MARY ANNS MIND.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 11, 15 December 1877, Page 4

MARY ANNS MIND.

RV HOSE TKKRV COOK. The bbstat loves the lobster pot, The mackerel loves tho sea, And 1, 1 love but thee, Mary Ann; Mary Ann, Mary Ann ; Mary Ann. Mary Ann ; Mary Ann, 1 hive but thee. Jake Hazard shouted this snatch of sea song at the top of his pleasant voice, as he pushed his old whale-boat otl" the beach on the reluctant rollers, and at last launched her in the water. " That's tellin,' ain't it I " inquired Hosy Loii", with a comic cast of his eye across the boat at Jake, as he shoved at her other side with brawny shoulders and deep breaths of effort

'• Haw, haw ? " roared Jake, " Ain't you smart, Hosy ? I 'xpect you can s.-e through a millstone's quiek 's the next man ! '

Hosy grinned horribly; he was not a brilliant creature, but he could catch fish better than any man on the shore, and when you go blue-fishing that's the sort of company you want.

Now, everybody in Sandy Creek knew Jake Hazard was mortally in love with Mary Ann Tucker ; he made no secret of it, ami she, being a bom coquette, treated Jake in cat and mouse fashion, till he was nearly crazy as a hard-headed young fellow with no nerves and a mighty digestion can possibly be. If I said Maty Ann was tl»e prettiest girl in the town, I should do her great injustice; for she was the only pretty girl there ; the two or three tanned, freckled, goodnatured daughters of the Hazards, and Tuckers, «k1 Conklins, who were " the girls" of Sandy (.'reek, never, pretended to be pretty : they went their way in peace, dug clams, baked short-cake, made chowder, and darned stockings, undisturbed by lovers of rivalry; in due time somebody married them, because everybody couldn't marry Mary Ann, and thereafter they lived their lives out as they might; but at Mary Ann's feet, •sooner or later, every young man in the town bowed down and fell.

She was a very pretty girl. Her long, thick hair, of the darkest, richest red, waved in great loose ripples to her knees when it fell out of the heavy braid in which she wore it. Her skin was fair beyond all tanning, and if it was a little freckled, nobody saw it in the abundant lovely color of her rounded cheeks. A low, wide forehead, a diamond chin, a saucy nose, full scarlet lips, and a pair of wicked, laughing, dark eyes, with lashes and brows of deep brown-red, make up a fair catalogue of charms. And then she was " everlastin' smart." Nobody kept so clean a house as she did for her father, nobody made such sea-pie, chowder, or clam-fritters. She fried fish to such crisp perfection, that the lightbouse people always wanted to stop at Sam Tucker's when they had city company and took them out fishing; but Miss Mary Ann did not approve of " keepin' tavern," she said, so the lightkeeper had thereafter to fry his own fish. Then she was exquisitely neat; a virture lure among a fishing people familiar with the unsavory produce of ■their nets, as heads, tails'or shells 'ie about the doors, flavorous if not ornamental, till the very hen's eggs have a fishy flavor.. But" SSffl Tucker's doorstep was always swept of every grain of sand or bit of'refuse. Two little posey beds boarded up against the wall sweetened the air with pinks, sweet basil, and a very few hardy roses in their season ; there was' a scrupulously white bit of curtain across every little window, and the well-scrubbed floors had bright rugs here and there where foot of man might rest, and save the planks needless stain or spot. If the curtains were old cotton or bits of sail-cloth, they were still snow white; and that the rugs were braided rags, scarlet shirts worn beyond any more patching, or the remains of a bright blue petticoat, or a gray vest, and black list which the tailoress gave away did not make them less gay and tasteful of that.

