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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35401-h.zip b/35401-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0badb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/35401-h.zip diff --git a/35401-h/35401-h.htm b/35401-h/35401-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..60e7dfa --- /dev/null +++ b/35401-h/35401-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,983 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Friend Island, by Francis Stevens + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Friend Island, by Francis Stevens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Friend Island + +Author: Francis Stevens + +Release Date: February 26, 2011 [EBook #35401] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIEND ISLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h4>All-Story Weekly</h4> + +<h5>September 7, 1918</h5> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h1>FRIEND ISLAND</h1> + +<h2>by Francis Stevens +</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p>It was upon the waterfront that I first met her, in one of the shabby +little tea shops frequented by able sailoresses of the poorer type. +The uptown, glittering resorts of the Lady Aviators' Union were not +for such as she.</p> + +<p>Stern of feature, bronzed by wind and sun, her age could only be +guessed, but I surmised at once that in her I beheld a survivor of the +age of turbines and oil engines—a true sea-woman of that elder time +when woman's superiority to man had not been so long recognized. When, +to emphasize their victory, women in all ranks were sterner than +today's need demands.</p> + +<p>The spruce, smiling young maidens—engine-women and stokers of the +great aluminum rollers, but despite their profession, very neat in +gold-braided blue knickers and boleros—these looked askance at the +hard-faced relic of a harsher day, as they passed in and out of the +shop.</p> + +<p>I, however, brazenly ignoring similar glances at myself, a mere male +intruding on the haunts of the world's ruling sex, drew a chair up +beside the veteran. I ordered a full pot of tea, two cups and a plate +of macaroons, and put on my most ingratiating air. Possibly my +unconcealed admiration and interest were wiles not exercised in vain. +Or the macaroons and tea, both excellent, may have loosened the old +sea-woman's tongue. At any rate, under cautious questioning, she had +soon launched upon a series of reminiscences well beyond my hopes for +color and variety.</p> + +<p>"When I was a lass," quoth the sea-woman, after a time, "there was +none of this high-flying, gilt-edged, leather-stocking luxury about +the sea. We sailed by the power of our oil and gasoline. If they +failed on us, like as not 'twas the rubber ring and the rolling wave +for ours."</p> + +<p>She referred to the archaic practice of placing a pneumatic affair +called a life-preserver beneath the arms, in case of that dreaded +disaster, now so unheard of, shipwreck.</p> + +<p>"In them days there was still many a man bold enough to join our +crews. And I've knowed cases," she added condescendingly, "where just +by the muscle and brawn of such men some poor sailor lass has reached +shore alive that would have fed the sharks without 'em. Oh, I ain't so +down on men as you might think. It's the spoiling of them that I don't +hold with. There's too much preached nowadays that man is fit for +nothing but to fetch and carry and do nurse-work in big child-homes. +To my mind, a man who hasn't the nerve of a woman ain't fitted to +father children, let alone raise 'em. But that's not here nor there. +My time's past, and I know it, or I wouldn't be setting here gossipin' +to you, my lad, over an empty teapot."</p> + +<p>I took the hint, and with our cups replenished, she bit thoughtfully +into her fourteenth macaroon and continued.</p> + +<p>"There's one voyage I'm not likely to forget, though I live to be as +old as Cap'n Mary Barnacle, of the <i>Shouter</i>. 'Twas aboard the old +<i>Shouter</i> that this here voyage occurred, and it was her last and +likewise Cap'n Mary's. Cap'n Mary, she was then that decrepit, it +seemed a mercy that she should go to her rest, and in good salt water +at that.</p> + +<p>"I remember the voyage for Cap'n Mary's sake, but most I remember it +because 'twas then that I come the nighest in my life to committin' +matrimony. For a man, the man had nerve; he was nearer bein' +companionable than any other man I ever seed; and if it hadn't been +for just one little event that showed up the—the <i>mannishness</i> of +him, in a way I couldn't abide, I reckon he'd be keepin' house for me +this minute."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"We cleared from Frisco with a cargo of silkateen petticoats for +Brisbane. Cap'n Mary was always strong on petticoats. Leather breeches +or even half-skirts would ha' paid far better, they being more in +demand like, but Cap'n Mary was three-quarters owner, and says she, +land women should buy petticoats, and if they didn't it wouldn't be +the Lord's fault nor hers for not providing 'em.</p> + +<p>"We cleared on a fine day, which is an all sign—or was, then when the +weather and the seas o' God still counted in the trafficking of the +humankind. Not two days out we met a whirling, mucking bouncer of a +gale that well nigh threw the old <i>Shouter</i> a full point off her +course in the first wallop. She was a stout craft, though. None of +your featherweight, gas-lightened, paper-thin alloy shells, but +toughened aluminum from stern to stern. Her turbine drove her through +the combers at a forty-five knot clip, which named her a speedy craft +for a freighter in them days.</p> + +<p>"But this night, as we tore along through the creaming green billows, +something unknown went 'way wrong down below.</p> + +<p>"I was forward under the shelter of her long over-sloop, looking for a +hairpin I'd dropped somewheres about that afternoon. It was a gold +hairpin, and gold still being mighty scarce when I was a girl, a +course I valued it. But suddenly I felt the old <i>Shouter</i> give a jump +under my feet like a plane struck by a shell in full flight. Then she +trembled all over for a full second, frightened like. Then, with the +crash of doomsday ringing in my ears, I felt myself sailing through +the air right into the teeth o' the shrieking gale, as near as I could +judge. Down I come in the hollow of a monstrous big wave, and as my +ears doused under I thought I heard a splash close by. Coming up, sure +enough, there close by me was floating a new, patent, hermetic, +thermo-ice-chest. Being as it was empty, and being as it was shut up +air-tight, that ice-chest made as sweet a life-preserver as a woman +could wish in such an hour. About ten foot by twelve, it floated high +in the raging sea. Out on its top I scrambled, and hanging on by a +handle I looked expectant for some of my poor fellow-women to come +floating by. Which they never did, for the good reason that the +<i>Shouter</i> had blowed up and went below, petticoats, Cap'n Mary and +all."