books waB ever a success) that sometimes there was hardly enough to oat In tho cottago by tho sea. At least there were days when they bail to go on short commons, filling fill-ing up the hunger boles with bread and butter and the last bit of honey in the Jar, and when Polly confessed con-fessed to Nick that sho couldn't even make a drop of soup, because sho had boiled the old mutton bom until It was as white as a rag, an.' she supposed the next thing that MO would happen would be tlu workhouse work-house for all of them. Bristles was so poor that then was a big hole in tho elbow of his Norfolk jacket and bo had to bo very careful of sitting down in his flannel trousers, which Polly had darned and patched until, as sho Bald, there were nothing but darns and patches. And because Bristles Bris-tles was so poor. Nick grow out of his clothes much faster than there was monoy earned for new ones, so that ho became sunburnt half way up bis arms because his Jersey was so short, and sunburnt on his knees because his stockings would uot pull up so high. It was a joy ' .0 him to put off these old rags altogether oy going to bathe with the Merman at the far end of the sand dunes, whore they were alone with the sea and the sky and the wind, so that his body became sunburnt from head to foot and he did not feel the need of clothes Bristles was sunburnt, too. because, although be was always al-ways writing books, he was peedy for the sun and the v. hid and he arranged his days n such a way that be could get as much as possible Nick ;is first out of bed in the mornings, at six o clock, but by the time bo had run across the grass and 'aid good tnorhlnc to tho browsing donkeys, and flung his firs', stone into tho ;!ea (which was .1 kind of religious ceremony with At the beginning of the day). 'Irlstles was shaving htrnlf at tho open window before putting his head out to bee which way llie wind was blov ing Then for an hour before breakfast he could tramp along the sands as fr as tho Rod Rockfli turning every now nnd then to free the sea and take in great breaths of nlr, and to stnro Away ROrOM the waters, as though trying to see the New World. Afie breakfast Nick and Bristles IHk ould settle down to work, Nick to '' is lessons, rhleh Bristles cor- K-rected K-rected rntll M k caught him mak- wT trig big mistakes in Latin, which V ho had forgotten since lie had been V to school, and Bristles to his new V S ' book, whiCfl somcti nej raced along, and sometimes crawled k 1 along, and sometimes stopped a! X 1 together, with nothing but a blank A page to show st the end of the, K morning The afternoons were al- Wn ways holidays with 'ho ?4erman, 'j the Lonely La ly 01 the Admiral. A or with all of them together at 1 BaM laugn.ug ta p.irty under Uie shel- ' ter ol the tHSfrpchy g-j's above the Mm rand dunes. WBmW Then in the evenfugs out enme wSj the wriliug block and the reading W books, and Bristles and N'n k. I A ' 0 m.'-i in separate worlds, but I AM wer- glad to look across at ea h Bel otli r now and again, and to know jil that they were not alone. Then th MSH light taded from the window paaca aud the room wan filled with a 51 Pm pearly dusk, w hen Bristles would )if fl say. "By Jove, It is getting dark!" ' Just as Polly brought the lamp in with Iks oily fragrance which mix as with the other ghost-smells in the tvti memory of Nicholas Barton, the younger, The lamp was the signal for supper, sup-per, at which Nick startled Bristles by his ast appetite, and at which Brlsiles astounded Nick by his S ffffi vaster appetite because the sea ai 1 which had only a little way to jnM'B travel before it came through the I I open window, put a sharp edge upon their hunger, so that even a tin ul of bread and cheese, in th- J! I I lei n days of poverty, required no j( , ' H I b.S blinds were ucver drawn, be- llsaaaB cause tho velvet darkness of night TT closed In the window.', and becaus T as another reason there were 10 d jfi blinds. On a moonlight night Nick v'mm liked to glance up from his book laLI and see the silvery radiance of the sea outside, and to hear the si6h I of the surf upon the sands; and jfH sometimes he would sit in the win- fl do.v seat with his legs curled up, fi whue Bristles puffed at his pips ul and read out some of tho books he had brought from the top-floor flat o. Nick's first ho-ue MfLafi They were "The Three Musket- eLV cerB," and 'Quentln Durward." and "Hsreward the Wake," and "The lfe Cloister and the Hearth " which opened to Nick a new world of , romance more wonderful and more entrancing than the 'airy-tales which had first started his linagtna- Wr A tion upon journeys of adventure. V m Tliey were great chums, this man liJH and bpy, Hid the man wes oung in fU his mind because of