Old Sam's clothes wore patched with such neat patches, the buttons so invariable, the red shirt always so bright, that he was a matter of wonder and admiration all along the shore. And if Mary Ann did her housework, and scoured her tins and floor, and weeded her posy-bud, protected by a big crass blue apron and a slat-sided sun bonnet, when the apron came oft", and when she sat down to knit or sew, or strolled on the l)cach in the afternoon, then she was always arrayed in a neat and pretty calico gown, or a deep blue gingham ; always some white thing about her throat, not the least shape of fashion, to be sure, but a clean and pure ruffle, or a queer old collar starched out to perfection, or a strip of coarse lace tied in such a trim bow. When you capped this full, wholesome figure and clean attire, with the beautiful, saucy, rosy face, shining under a wide black straw hat that Sam Tucker bought for his " gal" years ago in Boston, half with an idea that it was respectful in her to have a " black bonnet," as he called it because her mother was dead (]Mmr woman, she had lieen dead six years then), and half because, having seen a very pretty girl at White Rocks, where he went every year to take out sailing parties, with just, such a hat, he thought Alary Ann would become it—then, though you did not see a Broadway belle, you saw a wonderfully pretty girl, especially when the old black hat was set off by a plume of grass from the salt marsh, a cluster of pink wild roses, a string of glittering yellow shells, j garland of gay sea mosses, or a pompon I of rich golden sod put iu with an artistic effect that a French milliner's flngrra might have longed to imitate, and longed i

in vain. Moreover, the girl luul a l'ihhl straight tons of her own; there was room in the shapely cheat foe • cheery, ringing voice that was the delight of old Sam as it trolled the quaint songs of the fishermen or a good loud Methodist hymn, and her strong arms, if they were not white, were both round and dimpled. No wonder Mary Ann had so manv lovers. Perhaps no wonder that she did not choose one. It is pleasant as well as provident to have a good many strings to your bow, and when Jake Hazard had to go blue fishing in earnest, not for fun, and she did not want to be crowded with dead fish and wet lines, and two or three men, into a dirty boat all day long, there were always Joe Tucker and Ephriam Conklin to go after berries with her, or some other Conklin or Tucker or Hazard to take her crabbing, or shoot peeps for her, rewarded thereafter by a supper of crabs or peep-pie, savory meats which Mary Ann perfectly understood preparing. So she really never seemed to cartabout marrying anybody. She had her father to look after, ami time enough to enjoy her youth, her beauty, and her adorers. But all this profited the adorers nothing. She eluded any grasp that might fix her anywhere, like a sagacious swallow that "will wheel and flit about your head if you sit still enough, but, if you move hand or foot, darts off into space with a derisive twitter, and is seen no more. So the lovers gradually dropped off They would have given their very best possessions to move her careless heart; but it was evident that the inducements they could otter were useless. They were practical beings, men wanting a home, and a wife to keep the home and them tidy and thrifty. Sentiment being put out of the question, they turned to the creed of " the fat faced curate, Edwatd Bull":

" A pretty face is good, and this is pood To have a dame indoors that trims us up Ami keeps us tight."

finding plenty of good honest girls in the scattered village, less coy and scornful than the beauty of Sandy Creek. But Jake Hazard remained faithful; his nature was strong and true. The quips and cranks of his fun and good humor were but a crest of foam bells on a forceful and persistent depth, a constant and mighty tide setting towards one shore. Perhaps Mary Ann did not perceive this fact; perhaps she thought him gay and careless, as young men are apt to be. It certainly never classed her mind, as a real and earnest question, whether she meant to many Jake, or even if he meant to marry her; but on his part the matter was thoroughly settled, though till to-day he had never spoken of it. Perhaps it was a brilliant day, for it was June, and the air was vivid with sky above and sea below, and the cool salt breath of the ocean inspired even languid lungs and fainting vitality like a powerful elixir. The great green waves roared up along the shore, shaking white crests of foam in splendid defiance, and dashing their mighty length upon the sand, crumbling back -with hissing crush of ten thousand tiny bubbles on their line, only to rise and charge again with swing and rear, and crush, till the shore trembled. Outside, the long waves swung the old whale-boat up and down with mad delight. The blue fish leaped at the bait with eager, venomous heads, and tore and plunged when they felt the hook, showing such fight that it was keen sport to craw them, gleaming and jumping, through the water and over the gunwale, and throw them on to the glistening heap that already covered the bottom. Jake's gray eyes glowed with excitement, the blood rose to his tanned cheek, his white teeth showed set and firm tinder the half-opened lips, and his swaying muscular figure would have been a study for an artist. " Ginger! this here's sport, ain't it ? " sung out Hosy Long. " Pretty good, pretty good ! " Jake shouted back to him, setting his teeth together in a short sharp contest with the biggest blue-fish of the haul, who in another minute lay flapping and bouncing at Hosy feet. " Dang it all ! that's a most monsterous fish, Jake."

