Evening Star Newspaper, November 1, 1931, Page 81

he Saunday Star Magasine WASHINGTON, D. The Courtship of Surfman Littletield Cupid Rides a Rough Sea fo Bring Love to a Beautiful Girland aDaring Sailor. e~ By Capt. Truman Ordiorne HERE wasn’'t a woman livin’ but hed to look twice at Sam Littlefield. He wuz a hansum chap, 6 feet 1 inch, tonned 205, all bone and gristle, bilt like that Appollo chap I hev red about, and blond as a Squarhed. He and I jined the Gunboat Shoal Life Saving -Station the same year. For 4 years we wuz watch-mates and friends. We are friends yit. Sam wuz 7 years yunger than I be and hed hed a rite smart of schoolin’. I never went to school mutch and never could lerm to spell. Sam went vessel fishin' and lobsterin’ after he left school, saved his money and oned a nice cottage, all fur- nished, on Fishin’ Island. But he wa’'n’t married none. He never seemed to pay mutch ‘tenshun to the girls, tho he could hev hed his pick uv two towns. Of course I wuz married and it wuz good to go hore liberty days and play hoss with the kids. Ma is a bully good shipmate. Sam and I wud cum in off watch ten or fifteen minets ahe’d uv time nights and talk things over under the bulkhead. Sam never menshuned women mutch uv eny tho I know'd way down deep he wuz human. He wuz clene in his speech tho, like most all men that foller salt water, he cud tare it off sum, speshully at a wreck. Wun nite under the bulkhead I noticed he hed a button off his big coat and a hole in wun mitten. I sez: “Sam, why don’t you git you a nice girl, git married and not go round with buttons off and holey mittens? Wat’s the coun- try comin’ to,” I asks him, “if men like you don't raze up families? For the luv of Ant ©Ollie Downs, git busy!” “How many children did your mother hev?” % asks him. “7 all livin",” he sez. Then I sez: “The good book sez sumwhere that it is not good for man to be alone, and in 'nother place it sez to multiply and replenish the earth.™ “Well, Trume,” he says, “sumtimes I wish 1 hed a wife and yung wuns but I haint never seen the wun I wanted. I'm pretty well satis- fide the way I be.” “That’s all rite, Sammy,” I sez, “but sum day the rite wun will cum erlong and you'l be a hooked fish. I hope she will be a good mate for you,” I sez, “for, the Lord willin’, it'l be a long trip you’l] be makin’ together and no couple ever wuz spliced but run into a breeze sooner or later.” . “Sum things I've seen long back kind of makes me skittish ‘bout marryin’” Sam see. “You'l remember, Trume, that time I ‘went and stood up with yung Lias Emery when B¢ married that Haley girl. Lias he gives her HIS is the first of a series of first-run stories to ap- pear in The Magasine of The Sunday Star. Each story will be complete—a prize story —but. hitherto unpublisteed in any form. In The Magazine next Sunday will appear, “The Man Who Forgot Conse- quences,” by John Angus Mac- Kaye. — & good home and everything she needed to make her contented. Arlie was a good girl, ned had good schoolin’ and wuz a good housekeeper, But wat folks in Gunquit didn’t know and wat Lias didn’t know and didn't find out till after he married her wuz that Arlle wasa born mnagger. After a year or so Lias he gits to stayin’ out late and histin’ in too much. ‘That only made it worse. Lias he onburdened his- self to me wun day. Sed 'twas no use, the wuz nothin’ she cud take for it. I know well as you do, Trume, that the good Lord and good ancestors hez made a strong man uv me. I know that women turn and look when I walk in the street or on the beach. You are my friend, Trume, and I don't mind tellin’ you I am keepin’ watch careful.” “That artist lady that's round here most every day, Sam, is stannin’' watch too,” I sez. “How about her?” “Nice nuff girl, I guess” sez he, “but she couldn’t bile water ’thout burnin’ it.” We went on duty August 1st them days. C., NOVEMBER 1, 1931. Art Notes Features 20 PAGES. The Summer colony hed begun to grow and the swimmin’ beach wuz rite in frunt uv the Station, clean white sand. When the bathers cum over, the Skipper allus sent a man out to keep watch ag’'in accidints. We took turns. This day I speaks uv it wuz Sam’s turn. I wuz on watch in the tower. There hed bin a breeze off shore and the surf was runnin’ high with a hell uv an undertow and ’sides that the surf wuz full of long kelp which breaks off long in August wen it gits rough. The bathers cum over led by the Queen Lady of the Summer folks. I know'd that lady—I carried her din- ner pale when we went to the Center School. She was a yung widder now, but she hed mar- ried money, wuz hansom and know'd it. She wuz good folks too, allus nice to the crew, bringin’ down books and magerzines, allus joshin’ me about old school days. And she was nuts about Sam. ELL, Sam in his white ducks tells this lady politely that the surf is not safe for bathers and thet the Skipper sez to wate for calmer water. But Adeline laffs at the Skip- per’s warnin’, sez she has known the sea all her life. Alreddy in her bathin’ clothes, she tackles Mother Ocean. The rest uv the crowd holds back—they