the bo-, and fi tlx- boy old in his mind because 0f me man 0 t liar they drew close together In comradeship. And yet MeB there was always a secret between LLV them which each kept in his heart eaaS and hid from the other It was the 'lll secret of Beauty, whose name never crossed the lips of the man, so that the boy was afraid to speak of her, and who seemod to have been blotted out of tho mind of the man, though the hoy brooded and pondered pon-dered and yearned, and never for- 'iAm Often Nick watched his father stealthily, wondering whether he H was really happy without Beautv, and whether he had really forgotten forgot-ten her There woro times when Bristles gae a longdravn sigh. j whist seemed to quiver up from his heart, when his pen ceased to run 1 ' rosa th paper, and when his pvCs stared out of iho Utile window to fhe great sea, as though he saw Beauty's face there in tho glitter of sunlight or in the gray haze TV-re were nights when he wai restless, and when Nick wns wak- " njl. WM eued bv the sound of a stifled groan. WW or by tho quiet tread ot hls father s WM feet, pacing up and down the little room under ihe low-neamed celling. kj whf'ii ncarh touched bis head And one day, when Nick came inio the sitting loom, after a long walk along the dune.-, he found his father with his head over a photograph K which ay on the table before him As Nick came in. be covered the Photograph quit My Wln some Qf his Sheets of writing, but not quick- ly enough to hide the sinfliug face of Beauty; and though he called out "Hulloa. old man' Back so soon?" his voice trembled a little and there was a strangelv drawn look about bis mouth, and his eyes were moist and shining P v at the only 9g0 by which Nick knew that his father still remoubored Beautv and after that day Nick neer saw M 'ho picture of the woman whos V- fa. o still came to hlni In droains s I ylvidlv. so like life Itself, that whsa he woke he bolioved that her snir-t had been with him. But ho neve- I gave a word or a hint of that to his father, boeauso 01 that strange re- I leence wHIeh seals the llpa of boya M and roakes them hide some part of M their eon! from the ,r04t conirad ,)y of fathers His father was surly the most I comradely of fathers. They two a I " 1 ' r con.radoh.P 1 than most fathers and son. x(ta. (Continued on Next Page.) I , , a sbmI I f J Continued from Preceding Page.) H I olas Barton; ihc elder, was almost HNt r- womanly In his love for Nicholas, ,'-f sf tint- be "'" 73t ,' when (he boy was away from him, Bi : ij even for an afternoon, and jealous I MH of 'hoso who took him aw I It was gem ralh t he M'ti.i.j n v. im I H took him away, but sometimes it I H -was the Admi-al and sometimes 81 H the Lonely Lady, a Phe Merman waa the gentleman I H next door, and before they knew thai H his name w;'s Edward Frampton H Bristles and Nick r-.i 1 1 ! him thr H Merman, because he bathed at leas! flg three times a day in warm wes b Je I and lay wlthoul much clothing Bj I the sand w'ith the sun scon hlng his 1 body, more like a wild man vvho I id i 'in' up from 'lie sea than a citizen ' earthly habits He had made friends quickly with Nick, over the foot-hlgb fence which divided their front gardens, and had addressc I him on the very first morning with a "Hi. young follow i you know i how to 6wini?" ' No,' said N?ck At lias reply Mr Edward Fram.i- either, and tliis was a great comfort com-fort to Nicholas, the yciuiger, who felt less shy, and less afraid, when they both went ;ogether with li.'.-Merman li.'.-Merman and his wise dog, to tho dunes on the otlier r.ide of the river, where they hrvi the sea au.l sky and sand all to themselves and where, under the guidance of heir new friend, they took their first lesson..- in the. waves. Ths Merman was a marvel, and Nkk watched bin with wonder. lie could swim on his back, with just his nose out of tho water, paddling pad-dling swiftly with his feet, and he COIlld swim BfSeWlSe, with an overarm over-arm stroke, like a seallon pouncing on its prey (at least that was what Nick thought be looked like), and he could even swim under the water, disappearing for a long time, like u aubma- ' vine, and then coming up in an unexpected place. Bpout J ing like a porpoise Bur fftk thougb ho was verj tall and I I I . U ll , h" stood up on the sand in his bathing dress, with the 1 r i ppii c ghosts and devils, which the Mer man seemed to believe in. too "An extraordinary chap!" paid Bristles, more than once after these conversations on the sand dune? "I can't think why he lives all alone in that little cottage next door." "He doesnt live quite alone," said Nick. 