" That's the sockdolager, old feller." " Well, now," said Hosy, keeping the boat trimmed carefully while Jake rebaited his line, " that air one would be tasty for supper, I tell you, briled on the coals, 'nd buttered up, long o' some good short eake 'nd some store tea."

Hosy paused and gloated on the fine fat tish with blinking eyes and broad rod face, that ■was the picture of goodhumor. Then he took to speech again : " Ef you'd got an old woman, now, Jake, to your house, I 'xpect you 'nd me would have a fustratc supper for one time, wouldn't we ?"

" I reckon," answered Jake, feeling on his taut line to see if it were stretched by the ebbing tide or a pulling fish. " An' what's more, Hosy, I'm goin' to hev a house 'n home afore I'm grey, I Ml ve." " Lor, now! you bo ? What eWs Mary Ann say to that sareumstance ? " " She's got to say somethin' afore long. I'm tired o' fooun'," muttered J*ko between his teeth giving a vicious jerk to his line, that was raging up and down at the mercy of another flan, which however, he speedily hauled in and added to the flapping heap. " 1 say, Hosy, 'ain't no good to Bounder on a hook ! I'd get otl'on'tef I tore my jaw out, sixm's I found 'twas for sp.n't folks was ketchin' me ; bi/.ne.-s's .mother matter.'' " Wall. wall, she's a young cretur. Mrhbo she dono what she want.

" That ain't my sitovation, by the Lord, sir. I know what I want," tnny wjiv, and I'll hev it or let it go, smack and smooth, afore a new moon conies

agin, oi my name ain't Jake Hazard." Hosy's simple soul quivered at the stern and almost tierce energy of Jake's declaration. Not that he was afraid himself, but he Raw breakers ahead, as he would have phrased it, storms of passion and excitement, an end to quiet fishing bouts with Jake, lazy, pleasant strolls after blue-berries with Mary Ann, I anil cosoy suppers at Sam Tucker's. He was an easy loving, weak-kneed brother. ready to sell what he called his soul at any time for j>eaee or pottage; the very type of man who wrecks his own life anil rums others for the want of a little courage and candor; whose cry was always the selfish howl of " Let me alone," "After me the deluge." But Hosy's lazy longing for peace could work no wreck or woe in Jake's affairs, though he made a feeble effort to "save the pieces " in an interview with Mnry Ann that very night, being duj>ed, as soon as they came in with their spoils, to carry the big fish up to Sam Tucker's as a present from Jake. Mary Ann met him with beaming eyes. " Well, I declare, that's jest what 1 wanted, for Aunt Semanthy's come to supper, 'nd Uncle Royal, and I hadn't a special thing for 'm ; bread, 'un butler, 'n sass, 'n dried halibut, that's all.

" That is the king o' the crowd," said Hosy, looking at the beautiful silverbellied, blue-backed creature with honest admiration. "I guess he made 'em rlv down below. He come up with a rush, now, I tell ye, but Jake was too much for him. Jake's a masterful critter as I ever see. Say Mary Ann," and here his voice fell into an ominous whisper, "you look out for Jake. Counsel with'me now. Ef I be a poor fellow, I've got sense into me. You let Jake have his head ginerally. 'Twill be a vast better for you ef ve do ! "

" What air you a talkin' about, Hosy Lon ( " retorted Mary Ann, with an air of genuine astonishment.