</p> + +<p>"What caused the explosion?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"The Lord and Cap'n Mary Barnacle can explain," she answered piously. +"Besides the oil for her turbines, she carried a power of gasoline for +her alternative engines, and likely 'twas the cause of her ending so +sudden like. Anyways, all I ever seen of her again was the empty +ice-chest that Providence had well-nigh hove upon my head. On that I +sat and floated, and floated and sat some more, till by-and-by the +storm sort of blowed itself out, the sun come shining—this was next +morning—and I could dry my hair and look about me. I was a young +lass, then, and not bad to look upon. I didn't want to die, any more +than you that's sitting there this minute. So I up and prays for land. +Sure enough toward evening a speck heaves up low down on the horizon. +At first I took it for a gas liner, but later found it was just a +little island, all alone by itself in the great Pacific Ocean.</p> + +<p>"Come, now, here's luck, thinks I, and with that I deserts the +ice-chest, which being empty, and me having no ice to put in it, not +likely to have in them latitudes, is of no further use to me. Striking +out I swum a mile or so and set foot on dry land for the first time in +nigh three days.</p> + +<p>"Pretty land it were, too, though bare of human life as an iceberg in +the Arctic.</p> + +<p>"I had landed on a shining white beach that run up to a grove of +lovely, waving palm trees. Above them I could see the slopes of a hill +so high and green it reminded me of my own old home, up near +Couquomgomoc Lake in Maine. The whole place just seemed to smile and +smile at me. The palms waved and bowed in the sweet breeze, like they +wanted to say, 'Just set right down and make yourself to home. We've +been waiting a long time for you to come.' I cried, I was that happy +to be made welcome. I was a young lass then, and sensitive-like to how +folks treated me. You're laughing now, but wait and see if or not +there was sense to the way I felt.</p> + +<p>"So I up and dries my clothes and my long, soft hair again, which was +well worth drying, for I had far more of it than now. After that I +walked along a piece, until there was a sweet little path meandering +away into the wild woods.</p> + +<p>"Here, thinks I, this looks like inhabitants. Be they civil or wild, I +wonder? But after traveling the path a piece, lo and behold it ended +sudden like in a wide circle of green grass, with a little spring of +clear water. And the first thing I noticed was a slab of white board +nailed to a palm tree close to the spring. Right off I took a long +drink, for you better believe I was thirsty, and then I went to look +at this board. It had evidently been tore off the side of a wooden +packing box, and the letters was roughly printed in lead pencil.</p> + +<p>"'Heaven help whoever you be,' I read. 'This island ain't just right. +I'm going to swim for it. You better too. Good-by. Nelson Smith.' +That's what it said, but the spellin' was simply awful. It all looked +quite new and recent, as if Nelson Smith hadn't more than a few hours +before he wrote and nailed it there.</p> + +<p>"Well, after reading that queer warning I begun to shake all over like +in a chill. Yes, I shook like I had the ague, though the hot tropic +sun was burning down right on me and that alarming board. What had +scared Nelson Smith so much that he had swum to get away? I looked all +around real cautious and careful, but not a single frightening thing +could I behold. And the palms and the green grass and the flowers +still smiled that peaceful and friendly like. 'Just make yourself to +home,' was wrote all over the place in plainer letters than those +sprawly lead pencil ones on the board.</p> + +<p>"Pretty soon, what with the quiet and all, the chill left me. Then I +thought, 'Well, to be sure, this Smith person was just an ordinary +man, I reckon, and likely he got nervous of being so alone. Likely he +just fancied things which was really not. It's a pity he drowned +himself before I come, though likely I'd have found him poor company. +By his record I judge him a man of but common education.'</p> + +<p>"So I decided to make the most of my welcome, and that I did for weeks +to come. Right near the spring was a cave, dry as a biscuit box, with +a nice floor of white sand. Nelson had lived there too, for there was +a litter of stuff—tin cans—empty—scraps of newspapers and the like. +I got to calling him Nelson in my mind, and then Nelly, and wondering +if he was dark or fair, and how he come to be cast away there all +alone, and what was the strange events that drove him to his end. I +cleaned out the cave, though. He had devoured all his tin-canned +provisions, however he come by them, but this I didn't mind. That +there island was a generous body. Green milk-coconuts, sweet berries, +turtle eggs and the like was my daily fare.</p> + +<p>"For about three weeks the sun shone every day, the birds sang and the +monkeys chattered. We was all one big, happy family, and the more I +explored that island the better I liked the company I was keeping. The +land was about ten miles from beach to beach, and never a foot of it +that wasn't sweet and clean as a private park.</p> + +<p>"From the top of the hill I could see the ocean, miles and miles of +blue water, with never a sign of a gas liner, or even a little +government running-boat. Them running-boats used to go most everywhere +to keep the seaways clean of derelicts and the like. But I knowed that +if this island was no more than a hundred miles off the regular +courses of navigation, it might be many a long day before I'd be +rescued. The top of the hill, as I found when first I climbed up +there, was a wore-out crater. So I knowed that the island was one of +them volcanic ones you run across so many of in the seas between +Capricorn and Cancer.</p> + +<p>"Here and there on the slopes and down through the jungly tree-growth, +I would come on great lumps of rock, and these must have came up out +of that crater long ago. If there was lava it was so old it had been +covered up entire with green growing stuff. You couldn't have found it +without a spade, which I didn't have nor want."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Well, at first I was happy as the hours was long. I wandered and +clambered and waded and swum, and combed my long hair on the beach, +having fortunately not lost my side-combs nor the rest of my gold +hairpins. But by-and-by it begun to get just a bit lonesome. Funny +thing, that's a feeling that, once it starts, it gets worse and worser +so quick it's perfectly surprising. And right then was when the days +begun to get gloomy. We had a long, sickly hot spell, like I never +seen before on an ocean island. There was dull clouds across the sun +from morn to night. Even the little monkeys and parrakeets, that had +seemed so gay, moped and drowsed like they was sick. All one day I +cried, and let the rain soak me through and through—that was the +first rain we had—and I didn't get thorough dried even during the +night, though I slept in my cave. Next morning I got up mad as thunder +at myself and all the world.