'There Is Jem with him." "Yes, that's true," said Bristles. Pop come reason or other Pollv did not like the Merman, who sometimes some-times came in to tea, and some-times, some-times, In the Winter, came In io play car-:s after supper. She called him "that dreadful man," much to the indignation of Nick, who ha 1 j ft I i ton thrust his fingers through Bs j golden beard, opened his eyes vci f J wide, and said. "Well. 1 never!'' a.i I then turned to a brov.n spam ' j which was lying on the little ftwn J with its tongue lolling out. an I sald: j , "Jem, my lad, here's, a yuuug fel- low of handsome appearance and 3 gentlemanly demeanor, what docs Mit know how for to swim What do you say thai. m friend?" .Jem did not say anything unu Lj lolled his tongue out a litth furtftei I i ;n i Nick felt intensely humiliated H before the man and his dog at not B knowing how to swim, and fell thai I he must make an immediate e.v CP plauation. "I come from a top floor flat." h mt said, "quite a long way froqi the H H The tall man with the goidon B beard, who had blue eyes, and very B short, fair hair, and who was B dressed in a suit of white flannels B with white shoes, turned to his dog again, and explained the explunu- ".k'-.n,'' he said, "this young gen l)nnian wihhcs us'to kuov. that be Oftme from a top floor flat, very far B from (ho kim That is tho reason Hi 'viiv as dQesn'l ki t hot to Hut surely U 1 ' -Bh Mould let sB , day go by without learning that B beautiful art which lning:i u mn-i k . aB I nearer to Nature tlmu any otlier j 1 hunnn exercise? Wo must leach i! jB the young gentleinan how to-swim, l" M I my friend, it is our bounden duty, I fl after obfaiuing his papa's permit I I H j B As it happened. Nicholas, the j- x&irf " N-V ' '''t.. wliii h -he durnee while she f v'1"" ' fc 'ty'!' read T noyson'. poems, or. as a ' l ' i 4 s chauge, Sliakespeare's sonnets, CJ y fl JS 'J$r x sitting at her house door. With J Pr 1S & ;i blak cat by her side. After beard, be seemed to Nick like Ulysses must have been, he was very gentle and kind and did not play any trlcas to frighten Nick, and put one hand under his body, am. kept his head out of the water, and i aught hiru to work his hands and legs, so that very soon Nick found to his own amazement and to his great joy that be could swim, too, without swallowing the salt of tho sea. Nick beat his EathSr by several weeks, but after they had both learned they used to go with the Merman every day into the waves, and afterward sit beside him a "little while, when he lay about naked in the warm sand, telling wonderful alories of adventure ad-venture In foreign lands and laughing laugh-ing in a tremendous way when he described tho Jokes he had bad, as a young man. with black people on the West Coast of Africa, and with yellow people in China, and with copper-colored people in tho Pacific Islands, most of whom had tried to kili him at odd times and lu odd ways. Nick thought him the most wonderful man ho bad ever met, and just like the horo of n boy's book of adveuture. and Bristles liked him very much, and exchanged tobacco with him. and talked with him about black people's peo-ple's religion and their beliefs in BE made a hero of him. But Nick knew that there was a mystery about Ihe Merman, which was hidden from him by Bristles and Polly, who sone-l sone-l lines whispered about if and exchanged ex-changed queer glances. He became B vare pf It gradually, until tho da' when ho had a good fright, and knew that be had stumbled up against one of those mysteries which seem to lurk In life behln 1 the outward look of things. 1 ris first time ho became aware of It was wheu the Merman did not cotue out on a hot day for his three battis and Ills sun bath in the sand, nor on tho following da. nor for six other days. During that time them was a great silence in the cotluce next door, except sometimes when Jem barked as though in pain, and wheu all of a sudden there was a tremendous noise, though tho Merman was lifting up Ills lied and banging it on the floor, so that nil Mi" china rattled u bis kitchen sideboard, and all his assegais an.l bows and arrows, and Chinamen's swords, and savages' knives clattered clat-tered as though they had come clashing to tho ground from the nails In the wall Brlstlos had been frightened an 1 Polly bad come In t bay that he-heart he-heart had jumped Inio her Mouth, and then they had all listened to not i lie groat 6ilence which followed. Bristles had gone next door to fiul out If the Merman were ill, and alter a little while had como ba. lc with scared eyes, saying that hc had knocked six times at the little front door, but could get no answer. an-swer. A week later tho Merman came out of his cottage a little pal? looking, look-ing, but quite gay and cheerful, and witnout a word as to the rea son of his long stay indoors. This ihing happened at regular