"O, notion', nothin' much, nothin', pertikler, only, 'f I was you I wouldn't be the one to get ath art o' Jake's hawse, ef—"

" I'd jist licv youk now, sir," snapped Mary Ann, the quick color rising, " angry and brave," in her glowing cheeks, "I'd jist hev you to know that Jake Hazard's nothin' to me. nor I ain't goin' to cotton to no man liecause he's masterful. I guess f can be masterful myself, if I'm a mind to, so there." With which shake out of her flag she slammed the door in Hosy's face, and that dejected being bewailed himself plaintively enough.

" (), Lord ! I've gone an' done it now, ef I never did it afore. I hope to glory 'n goodness she won't never tell Jake. I'm darned to thunderation ef I don't believe she will ! O, Jeerusalem ! " And Hosy betook himself to the fishhouse, scratching his sandy poll ruefully as he went, but resolved to say nothing to Jake, and to deny every" thing he might lie asked thereafter with wholesale and persistent denial.

Yet, after all, he hail done Jake an unconscious service, for Mary Ann was fully and fairly brought to ask herself if what she had just now said in her sudden anger was really the truth. Suppose Hosy told Jake what she did say, and he took it for granted that she really did not eaie for him at all ( It was a small point to rankle in Mary Ann's mind, but it was the point of a wedge. She cooked the big bhietish for supper with her usual skill, and while its crisp brown sui-face and creamy I'.r-.kes of flesh were being disposed of with sundry | flattering remarks both to fisherman and cook, she fretted inwardly a little, while she was pleased enough with the commendations.

But Mary Ann was not metaphysical —there are some benefits, after all, in a want of education ; if you do not want to analyze your emotions and take your " inwardness" to pieces as a botanist does a flower, your are spared much futile speculation into profitless subjects, much soul-wearying and unhappy consciousness, and may live and die even as a blossom in simple trust and peace. Mary Ann went about her work with no special self-torment after the first uneasy idea of Jake and his possibilities had entered her mind. If she thought of him a little oftener, and remembered what Uncle R'yal had said about '• them Hazards," as a family, and how Aunt Semanthy had echoed " Yis; they're dreadful reliable folks, allers was; Oran'ther Hazard was one of the smartest men ever ye see (Jowl for rishin' 'bout to ninety years old ; spry as a cricket; did not hev no sicknesses so to speak durin' his life-time, an' died of a shockanum palsy to the last";—why, all this was what she knew before, so she thought no more about it the next day, but hurried her work over, and putting on her hat, took a basket, and sot her face inland toward a hill where wild strawberries grew thick and sweet. There was a long walk l>efore hor across the fields, and the sandy lanes were too heavy to choose as a path when the short turf lay crisply in the lots, so she stepped over the low wall of loose stones, and thereby eaine within range, of Jake's vision just as he dragged his boat up the beach, having been across the bay to the light-house, He overtook her soon with his long strides, and Mary Ann was glad enough to have his company. With a certain native tact, Jake forebore to intrude his passion on her notice till the bsskot was tilled with fragrant bcrricn, and thev sat. down for a moment to rant on a fallen tree. Neither of them consciously admired nature, but yet they felt a serene calm that hung over the view spread before them—the wntle-heaving blue sen, the still blue heavens, the distant and incessant murmur of white waves

lapping tin- shores the dull-given fields U.rdered with tawny Mad, an<i faraway the light-house tower and the Hailing ships that drifted to or from the wide horizon—all these stole into their senses and kept them silent for a while, but Jake's heart burned within him. It was not his way to put off a crisis, to minco matters; lie was full of curt courage and resolve, and now he had business of mortal import to him to settle with Mary Ann ; lie neither could nor would delay it, so he broke the silence somewhat abruptly.

" Mary Ann," said he, " I suppose you have seen quite a spell that 1 like you fust-rate. I've spoken it loud enough in actions, but 1 know folks has got to use words sometimes cf they want answers, and Ido want one the wust way. Will you marry me, Mary Ann ?" The hot color rushed up to the girl's face. She was started, and a traitorous echo in her own heart startled her more than Jake's words. S''e had a bunch of sweet-fern in her hand, and she began to pull the odorous leaves off one by one, as anexcuse for keeping her eyes cast down.