</p> + +<p>"When I looked out the black clouds was billowing across the sky. I +could hear nothing but great breakers roaring in on the beaches, and +the wild wind raving through the lashing palms.</p> + +<p>"As I stood there a nasty little wet monkey dropped from a branch +almost on my head. I grabbed a pebble and slung it at him real +vicious. 'Get away, you dirty little brute!' I shrieks, and with that +there come a awful blinding flare of light. There was a long, +crackling noise like a bunch of Chinese fireworks, and then a sound as +if a whole fleet of <i>Shouters</i> had all went up together.</p> + +<p>"When I come to, I found myself 'way in the back of my cave, trying to +dig further into the rock with my finger nails. Upon taking thought, +it come to me that what had occurred was just a lightning-clap, and +going to look, sure enough there lay a big palm tree right across the +glade. It was all busted and split open by the lightning, and the +little monkey was under it, for I could see his tail and his hind legs +sticking out.</p> + +<p>"Now, when I set eyes on that poor, crushed little beast I'd been so +mean to, I was terrible ashamed. I sat down on the smashed tree and +considered and considered. How thankful I had ought to have been. Here +I had a lovely, plenteous island, with food and water to my taste, +when it might have been a barren, starvation rock that was my lot. And +so, thinking, a sort of gradual peaceful feeling stole over me. I got +cheerfuller and cheerfuller, till I could have sang and danced for +joy.</p> + +<p>"Pretty soon I realized that the sun was shining bright for the first +time that week. The wind had stopped hollering, and the waves had died +to just a singing murmur on the beach. It seemed kind o' strange, this +sudden peace, like the cheer in my own heart after its rage and storm. +I rose up, feeling sort of queer, and went to look if the little +monkey had came alive again, though that was a fool thing, seeing he +was laying all crushed up and very dead. I buried him under a tree +root, and as I did it a conviction come to me.</p> + +<p>"I didn't hardly question that conviction at all. Somehow, living +there alone so long, perhaps my natural womanly intuition was stronger +than ever before or since, and so I <i>knowed</i>. Then I went and pulled +poor Nelson Smith's board off from the tree and tossed it away for the +tide to carry off. That there board was an insult to my island!"</p> + +<p>The sea-woman paused, and her eyes had a far-away look. It seemed as +if I and perhaps even the macaroons and tea were quite forgotten.</p> + +<p>"Why did you think that?" I asked, to bring her back. "How could an +island be insulted?"</p> + +<p>She started, passed her hand across her eyes, and hastily poured +another cup of tea.</p> + +<p>"Because," she said at last, poising a macaroon in mid-air, "because +that island—that particular island that I had landed on—had a heart!</p> + +<p>"When I was gay, it was bright and cheerful. It was glad when I come, +and it treated me right until I got that grouchy it had to mope from +sympathy. It loved me like a friend. When I flung a rock at that poor +little drenched monkey critter, it backed up my act with an anger like +the wrath o' God, and killed its own child to please me! But it got +right cheery the minute I seen the wrongness of my ways. Nelson Smith +had no business to say, 'This island ain't just right,' for it was a +righter place than ever I seen elsewhere. When I cast away that lying +board, all the birds begun to sing like mad. The green milk-coconuts +fell right and left. Only the monkeys seemed kind o' sad like still, +and no wonder. You see, their own mother, the island, had rounded on +one o' them for my sake!</p> + +<p>"After that I was right careful and considerate. I named the island +Anita, not knowing her right name, or if she had any. Anita was a +pretty name, and it sounded kind of South Sea like. Anita and me got +along real well together from that day on. It was some strain to be +always gay and singing around like a dear duck of a canary bird, but I +done my best. Still, for all the love and gratitude I bore Anita, the +company of an island, however sympathetic, ain't quite enough for a +human being. I still got lonesome, and there was even days when I +couldn't keep the clouds clear out of the sky, though I will say we +had no more tornadoes.</p> + +<p>"I think the island understood and tried to help me with all the +bounty and good cheer the poor thing possessed. None the less my heart +give a wonderful big leap when one day I seen a blot on the horizon. +It drawed nearer and nearer, until at last I could make out its +nature."</p> + +<p>"A ship, of course," said I, "and were you rescued?"</p> + +<p>"'Tweren't a ship, neither," denied the sea-woman somewhat +impatiently. "Can't you let me spin this yarn without no more remarks +and fool questions? This thing what was bearing down so fast with the +incoming tide was neither more nor less than another island!</p> + +<p>"You may well look startled. I was startled myself. Much more so than +you, likely. I didn't know then what you, with your book-learning, +very likely know now—that islands sometimes float. Their underparts +being a tangled-up mess of roots and old vines that new stuff's growed +over, they sometimes break away from the mainland in a brisk gale and +go off for a voyage, calm as a old-fashioned, eight-funnel steamer. +This one was uncommon large, being as much as two miles, maybe, from +shore to shore. It had its palm trees and its live things, just like +my own Anita, and I've sometimes wondered if this drifting piece +hadn't really been a part of my island once—just its daughter like, +as you might say.</p> + +<p>"Be that, however, as it might be, no sooner did the floating piece +get within hailing distance than I hears a human holler and there was +a man dancing up and down on the shore like he was plumb crazy. Next +minute he had plunged into the narrow strip of water between us and in +a few minutes had swum to where I stood.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course it was none other than Nelson Smith!</p> + +<p>"I knowed that the minute I set eyes on him. He had the very look of +not having no better sense than the man what wrote that board and then +nearly committed suicide trying to get away from the best island in +all the oceans. Glad enough he was to get back, though, for the +coconuts was running very short on the floater what had rescued him, +and the turtle eggs wasn't worth mentioning. Being short of grub is +the surest way I know to cure a man's fear of the unknown."