intervals, inter-vals, about once every' three months. Always at these times there was a silence nxt door, then ihc howling of tho dog, and then the tremendous noise, and then the i-llencA again Nick could not make out the meaning of it all. but one day, after tho Merman had not come out for some time, Nick saw his face at the bedroom window At least it was an awful caricature of the Merman's fare, though so distorted dis-torted and so hideous that it was like the face of a wild beast. It The Afternoons Were Always Holidays, with the Merman, the Lonely Lady and the Admiral. had bloodshot eyes, and a fierce, haggard stare, and there was something in if that was horrible and dovillsh. Nick felt his blood run cold, and then crept Into his own house very much afraid. He did not tell his father what he had seen I'm- nome reason he could not speak of that face at the win dow. which was so like and yet so unlike th man of whom he had made a hero. But ho had a queer belief that the Merman was possessed pos-sessed now and then b one of those black men's devils of whom ho used to speak aud laugh while lying on tho sand dunes, and he hud a great pity in his heart for this man with ths golden beard who, onco In three months, was changed into the likeness like-ness of a wild beast. And yet. when he reappeared agnln. with moro tales of adventure to toll, with jusi tho same old hearty laugh. It was almost impossible to believe that he had been under such an evil spell. No one else soemed to notice this mystery, except Bristles and Polly, who exchanged queer looks, und noword about it was mentioned, even by the Admiral and ill" Lonely Lady, who had boon the Merman's friends since his coming to the cottage by the sea. CHAPTER VII. THE ADMIRAL AND THE LONELY LONE-LY WIDOW. T was the Merman who taucht young . Nicholas Barton to swim, and it was the Adjnlrai who taught him to sail, and It was the Lonely Lady who taught him to draw, and it was all three of them who gave him greater knowledge of lifo than he could have learned from Bristles, and Polly, and his books, and his own thoughts. For they wore all remarkable people, and it is strange bow Fate had arranged that tlioso little whitewashed white-washed cottages fnclng tho sea at Barharapton should be tho dwelling dwell-ing places of the most remarkable people in the world, at least. In the opinion of young Nicholas Barton Tho Admiral was hardly less remarkable re-markable than the Merman, though the Lonely Lady was more remark able than either of them, and most mysterious. The Admiral's real name was Captain John Muffett, and he had retired from the Merchant Mer-chant Service after forty years on the sea as hoy and man. The Lonely Lady's real name wa?. Miss Mary Lavenham she was about as old as Beauty and she had come to the cottage by the sea because, as she explained very frankly, ii was cheaper than a mansion in town, and because, as she also ex plained very frankly, she hated A her relation? like tho devil, and had given them all the slip, so that they thought she had run away with tho grocer's young man, who bad disappeared about the same lime. At least that was the story she told to the Admiral, and the Merman, and to Nicholas, the elder, when she came to know him, though they told her quite as frankly as her own frankness that they did not believe a word she said, ucd were quite certain that sho was a princess In disguise who bad run away from Court in order not to marry u fat German Prince with gold-rimmed spectacles and a pcur down his chewk. aud a nasty habit of wearing his boots lu bed. (it was the Merman who invented this explanation of the Lonely Lady, and Nick firmly believed that there was eomo truth in it.) Miss Mary Lavenham W&s. tho next-door neighbor of the Admiral on one side, and of the Merman on the other, and she said that sho was ashamed of both of them bo-cause bo-cause her beautiful Utile garden full of flowers, which she had planted with her own hands, was honlered by tho Merman's disrepu-( disrepu-( table grass- plot which looked as if It had the mange, aud by the Ad mini's still more disreputable front yard, In which ho had fixed up a carpenter's bench, and where there was a litter of shavings, rusty rus-ty screws, and nails, and material for the making of model boats- Nevertheless. Miss Lavenham was on very friendly terms with both her next door neighbors, and occasionally plunged into the'r cottages, cot-tages, without permission, and. unheeding un-heeding of their passionate pro tests, armed with a dustpan and broom, or with a very large duster, in order to indulge in what she called a "good old tidy-up." The Merman assured her that he hated bcin? I idled up, that It was an outrage out-rage upon his pagan temperament, and