" Will you ? Say ! " repeated Jake. " We—ell, I don'o, Jake. I hain't thought o' such a thing." The coquettish nature was uppermost now. Her lips curled at the corners with a wicked little smile, her eyes sparkled, and her voice grew arch. "Time you did," retorted Jake. "I've been hangin' round ye this two year's, though the sun rose 'nd sot in your face, 'nd 1 can't stan' it no longer. I want to know suthin' for sartin, Mary Ann." " Well—you see," slowly pulling the fern leaves, " I don't—know—l haven't made up my mind yet about inarryin." " Make it up now, then."

" Mercy to me, Juke Hazard! What an idea! No, .sir; I ain't a going to many for nobody. 1 can live 'thout gutting married, I guess, of you can't." " I didn't say I couldn't," growled Jake. " I don't calcerlate to die for nobody ; but 1 shan't marry nobody but you, .Mary Ann Tucker, and I want to know if I'm going to do that." Mary Ann gave a little laugh. It was not heartless, though it seemed so to Jake, who was in dead earnest. It was merely an outlet of the inner excitement she really felt, and she followed it up with the truth, though she spoke with a certain levity. " I don't see how ye're going to know when 1 told ye I hadn't made up my mind." " Well, how long is it goiif to take ye to do it > " ventured the wrathful lover, who wanted to shake her soundly for her naughtiness, thoroughly misunderstanding her, as men will misunderstand women till tie- day of judgment, especially if they are in love with them. " I don't know that," she answered.

Jake controlled his rage manfully. " Well, then," said be, rising and looking down at he]-, " I give ye notice. Mary Ann, 1 shall keepaskin' till I find out; onless I'm onlucky enough to believe you don't want to know yourself."

She laughed again, but made no answer. They walked silently down the hill together, and parted at the door. She meant to have asked him in to tea, for she was about to prepare that barbarous dainty, a strawberry shortcake for supper, Aunt. Semanthy 'having brought down from her farm a pail of cream the day before. But .lake had unwittingly deprived himself of the feast; and even if Mary Ann had not been too disturbed to ask him, both luscious berries and unctuous shortcake would have been gall and bitterness to his lips, for he was terribly disappointed. Perhaps he would not have been so miserable if she had said " No," finally. There are some natures to whom suspense is worse than despair, and his was one.

Mary Ann, fortunately for herself, had an absorbing object in view, besides her housework. There was to be a clean bake at Point Peter on the Fourth of July, at which all the village of Sandy Creek, even to the babies in arms, expected to be present; and long ago she had promised Jake to go in his boat; not alone, for Hosy Long and Anny Hazard, and Joe t'onkling and his wife were of that boat-load, as well as her father ; so that her late interview with Jake need not embarrass her on this occasion. But she had to make a new dress and some fresh ruffles, lioth necessitating a drive to Natick Pier, the nearest village ; and then the shaping and sewing of the festive attire at home, after it was bought, occupied her head and hands for at least two weeks, in the intervals of housework.

But Jake thought of her all the time, on sea and on land ; dreamed of her bynight and sung about her by day—when he was alone, and far enough from shore to be unheard. Nor did he leave her quite at peace ; for once, when she sat on the doorstep busily stitching at her gown, the sunlight gilding her burnished hair, and deepening the hue of her bright checks and lips, Joke came up from the shore, and suddenly darkened those level western rays with stern nnd sad aspect. " Have you made up your mind, Murv Ann '" he asked her, distinctly and sorrow full}-.

Mary Ann was vexed ; this was too much. She snapped back, pertly enough, " No, 1 haven't! and I shan't never, if you are going to pester me so !" " Yes, you will," was the deliberate, reply, much in the tone of a schoolmaster to a naughty boy, and Jake walked away. If h«3 had turned to look back, he would have seen her crying bitterly, half with rage, it is true, but at least half because he walked away. (tii iik cojrnggtgj