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Well, to make a long story short, Nelson Smith told me he was a +aeronauter. In them days to be an aeronauter was not the same as to be +an aviatress is now. There was dangers in the air, and dangers in the +sea, and he had met with both. His gas tank had leaked and he had +dropped into the water close by Anita. A case or two of provisions was +all he could save from the total wreck.</p> + +<p>"Now, as you might guess, I was crazy enough to find out what had +scared this Nelson Smith into trying to swim the Pacific. He told me a +story that seemed to fit pretty well with mine, only when it come to +the scary part he shut up like a clam, that aggravating way some men +have. I give it up at last for just man-foolishness, and we begun to +scheme to get away.</p> + +<p>"Anita moped some while we talked it over. I realized how she must be +feeling, so I explained to her that it was right needful for us to get +with our kind again. If we stayed with her we should probably quarrel +like cats, and maybe even kill each other out of pure human +cussedness. She cheered up considerable after that, and even, I +thought, got a little anxious to have us leave. At any rate, when we +begun to provision up the little floater, which we had anchored to +the big island by a cable of twisted bark, the green nuts fell all +over the ground, and Nelson found more turtle nests in a day than I +had in weeks.</p> + +<p>"During them days I really got fond of Nelson Smith. He was a +companionable body, and brave, or he wouldn't have been a professional +aeronauter, a job that was rightly thought tough enough for a woman, +let alone a man. Though he was not so well educated as me, at least he +was quiet and modest about what he did know, not like some men, +boasting most where there is least to brag of.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I misdoubt if Nelson and me would not have quit the sea and +the air together and set up housekeeping in some quiet little town up +in New England, maybe, after we had got away, if it had not been for +what happened when we went. I never, let me say, was so deceived in +any man before nor since. The thing taught me a lesson and I never was +fooled again.</p> + +<p>"We was all ready to go, and then one morning, like a parting gift +from Anita, come a soft and favoring wind. Nelson and I run down the +beach together, for we didn't want our floater to blow off and leave +us. As we was running, our arms full of coconuts, Nelson Smith, +stubbed his bare toe on a sharp rock, and down he went. I hadn't +noticed, and was going on.</p> + +<p>"But sudden the ground begun to shake under my feet, and the air was +full of a queer, grinding, groaning sound, like the very earth was in +pain.</p> + +<p>"I turned around sharp. There sat Nelson, holding his bleeding toe in +both fists and giving vent to such awful words as no decent sea-going +lady would ever speak nor hear to!</p> + +<p>"'Stop it, stop it!' I shrieked at him, but 'twas too late.</p> + +<p>"Island or no island, Anita was a lady, too! She had a gentle heart, +but she knowed how to behave when she was insulted.</p> + +<p>"With one terrible, great roar a spout of smoke and flame belched up +out o' the heart of Anita's crater hill a full mile into the air!</p> + +<p>"I guess Nelson stopped swearing. He couldn't have heard himself, +anyways. Anita was talking now with tongues of flame and such roars as +would have bespoke the raging protest of a continent.</p> + +<p>"I grabbed that fool man by the hand and run him down to the water. We +had to swim good and hard to catch up with our only hope, the floater. +No bark rope could hold her against the stiff breeze that was now +blowing, and she had broke her cable. By the time we scrambled aboard +great rocks was falling right and left. We couldn't see each other for +a while for the clouds of fine gray ash.</p> + +<p>"It seemed like Anita was that mad she was flinging stones after us, +and truly I believe that such was her intention. I didn't blame her, +neither!</p> + +<p>"Lucky for us the wind was strong and we was soon out of range.</p> + +<p>"'So!' says I to Nelson, after I'd got most of the ashes out of my +mouth, and shook my hair clear of cinders. 'So, that was the reason +you up and left sudden when you was there before! You aggravated that +island till the poor thing druv you out!'</p> + +<p>"'Well,' says he, and not so meek as I'd have admired to see him, 'how +could I know the darn island was a lady?'</p> + +<p>"'Actions speak louder than words,' says I. 'You should have knowed it +by her ladylike behavior!'</p> + +<p>"'Is volcanoes and slingin' hot rocks ladylike?' he says. 'Is snakes +ladylike? T'other time I cut my thumb on a tin can, I cussed a little +bit. Say—just a li'l' bit! An' what comes at me out o' all the caves, +and out o' every crack in the rocks, and out o' the very spring o' +water where I'd been drinkin'? Why snakes! <i>Snakes</i>, if you please, +big, little, green, red and sky-blue-scarlet! What'd I do? Jumped in +the water, of course. Why wouldn't I? I'd ruther swim and drown than +be stung or swallowed to death. But how was I t' know the snakes come +outta the rocks because I cussed?'</p> + +<p>"'You, couldn't,' I agrees, sarcastic. 'Some folks never knows a lady +till she up and whangs 'em over the head with a brick. A real, gentle, +kind-like warning, them snakes were, which you would not heed! Take +shame to yourself, Nelly,' says I, right stern, 'that a decent little +island like Anita can't associate with you peaceable, but you must +hurt her sacredest feelings with language no lady would stand by to +hear!'</p> + +<p>"I never did see Anita again. She may have blew herself right out of +the ocean in her just wrath at the vulgar, disgustin' language of +Nelson Smith. I don't know. We was took off the floater at last, and I +lost track of Nelson just as quick as I could when we was landed at +Frisco.</p> + +<p>"He had taught me a lesson. A man is just full of mannishness, and the +best of 'em ain't good enough for a lady to sacrifice her +sensibilities to put up with.</p> + +<p>"Nelson Smith, he seemed to feel real bad when he learned I was not +for him, and then he apologized. But apologies weren't no use to me. I +could never abide him, after the way he went and talked right in the +presence of me and my poor, sweet lady friend, Anita!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Now I am well versed in the lore of the sea in all ages. Through mists +of time I have enviously eyed wild voyagings of sea rovers who roved +and spun their yarns before the stronger sex came into its own, and +ousted man from his heroic pedestal. I have followed—across the +printed page—the wanderings of Odysseus. Before Gulliver I have +burned the incense of tranced attention; and with reverent awe +considered the history of one Munchausen, a baron. But alas, these +were only men!