1897 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



339' 



cold was a si:re ^igu that it was going 

 to be warm soou. It vras foggj- all the 

 next day, too, and for that night a 

 moonlight sail was annoimced. Thej' 

 called it a sail, though it was to be on a 

 steamboat. When I saw the advertise- 

 ments and saw the fog, I was inclined 

 to make light of it, but I soon found 

 that it was a serioiTS matter, for it ap- 

 peared that they were going to have it 

 regardless of the weather, and Folly 

 tvas bent on going and on taking i._e 

 l»'ith her. 



"I told her I would much rather .sit 

 on the piazza with her alcne and talk 

 about the daj-s when we used to n:al:e 

 mud pies together, or some other pleas- 

 ant si:bject. fehe said that the disparity 

 in our ages was too great for us ever to 

 have made mud pies together, and she 

 didn't remember anything about it, but 

 it was not too great for us to go on a 

 moonlight sail together. I sj ohe about 

 the fog, and she said that it was likely 

 to clear up any minute. 



"I remember that the last time I had 

 seen the moon, before 1 left New Yorl., 

 it was past the full. 'I looked the mat- 

 ter up and found that it would not rise 

 that night till after 10 o'clock. Polly 

 said that the party would prolably stay 

 out a good deal later than that, so it 

 would be all right, and anj^way a moon 

 was of no great consequence on a moon- 

 light sail. 1 found at last that .shH 

 simply regarded that mcculight si.il 

 as an especially convenient occasion 

 to dangle me before the other girls 

 some more. It appears that where 

 there are a lot of girls on a moonlight 

 sail men are regar^ .ed as luicommonly 

 desirable. I didn't know anything about 



it before, but Polly let me Into the se- 

 cret. 



"Well, we went. We had not much 

 more than started when I overheard tho 

 captain .saying to the pi:rser: 'We can t 

 do anything tonight. Wait till we have 

 been out 15 minutes and then go around 

 and take up the tickets, and we'll go 

 back. ' Oh, they're a nice, honest lot, 

 these hardy, seafaring people 1" 



"Why didn't you make a row about 

 it, ' ' said Riggs, ' ' if you heard him say 

 a thing like that?' ' 



"Make a row about it? Why, I would 

 have given $5 to get back, if i^t had been 

 necessary, instead of the 50 cents they 



asked. L>ut it was not to be. Tluit Lay 

 is as full of islands as a shad roe — shut 

 up; you know what I mean — and we 

 zigzagged about among them. As we 

 were creeping aromid the end of one of 

 them Polly asked me what that man up 

 forward was looking for. I thought he 

 must be watching for a buoy that 

 tu«rked the point that the boat must go 

 aroimd in passing the island. Polly said 

 that she had often wondered why they 

 didn't have those buoys placed nearer 

 to the shore, where it would be easier 

 to go aroimd them. Just as she had 

 wondered that there was a bump and a 

 terrible grinding noise and the boat 

 stopped. Her question was answered, 

 and we were stuck fast on the rocks 

 just inside the buoy. 



"Well, then there was a row. Chil- 

 dren screamed, women fainted and men 

 put on life preservers^ — on themselves 

 usually, not the women. Polly wa.sn"t 

 frightened a bit. fehe just sat close to 

 me and gloated over the other girls. ' ' 



"And what did you do? You were 

 just as brave as she, I suppose. ' ' 



' ' Brave ! What was there to be brave 

 about? The boat was fast on the bottom. 

 She couldn't have sunk any farther if 

 she had been a sieve, and she probably 

 didn't draw more than five feet of wa- 

 ter, so even if we had fallen overboard 

 we should only have had to stand up 

 and oiu- heads would have been out cf 

 water. 1 don t claim any great bravery, 

 but I'm not a fool. Neither is Polly. It 

 doesn't rmi in the family. " 



"Oh, I don't know!" 



"Well, we stuck there for an hoTir 

 and a half, till the tide rose and too'- 

 us off, and Polly gloated. Then they 

 took us ashore, and we walked back to 

 the hotel, and Polly was the only con- 

 tented persr-^ in the crowd. 1 suggested ' 

 that we were pretty full of fog and need- 

 ed something to warm us up. Polly 

 suggested tea. I said that a hot scotch 

 would suit me better, and Polly nearly 

 fainted, .'■^he said that this was a no li- 

 cense towai, and there probably wa.sn"t 

 such a thing as a hot scotch tliis side 

 of Boston, and I couldn't get it even if 

 I was there becaiise it was after 9 

 o'clock. It was then that I thought of 

 New York. The next morning, as seen 

 as the telegraph office opened, I sent a 

 dispatch to you. " 



' ' "What ! T hat crazy dispatch that you 



