Tilton_TempestTossed.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
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dear heart "
passionate exclamation by waa i
countable enigma, both to iiml lier pjirenta
they had no time to solve the riddle ;
moment they heard a loud noise in
sonnding like the wrenching of the brass windcrt
from its hinges.
deranged man immediately opened the ^^
came forth with a glaring and exciled look,
the brazen rim in his hand, stalking up and ^
cabin, and talking to himself apparently obH"''^*"^^
presence of others.
" pitifnl 1 " cried , burying her face in ^''" [
flung herself down at 's side- ., :
" is all this mystery ?" thought r- ,)
ing 's distress.
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gazed through the thick glass out upon the sea, beckoning
as if he saw some one approach.
" ! " muttered the sick man, in a pitiful and
plaintive tone " ! " and he kept calling her
name over and oyer again his voice sinking gradually to
a mild whisper^ " ! "
. now resorted to a physician's stratagem, and
beckoning , said to her with a loud and command-
ing voice,
" dear , here is . , who
wishes to see you. you speak to him ? is wait-
ing."
's attention was roused by the forceful utter-
ance of these words, and as , in obedience to her
father's suggestion, stepped forth to salute the bewildered
man, he eyed her with an intense look.
*^Mr, ," she asked, "do you know me ?
not ? "
"," he exclaimed, with a sudden and vacant laugh
^half of anger, half of ridicule : " ha ! ha ! ^no !
has black eyes. is sixteen. is her birth-
day. have brought her some violets. is she ?
her. ! ! " he
breathed forth her name as softly as if his memory of it
were sweetened by the violets with which he vras now
associating it.
, on showing thus a melted mood, vras allowed
his freedom from 's grasp.
continued to sit with her face buried in her hands.
" is tottering," said "catch him or he will
fall."
sooner had these words escaped 's lips, than
fainted and fell to the floor.
a pallor instantly passed over his countenance that
, beholding the change, could no longer disguise her
. 465
grief, but bent down beside him and lifted his head into
her lap.
last rays of the aun were now streaming in through
both windows at the stern.
light fell on 's haggard face, and lent to
it a flush of life. transformation made him appear to
as he did in his youth. wept bitterly.
crazed man, whose eyes had been closed, now opened
them, and fixed their gaze on the dead geranium in the
terra-ootta vase. dull orbs brightened at the sight.
pointed his forefinger to the dead plant and smiled.
, not knowing what he was pointing at, turned her
head to ascertain. this movement, her face received
the level sunbeams full against it. caught a
glimpse of that lovely, mournful countenance. recog-
nized, not but . played about his feat-
ures, and made him appear full of pleasure and peace.
^^Yes, sixteen," said he. " shall have them ^I
promised to bring them. . "
his feeble strength, he staggered to the
flower-vase ^plucked up the dead stalk by the roots
brought it back and offered it to , who had now
risen and was standing before him.
^^ !" said he. " are for your hair.
them ! "
took the dead stalk, and in so doing, her hand
touched his ; and she found his flesh so cold and deathly
that she started back.
corresponding shock passed at the same moment
through the trembling man, and stunned him into sanity.
then into his wayward brain the little life that
remained in his fainting body, he stood erect during a few
lucid moments, and evidently recognized the real, mature,
and heart-broken woman whom he was confronting for the
last time in his life.
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468 -.
gifts are of equal preciousness, and to both givers
belong equal praise.
night long the the cradle of one love,
the sepulchre of another; all night long, the good old
ship ^bearing her strange burden of life and death, of
hope and despair, of faith and treachery, of honor and
ignominy ^holding thus within her narrow walls ^11 the
elements of the great world to which she was bound ; all
night long, amid the noise of the beating wheel with
which the beating of all hearts kept company, save one
that could beat no more ^the hoary hulk pursued her final
voyage, through the darkness of night and the shadow of
death, toward the golden morning and the living world.