</p> + +<p>In what field is not woman our subtle superior?</p> + +<p>Meekly I bowed my head, and when my eyes dared lift again, the ancient +mariness had departed, leaving me to sorrow for my surpassed and +outdone idols. Also with a bill for macaroons and tea of such +incredible proportions that in comparison therewith I found it easy to +believe her story!</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Friend Island, by Francis Stevens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIEND ISLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 35401-h.htm or 35401-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/4/0/35401/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Friend Island + +Author: Francis Stevens + +Release Date: February 26, 2011 [EBook #35401] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIEND ISLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + All-Story Weekly + + September 7, 1918 + + * * * * * + + FRIEND ISLAND + + by Francis Stevens + + * * * * * + + + + +It was upon the waterfront that I first met her, in one of the shabby +little tea shops frequented by able sailoresses of the poorer type. +The uptown, glittering resorts of the Lady Aviators' Union were not +for such as she. + +Stern of feature, bronzed by wind and sun, her age could only be +guessed, but I surmised at once that in her I beheld a survivor of the +age of turbines and oil engines--a true sea-woman of that elder time +when woman's superiority to man had not been so long recognized. When, +to emphasize their victory, women in all ranks were sterner than +today's need demands. + +The spruce, smiling young maidens--engine-women and stokers of the +great aluminum rollers, but despite their profession, very neat in +gold-braided blue knickers and boleros--these looked askance at the +hard-faced relic of a harsher day, as they passed in and out of the +shop. + +I, however, brazenly ignoring similar glances at myself, a mere male +intruding on the haunts of the world's ruling sex, drew a chair up +beside the veteran. I ordered a full pot of tea, two cups and a plate +of macaroons, and put on my most ingratiating air. Possibly my +unconcealed admiration and interest were wiles not exercised in vain. +Or the macaroons and tea, both excellent, may have loosened the old +sea-woman's tongue. At any rate, under cautious questioning, she had +soon launched upon a series of reminiscences well beyond my hopes for +color and variety. + +"When I was a lass," quoth the sea-woman, after a time, "there was +none of this high-flying, gilt-edged, leather-stocking luxury about +the sea. We sailed by the power of our oil and gasoline. If they +failed on us, like as not 'twas the rubber ring and the rolling wave +for ours." + +She referred to the archaic practice of placing a pneumatic affair +called a life-preserver beneath the arms, in case of that dreaded +disaster, now so unheard of, shipwreck. + +"In them days there was still many a man bold enough to join our +crews. And I've knowed cases," she added condescendingly, "where just +by the muscle and brawn of such men some poor sailor lass has reached +shore alive that would have fed the sharks without 'em. Oh, I ain't so +down on men as you might think. It's the spoiling of them that I don't +hold with. There's too much preached nowadays that man is fit for +nothing but to fetch and carry and do nurse-work in big child-homes. +To my mind, a man who hasn't the nerve of a woman ain't fitted to +father children, let alone raise 'em. But that's not here nor there. +My time's past, and I know it, or I wouldn't be setting here gossipin' +to you, my lad, over an empty teapot." + +I took the hint, and with our cups replenished, she bit thoughtfully +into her fourteenth macaroon and continued. + +"There's one voyage I'm not likely to forget, though I live to be as +old as Cap'n Mary Barnacle, of the _Shouter_. 'Twas aboard the old +_Shouter_ that this here voyage occurred, and it was her last and +likewise Cap'n Mary's. Cap'n Mary, she was then that decrepit, it +seemed a mercy that she should go to her rest, and in good salt water +at that. + +"I remember the voyage for Cap'n Mary's sake, but most I remember it +because 'twas then that I come the nighest in my life to committin' +matrimony. For a man, the man had nerve; he was nearer bein' +companionable than any other man I ever seed; and if it hadn't been +for just one little event that showed up the--the _mannishness_ of +him, in a way I couldn't abide, I reckon he'd be keepin' house for me +this minute." + + * * * * * + +"We cleared from Frisco with a cargo of silkateen petticoats for +Brisbane. Cap'n Mary was always strong on petticoats. Leather breeches +or even half-skirts would ha' paid far better, they being more in +demand like, but Cap'n Mary was three-quarters owner, and says she, +land women should buy petticoats, and if they didn't it wouldn't be +the Lord's fault nor hers for not providing 'em. + +"We cleared on a fine day, which is an all sign--or was, then when the +weather and the seas o' God still counted in the trafficking of the +humankind. Not two days out we met a whirling, mucking bouncer of a +gale that well nigh threw the old _Shouter_ a full point off her +course in the first wallop. She was a stout craft, though. None of +your featherweight, gas-lightened, paper-thin alloy shells, but +toughened aluminum from stern to stern. Her turbine drove her through +the combers at a forty-five knot clip, which named her a speedy craft +for a freighter in them days. + +"But this night, as we tore along through the creaming green billows, +something unknown went 'way wrong down below. + +"I was forward under the shelter of her long over-sloop, looking for a +hairpin I'd dropped somewheres about that afternoon. It was a gold +hairpin, and gold still being mighty scarce when I was a girl, a +course I valued it. But suddenly I felt the old _Shouter_ give a jump +under my feet like a plane struck by a shell in full flight. Then she +trembled all over for a full second, frightened like. Then, with the +crash of doomsday ringing in my ears, I felt myself sailing through +the air right into the teeth o' the shrieking gale, as near as I could +judge. Down I come in the hollow of a monstrous big wave, and as my +ears doused under I thought I heard a splash close by. Coming up, sure +enough, there close by me was floating a new, patent, hermetic, +thermo-ice-chest. Being as it was empty, and being as it was shut up +air-tight, that ice-chest made as sweet a life-preserver as a woman +could wish in such an hour. About ten foot by twelve, it floated high +in the raging sea. Out on its top I scrambled, and hanging on by a +handle I looked expectant for some of my poor fellow-women to come +floating by. Which they never did, for the good reason that the +_Shouter_ had blowed up and went below, petticoats, Cap'n Mary and +all." + +"What caused the explosion?" I