were all women. Sam he lays him down on the sand and watches. In the tower I hed swung the glass to the Easter'd onto a old coaster wallerin’ up over the shoal grounds when I heerd screeches and yells from the “sands below, as if the devil hisself wuz amung them women bathers. Sam had launched hisself .early and by the time we got there he hed Adeline onto the sand and gittin’ a roll uv clothes under her for she wuz full to the guards uv salt water and onsensible. Of course we wuz all drilled 'bout handling drewndin’ folks, Sam done the work and the rest uv us kept the crowd away and run for blankets and the stretcher. When Lady Adelaine opened her eyes she wuz lookin’ rite into Sam’s face, as he bent over her helpin’ her brethe with the artifishul respirashun. I wish I cud describe the look on her face that time. It wuz giunt’s work hauling that woman out uv that under- tow. It wuz funny the way that yung woman after she come to looked at Sam Littlefield—a well nigh perfect specimint uv a man—I can’'t ex- plain it, kind of a Mother Eve longin’ urge maybe same as the maiden’s back in the cave men’s days looked at their favrite man. Any- how, it’s love mixed with such that peoples the earth. But he didn't pay no more attention to her then as if she wa’'n't there. Then cum a hot muggy day long 'bout the middle uv August, stark calm with what fisher- men call a black dunjun fog you cud cut with a knife. I left the Station on the S'uth’ard patrol at 12 o'clock noon. For 'bout a mile the highway runs long just back uv high water mark. I wuz loppin’ glong the ro'd just abrest “We had little more than a half-mile pull and in jig time we pulléd up under the - counter of the Emmeline Soule.” ‘theSuxikRocks,wenIhurdnhom,ave'ry familiar horn, wun uv them horns carried in them days by coasters and fishermen. You turned it with a crank and it made a noise like a chokin’ buck sheep. I hev tufned wun uv them cranks hours, hopin’ sum brass- bound liner would veer of and leve us afloat. ‘The Sunk Rocks are ’bout % mile off shore, just awash at mean high tide with bold all 'round um. The tide wuz 'bout 325 and I knowed that watever craft wuz onto them rocks wuz ’'lected till mext high water. If it held calm he stood a chance; if it cum on rough, why sum insurance co. had bot another coaster. : I shed my jacket and give it to her for the Station. The Skipper and John Cummings were playin’ fifteen-two on the messroom table. “Somthin’ ashore on the Sunk Rocks,” sez.I. “Man the bo’t!” yells the Skipped, which we did. That wuz as likely a crew as ever yanked on a 12 ft. oar. We hed little more than half-mile pull and in jig time we under the counter uv the Emmeline Machias, Me., Cap'n Jethro Soule. The hed drifted with the tide in that easy into sort uv a cradle in the Our Skipper hailed and 2 faces over the tafrail. Wun wuz a red- a row uv white whiskers from ’round under his chin up to The frunt uv his chin and shaved and he looked as if he seventy., The other wuz the 21 or so, with a strong, wore a soft, blue flannel neck, and wat you call 'em it P 5%55252 HH b gl ,.s=§ 2 8= § H pants. I tho't her hair wuz dark brick.thro that fog. Them 2 wuz Cap’'n Jethro Soule and his daughter Penelope, They wuz bound to the Easterd light and gut off their course in the fog. Cap't Soule carried a mate, John . Soule, a boy ’bout 20, hand, and his daughter * Penelope, cook. The mate made the painter uv the surfboat fast to a bit and we all clumb aboard. We were gittin’ ready to git a kedge out astern agin high water when I noticed Sam kept goppin’ at this Penelope girl and actin’ kind uv foolish. Sam wuz a able hand at a wreck but ’board the Soule he kept gittin’ in his own way. T still held stark calm and there wuz nothin’ to do but waté for the tide. This Penelope girl asked us down’ to the cabin, and bless my soul! You ort to seen it—all fitted up like a lady's bowdor—sensible furniture, nice rugs, books, m: es and in wun corner a small uprite pianer lashed to the timbehs, Rite then and there I seen tFat able surfman No. 2 of the Gunboat Shoal L.S.8. wuz hoovked and the barb sot. i It seems that this Penelope wuz a student at sum female colleg and allus spent her vacashun goin’ cook with her father on the Emmeline. She wuz all he hed and Cap't Jethro worshipped her. The old schooner wuz restin’ easy and Cap’n Wells asked her to sing sumthin’. That girl new her people. She reched into a rack, took out a shete uv musick, sut her down to the pianer and struck up “Aunt Dinah’s Quiltin’ Party.” The fust thing we knowed Sam jined in with his fine tenor. We hed a reg’lar concert, everybody jined in— “When You and I Were Yung Maggie,” “That Old Sweetheart of Mine” and a cupple uv Gospel Hymns, “Let the Lower Lights Be Burnin’” and “Pull for the Shore.” Then Penelope excused herself and in no time give sing somethin’ and she sat her down to the planer and struck up “Aunt Dinah's Quiltin’ Party,” Sam he goes over and jines in. As he reches over to turn musick with his right on her his and the look she giv’ kinder happy, like she’d foupd somethin’ she'd L J ®