.
daybreak on , 24, 1864 ;
^while the birds of were yet in their
nests asleep, and while the beacon-lights of . 's
and 's were still ablaze ; the -
mandel, after the longest voyage that any vessel ever made
-except the endless wanderings of sunken wrecks that
drift about the bottom of the sea entered at last one of
the world's ports, dropped her anchor, and waited for
day.
was slow in dawning ; for human wishes cannot hasten
the sun.
a thick sea-fog floated over the anxious
watchers on deck like the mystic future that overhung
their lives.
was moored near by.
vessels lay in the channel some of com-
merce, others of war ; among which the had
come to pursue neither the greeds of men nor the hatreds
of nations ; for her consecrated hulk, having already the
sick and the dead on board, was to remain a -
tal ^to be put in holy commission as 's flag-ship of
the of .
first echo from the shore was the dismal howling of
a dog reminding the exiles how the aged , like
the archetypal patriarch who was forbidden to enter the
promised land, had died without the sight.
469
470 -.
, eager to be the first human being to
welcome to the world, pushed off in the
darkness from the and boarded the '-
del : on whose ancient deck the two friends stood lock-
ed in a long embrace in token of a friendship which
had kept its faith, fulfilled its duty, and achieved its
reward.
, otherwise , otherwise
, was unable to wait quietly for dawn, but burst out
into alternate joy and rage ; roaring forth jubilant con-
gratulations to and , and doubling his mam-
moth fist in rehearsal of the gestures with which he meant
to browbeat a few hours later.
, as soon as she heard the rattling anchor, hob-
bled up stairs and put her arms about the assistant gun-
ner's mate : piously reconciling herself to re-enter the
wicked world, since it offered her a career as .
, mother of her son.
was hardly yet aware of the ship's arrival, but
continued ministering to . ; who was just
then murmuring a broken utterance of his gratitude to
that gentle woman for nursing him back to life in the
room in which he had left her to die.
sat watching the bier of
^gazing at the closed lids to which the ex-
pected dawn could bring no li^ht. of the stiff, stark,
comely body, the soul which had been its only base ele-
ment had now departed, leaving the mortal remainder
stainless and pure. which life had marred, death
had perfected. last, with woman's love, that faileth
not, the maidenly mourner knelt beside the flower-
form, wedded it for her own, and clasped it in her arms
as a vain possession, a prostrate worshipper, bending to
a more prostrate idol, her own broken hope the most pros-
^^.rate of all.
'v^ .-'
. .'.
. 471
and stood side by side in the ship^s bow
^the place of their betrothal searching the dark east
for its firfet flush.
did any bridegroom bring to his bride such a
bridal-gift as had in store for ; for he was
about to give her the whole world.
the fair maid's eyes came mists to meet the sea^s
mist ; yet her tears were not of joy for the gift, but of
love for the giver ; for she who had yearned all her life-
time to possess the world, now at last, when she was to
receive it, saw it shrink into nothingness in comparison
with that true love which is the supreme fortune of the
soul.
length came the wished-for morning cool, blue,
and beautiful.
brought with it the singing of birds, the firing of
salutes, the waving of flags, and the cheering of crews.
the midst of these tokens, the exiles whose arrival
had been noised about the harbor before they left the
ship now embarked in a boat and began to glide shore-
ward for a triumphal entry into the civilized world.
them was the tumult of their welcome, ^with
its joys, hopes, wonders, glories, friends, home.
them was the ship of their wanderings, ^fringed
with sea-grass, green as the destined memory of her name ;
lying in her new harbor quietly as in the of -
corn safely as in the cove of cocoa-trees sacredly as if
already moored within the hallowed shadow of the
of .
company stood lingering in the boat in order to
waft a prolonged and affectionate farewell to the ship ; gaz-
ing at her until she seemed to swim in the tears that filled
their fond eyes ; waving to her their hands like a flock of
flying birds ; 's fair hand fluttering among then
whitest of all ^like a dove's white wing.
472 -.
last the exiles turned from the ship to the shore ;
carrying into the world the pleasant thought that what-
ever storms might gather about their own future fate,
the dear old ship, though remaining a refuge for the
weather-beaten, was herself nevermore to be -
.