inquired. + +"The Lord and Cap'n Mary Barnacle can explain," she answered piously. +"Besides the oil for her turbines, she carried a power of gasoline for +her alternative engines, and likely 'twas the cause of her ending so +sudden like. Anyways, all I ever seen of her again was the empty +ice-chest that Providence had well-nigh hove upon my head. On that I +sat and floated, and floated and sat some more, till by-and-by the +storm sort of blowed itself out, the sun come shining--this was next +morning--and I could dry my hair and look about me. I was a young +lass, then, and not bad to look upon. I didn't want to die, any more +than you that's sitting there this minute. So I up and prays for land. +Sure enough toward evening a speck heaves up low down on the horizon. +At first I took it for a gas liner, but later found it was just a +little island, all alone by itself in the great Pacific Ocean. + +"Come, now, here's luck, thinks I, and with that I deserts the +ice-chest, which being empty, and me having no ice to put in it, not +likely to have in them latitudes, is of no further use to me. Striking +out I swum a mile or so and set foot on dry land for the first time in +nigh three days. + +"Pretty land it were, too, though bare of human life as an iceberg in +the Arctic. + +"I had landed on a shining white beach that run up to a grove of +lovely, waving palm trees. Above them I could see the slopes of a hill +so high and green it reminded me of my own old home, up near +Couquomgomoc Lake in Maine. The whole place just seemed to smile and +smile at me. The palms waved and bowed in the sweet breeze, like they +wanted to say, 'Just set right down and make yourself to home. We've +been waiting a long time for you to come.' I cried, I was that happy +to be made welcome. I was a young lass then, and sensitive-like to how +folks treated me. You're laughing now, but wait and see if or not +there was sense to the way I felt. + +"So I up and dries my clothes and my long, soft hair again, which was +well worth drying, for I had far more of it than now. After that I +walked along a piece, until there was a sweet little path meandering +away into the wild woods. + +"Here, thinks I, this looks like inhabitants. Be they civil or wild, I +wonder? But after traveling the path a piece, lo and behold it ended +sudden like in a wide circle of green grass, with a little spring of +clear water. And the first thing I noticed was a slab of white board +nailed to a palm tree close to the spring. Right off I took a long +drink, for you better believe I was thirsty, and then I went to look +at this board. It had evidently been tore off the side of a wooden +packing box, and the letters was roughly printed in lead pencil. + +"'Heaven help whoever you be,' I read. 'This island ain't just right. +I'm going to swim for it. You better too. Good-by. Nelson Smith.' +That's what it said, but the spellin' was simply awful. It all looked +quite new and recent, as if Nelson Smith hadn't more than a few hours +before he wrote and nailed it there. + +"Well, after reading that queer warning I begun to shake all over like +in a chill. Yes, I shook like I had the ague, though the hot tropic +sun was burning down right on me and that alarming board. What had +scared Nelson Smith so much that he had swum to get away? I looked all +around real cautious and careful, but not a single frightening thing +could I behold. And the palms and the green grass and the flowers +still smiled that peaceful and friendly like. 'Just make yourself to +home,' was wrote all over the place in plainer letters than those +sprawly lead pencil ones on the board. + +"Pretty soon, what with the quiet and all, the chill left me. Then I +thought, 'Well, to be sure, this Smith person was just an ordinary +man, I reckon, and likely he got nervous of being so alone. Likely he +just fancied things which was really not. It's a pity he drowned +himself before I come, though likely I'd have found him poor company. +By his record I judge him a man of but common education.' + +"So I decided to make the most of my welcome, and that I did for weeks +to come. Right near the spring was a cave, dry as a biscuit box, with +a nice floor of white sand. Nelson had lived there too, for there was +a litter of stuff--tin cans--empty--scraps of newspapers and the like. +I got to calling him Nelson in my mind, and then Nelly, and wondering +if he was dark or fair, and how he come to be cast away there all +alone, and what was the strange events that drove him to his end. I +cleaned out the cave, though. He had devoured all his tin-canned +provisions, however he come by them, but this I didn't mind. That +there island was a generous body. Green milk-coconuts, sweet berries, +turtle eggs and the like was my daily fare. + +"For about three weeks the sun shone every day, the birds sang and the +monkeys chattered. We was all one big, happy family, and the more I +explored that island the better I liked the company I was keeping. The +land was about ten miles from beach to beach, and never a foot of it +that wasn't sweet and clean as a private park. + +"From the top of the hill I could see the ocean, miles and miles of +blue water, with never a sign of a gas liner, or even a little +government running-boat. Them running-boats used to go most everywhere +to keep the seaways clean of derelicts and the like. But I knowed that +if this island was no more than a hundred miles off the regular +courses of navigation, it might be many a long day before I'd be +rescued. The top of the hill, as I found when first I climbed up +there, was a wore-out crater. So I knowed that the island was one of +them volcanic ones you run across so many of in the seas between +Capricorn and Cancer. + +"Here and there on the slopes and down through the jungly tree-growth, +I would come on great lumps of rock, and these must have came up out +of that crater long ago. If there was lava it was so old it had been +covered up entire with green growing stuff. You couldn't have found it +without a spade, which I didn't have nor want." + + * * * * * + +"Well, at first I was happy as the hours was long. I wandered and +clambered and waded and swum, and combed my long hair on the beach, +having fortunately not lost my side-combs nor the rest of my gold +hairpins. But by-and-by it begun to get just a bit lonesome. Funny +thing, that's a feeling that, once it starts, it gets worse and worser +so quick it's perfectly surprising. And right then was when the days +begun to get gloomy. We had a long, sickly hot spell, like I never +seen before on an ocean island. There was dull clouds across the sun +from morn to night. Even the little monkeys and parrakeets, that had +seemed so gay, moped and drowsed like they was sick. All one day I +cried, and let the rain soak me through and through--that was the +first rain we had--and I didn't get thorough dried even during the +night, though I slept in my cave. Next morning I got up mad as thunder +at myself and all the world. + +"When I looked out the black clouds was billowing across the sky. I +could hear nothing but great breakers roaring in on the beaches, and +the wild wind raving through the lashing palms. + +"As I stood there a nasty little wet monkey dropped from a branch +almost on my head. I grabbed a pebble and slung it at him real +vicious. 