that be could hardly sit down iii his own room after the process had been completed. The Admiral growled, swore some very dreadful sea-oaths, and vowed that if he did not know how io keep his own house ship shape he ought to have been hanged off tho vard arm of his Hist brig, which was wrecked off the Azores. But Miss Lavenham assured them that they merely made these remarks to keep up tho honor of their sex, and that thev were really very' grateful to her. and that if they weren't, they ought to be. After which she retired to her own cottage, which was always as clean and bright as a new doll's house, with a collection of the Admiral's Ad-miral's socks, and with one or two of the Merman'B flannel shirts, that she would put on a pale blue sunbonnet (she generally wore a butcher-blue plnaforo over her frock I and with a fold ing stool slung over one arm. and an easel tucked under the other, set forth to paint a picture of boats in tho harbor, or shrimp catchers on tho wet sands or just a big stretch of sea and sky. She was always painting these pictures, and at first Nick didn't know which was the right way up when lie looked look-ed at thorn, though afterward he caw into tho tnvstery of them. For some time he avoided this Lonely Lady, though sho did her beat to entice him into Ikt cottage by the promise of pipins hot cake for luncheon, or sugary cakes for tea, and always said "Oo"d morn lug. Nick, won't you come Into my garden?" when he preicndod not to see her from the other side of the fence. For. In some curious way. sho reminded him of Beauty, and brought back a great pain Into his heart, and In another curious way he haled the Idea of getting friendly friend-ly with any woman, because It seemed to make biiu unfaithful to the one woman who had gone away Indeed, though he became very friendly with Miss Mary Lavenham. and talked with her more about the big things of tho world than with any other friend, be was always on his guard leBt she might drivo out he memory of Beauty. And sho knew (bat he was on his guard, be- cause often, in later years, when I bis boyhood was slipping into youns manhood, she would say: ; H Mil k. I knew your brain, and I know your heart, but you have a Httle CUPboard In your soul where all the real self of you hides from me. Aud that is most unf-iendl after all the lime I've lavished upon your moral and intellectual progrea H The first time she trle-d to break. I , dowu bis KuanI was when, a few t" weeks after his coming to tho , I cottage by the sea. be went to lea with her. under escort of the H admiral, who had taken him for a sail up the river, taught him tha 1 rir it lessons in tacking, and run-t.inc: run-t.inc: before the wind, and had then "Now, my lad, yon and I have the kindest-hearted, sweetest tern-pered, tern-pered, sturdiest, bravest and Jol-llest Jol-llest little lady In all the world -and that is Miss Mary Lavenham, who lives at No. 4 "Have I got to make myself civil to her'" asked Nick with a sinking heart j. Thp Admiral 'of course be wasn't ally an Admiral, but that was the Lonely Lady's name for him) laughed at his wofbegon face. "My lad," he said, "you'll never get on in this world unless you're civil to the petticoats. For whether you're flrt. mate or skipper, or Commander of the Home Fleei, it's women can make your Life ij Heaven or Hell, and so put it down in your logbook, and don t forget." H Thereupon be grasped Nick . m-ly m-ly by the hand, and saying, "l re uo doubt your Pa will tmst you under my flag." led him Btraiglit into No. -4. where Miss Mirv Lavenham was spreading bread an.i Sho put dowu the knife, and unoothed down hsr butcher blue H pinafore, and smiled at Nick across a great bunch of wall-flowers in the middle of the tea-table. ! " am so glad you came." she said. "The Admiral is so old. and the Merman is so big. and I am ) such a very Louely Lady that I have longed for a boy to come and -make me young again, and keep me company sometimes." This speech, to which Nick an-swerod an-swerod nothing, because it gave blm such a lot to think about. seemed to make the Admiral very "Old?" be said "Did yon say 1 was old, ma'am? Why 1 would hare you know that, there's many a pretty girl in port that would be glad io go to church with Captain Jack Muffett. if only he had the pluck to say the word to one. Old. Indoed! That's a nioo thing to say about a smart young fellow of sixty-five'" Having said this with great fe rooity, so that Nick was afraid that ho might stick the table knife inte ' Miss Mary' Lavenham (It was very close to htm), he suddenly gave a hearty laugh, and his gruff voic I joined with the laughter of Miss LaTenhaon, who seemed to think I the speech a very funny one. (To Be Continued.) I! HfHalHHBVBlHkl |