'Get away, you dirty little brute!' I shrieks, and with that +there come a awful blinding flare of light. There was a long, +crackling noise like a bunch of Chinese fireworks, and then a sound as +if a whole fleet of _Shouters_ had all went up together. + +"When I come to, I found myself 'way in the back of my cave, trying to +dig further into the rock with my finger nails. Upon taking thought, +it come to me that what had occurred was just a lightning-clap, and +going to look, sure enough there lay a big palm tree right across the +glade. It was all busted and split open by the lightning, and the +little monkey was under it, for I could see his tail and his hind legs +sticking out. + +"Now, when I set eyes on that poor, crushed little beast I'd been so +mean to, I was terrible ashamed. I sat down on the smashed tree and +considered and considered. How thankful I had ought to have been. Here +I had a lovely, plenteous island, with food and water to my taste, +when it might have been a barren, starvation rock that was my lot. And +so, thinking, a sort of gradual peaceful feeling stole over me. I got +cheerfuller and cheerfuller, till I could have sang and danced for +joy. + +"Pretty soon I realized that the sun was shining bright for the first +time that week. The wind had stopped hollering, and the waves had died +to just a singing murmur on the beach. It seemed kind o' strange, this +sudden peace, like the cheer in my own heart after its rage and storm. +I rose up, feeling sort of queer, and went to look if the little +monkey had came alive again, though that was a fool thing, seeing he +was laying all crushed up and very dead. I buried him under a tree +root, and as I did it a conviction come to me. + +"I didn't hardly question that conviction at all. Somehow, living +there alone so long, perhaps my natural womanly intuition was stronger +than ever before or since, and so I _knowed_. Then I went and pulled +poor Nelson Smith's board off from the tree and tossed it away for the +tide to carry off. That there board was an insult to my island!" + +The sea-woman paused, and her eyes had a far-away look. It seemed as +if I and perhaps even the macaroons and tea were quite forgotten. + +"Why did you think that?" I asked, to bring her back. "How could an +island be insulted?" + +She started, passed her hand across her eyes, and hastily poured +another cup of tea. + +"Because," she said at last, poising a macaroon in mid-air, "because +that island--that particular island that I had landed on--had a heart! + +"When I was gay, it was bright and cheerful. It was glad when I come, +and it treated me right until I got that grouchy it had to mope from +sympathy. It loved me like a friend. When I flung a rock at that poor +little drenched monkey critter, it backed up my act with an anger like +the wrath o' God, and killed its own child to please me! But it got +right cheery the minute I seen the wrongness of my ways. Nelson Smith +had no business to say, 'This island ain't just right,' for it was a +righter place than ever I seen elsewhere. When I cast away that lying +board, all the birds begun to sing like mad. The green milk-coconuts +fell right and left. Only the monkeys seemed kind o' sad like still, +and no wonder. You see, their own mother, the island, had rounded on +one o' them for my sake! + +"After that I was right careful and considerate. I named the island +Anita, not knowing her right name, or if she had any. Anita was a +pretty name, and it sounded kind of South Sea like. Anita and me got +along real well together from that day on. It was some strain to be +always gay and singing around like a dear duck of a canary bird, but I +done my best. Still, for all the love and gratitude I bore Anita, the +company of an island, however sympathetic, ain't quite enough for a +human being. I still got lonesome, and there was even days when I +couldn't keep the clouds clear out of the sky, though I will say we +had no more tornadoes. + +"I think the island understood and tried to help me with all the +bounty and good cheer the poor thing possessed. None the less my heart +give a wonderful big leap when one day I seen a blot on the horizon. +It drawed nearer and nearer, until at last I could make out its +nature." + +"A ship, of course," said I, "and were you rescued?" + +"'Tweren't a ship, neither," denied the sea-woman somewhat +impatiently. "Can't you let me spin this yarn without no more remarks +and fool questions? This thing what was bearing down so fast with the +incoming tide was neither more nor less than another island! + +"You may well look startled. I was startled myself. Much more so than +you, likely. I didn't know then what you, with your book-learning, +very likely know now--that islands sometimes float. Their underparts +being a tangled-up mess of roots and old vines that new stuff's growed +over, they sometimes break away from the mainland in a brisk gale and +go off for a voyage, calm as a old-fashioned, eight-funnel steamer. +This one was uncommon large, being as much as two miles, maybe, from +shore to shore. It had its palm trees and its live things, just like +my own Anita, and I've sometimes wondered if this drifting piece +hadn't really been a part of my island once--just its daughter like, +as you might say. + +"Be that, however, as it might be, no sooner did the floating piece +get within hailing distance than I hears a human holler and there was +a man dancing up and down on the shore like he was plumb crazy. Next +minute he had plunged into the narrow strip of water between us and in +a few minutes had swum to where I stood. + +"Yes, of course it was none other than Nelson Smith! + +"I knowed that the minute I set eyes on him. He had the very look of +not having no better sense than the man what wrote that board and then +nearly committed suicide trying to get away from the best island in +all the oceans. Glad enough he was to get back, though, for the +coconuts was running very short on the floater what had rescued him, +and the turtle eggs wasn't worth mentioning. Being short of grub is +the surest way I know to cure a man's fear of the unknown." + + * * * * * + +"Well, to make a long story short, Nelson Smith told me he was a +aeronauter. In them days to be an aeronauter was not the same as to be +an aviatress is now. There was dangers in the air, and dangers in the +sea, and he had met with both. His gas tank had leaked and he had +dropped into the water close by Anita. A case or two of provisions was +all he could save from the total wreck. + +"Now, as you might guess, I was crazy enough to find out what had +scared this Nelson Smith into trying to swim the Pacific. He told me a +story that seemed to fit pretty well with mine, only when it come to +the scary part he shut up like a clam, that aggravating way some men +have. I give it up at last for just man-foolishness, and we begun to +scheme to get away. + +"Anita moped some while we talked it over. I realized how she must be +feeling, so I explained to her that it was right needful for us to get +with our kind again. If we stayed with her we should probably quarrel +like cats, and maybe even kill each other out of pure human +cussedness. She cheered up considerable after that, and even, I +thought, got a little anxious to have us leave. At any rate, when we +begun to provision up the little floater, which we had anchored to +the big island by a cable of twisted bark, the green nuts fell all +over the ground, and Nelson found more turtle nests in a day than I +had in weeks. + +"During them days I really got fond of Nelson Smith. He was a +companionable body, and brave, or he wouldn't have been a professional +aeronauter, a job that was rightly thought tough enough for a woman, +let alone a man. Though he was not so well educated as me, at least he +was quiet and modest about what he did know, not like some men, +boasting most where there is least to brag of. + +"Indeed, I misdoubt if Nelson and me would not have quit the sea and +the air together and set up housekeeping in some quiet little town up +in New England, maybe, after we had got away, if it had not been for +what happened when we went. I never, let me say, was so deceived in +any man before nor since. The thing taught me a lesson and I never was +fooled again. + +"We was all ready to go, and then one morning, like a parting gift +from Anita, come a soft and favoring wind. Nelson and I run down the +beach together, for we didn't want our floater to blow off and leave +us. As we was running, our arms full of coconuts, Nelson Smith, +stubbed his bare toe on a sharp rock, and down he went. I hadn't +noticed, and was going on. + +"But sudden the ground begun to shake under my feet, and the air was +full of a queer, grinding, groaning sound, like the very earth was in +pain. + +"I turned around sharp. There sat Nelson, holding his bleeding toe in +both fists and giving vent to such awful words as no decent sea-going +lady would ever speak nor hear to! + +"'Stop it, stop it!' I shrieked at him, but 'twas too late. + +"Island or no island, Anita was a lady, too! She had a gentle heart, +but she knowed how to behave when she was insulted. + +"With one terrible, great roar a spout of smoke and flame belched up +out o' the heart of Anita's crater hill a full mile into the air! + +"I guess Nelson stopped swearing. He couldn't have heard himself, +anyways. Anita was talking now with tongues of flame and such roars as +would have bespoke the raging protest of a continent. + +"I grabbed that fool man by the hand and run him down to the water. We +had to swim good and hard to catch up with our only hope, the floater. +No bark rope could hold her against the stiff breeze that was now +blowing, and she had broke her cable. By the time we scrambled aboard +great rocks was falling right and left. We couldn't see each other for +a while for the clouds of fine gray ash. + +"It seemed like Anita was that mad she was flinging stones after us, +and truly I believe that such was her intention. I didn't blame her, +neither! + +"Lucky for us the wind was strong and we was soon out of range. + +"'So!' says I to Nelson, after I'd got most of the ashes out of my +mouth, and shook my hair clear of cinders. 'So, that was the reason +you up and left sudden when you was there before! You aggravated that +island till the poor thing druv you out!' + +"'Well,' says he, and not so meek as I'd have admired to see him, 'how +could I know the darn island was a lady?' + +"'Actions speak louder than words,' says I. 'You should have knowed it +by her ladylike behavior!' + +"'Is volcanoes and slingin' hot rocks ladylike?' he says. 'Is snakes +ladylike? T'other time I cut my thumb on a tin can, I cussed a little +bit. Say--just a li'l' bit! An' what comes at me out o' all the caves, +and out o' every crack in the rocks, and out o' the very spring o' +water where I'd been drinkin'? Why snakes! _Snakes_, if you please, +big, little, green, red and sky-blue-scarlet! What'd I do? Jumped in +the water, of course. Why wouldn't I? I'd ruther swim and drown than +be stung or swallowed to death. But how was I t' know the snakes come +outta the rocks because I cussed?' + +"'You, couldn't,' I agrees, sarcastic. 'Some folks never knows a lady +till she up and whangs 'em over the head with a brick. A real, gentle, +kind-like warning, them snakes were, which you would not heed! Take +shame to yourself, Nelly,' says I, right stern, 'that a decent little +island like Anita can't associate with you peaceable, but you must +hurt her sacredest feelings with language no lady would stand by to +hear!' + +"I never did see Anita again. She may have blew herself right out of +the ocean in her just wrath at the vulgar, disgustin' language of +Nelson Smith. I don't know. We was took off the floater at last, and I +lost track of Nelson just as quick as I could when we was landed at +Frisco. + +"He had taught me a lesson. A man is just full of mannishness, and the +best of 'em ain't good enough for a lady to sacrifice her +sensibilities to put up with. + +"Nelson Smith, he seemed to feel real bad when he learned I was not +for him, and then he apologized. But apologies weren't no use to me. I +could never abide him, after the way he went and talked right in the +presence of me and my poor, sweet lady friend, Anita!" + + * * * * * + +Now I am well versed in the lore of the sea in all ages. Through mists +of time I have enviously eyed wild voyagings of sea rovers who roved +and spun their yarns before the stronger sex came into its own, and +ousted man from his heroic pedestal. I have followed--across the +printed page--the wanderings of Odysseus. Before Gulliver I have +burned the incense of tranced attention; and with reverent awe +considered the history of one Munchausen, a baron. But alas, these +were only men! + +In what field is not woman our subtle superior? + +Meekly I bowed my head, and when my eyes dared lift again, the ancient +mariness had departed, leaving me to sorrow for my surpassed and +outdone idols. Also with a bill for macaroons and tea of such +incredible proportions that in comparison therewith I found it easy to +believe her story! + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Friend Island, by Francis Stevens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIEND ISLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 35401.txt or 35401.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/4/0/35401/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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