Blow the Man Down - A Romance of the Coast

She hurried ahead of him to the beach, where her father was waiting with

his men. Captain Candage had borrowed a dory for the trip. He installed

himself in the stern with the steer-oar, and the young man and the girl

sat together on the midship seat. The skipper listened to their chat

with bland content.

"There's a fellow that's one of our kind, and he ain't trying to court

my girl," he had confided to Mr. Speed. "He is spoke for and she knows

it. And under them circumstances I believe in encouraging young folks to

be sociable."

It was still early morning when they arrived at the island, but the

state agent was there ahead of them. They saw him walking briskly about

among the scattered houses, puffing on his cigar.

He was making domiciliary visits and was transacting business in a loud

tone of voice. That business was paying over the money which the state

had allowed for "squatter improvements." In the case of the settlers on

Hue and Cry the sums were mere pittances; their improvements consisted

of tottering shacks, erected from salvaged flotsam of the ocean and

patched over and over with tarred paper.

There was only one building on the island which deserved the name of dwelling; from this their communicative caller of the

preceding evening was removing his scant belongings. His wife and

children were helping. He set down a battered table when he met Mayo and

his party.

"I'm the only citizen who can get away early and--as you might call

it--respectable, gents. I took my hundred and fifty and bought that

house-bo't out there." It was an ancient scow, housed over, and

evidently had grown venerable in service as a floating fish-market.

"They can't drive me off'n the Atlantic Ocean! The others 'ain't woke

up to a reelizing sense that they have got to go and that this all means

business! I'm getting away early or else they'd all be trying to climb

aboard my bo't like the folks wanted to do to Noah's ark when they see

that the flood wasn't just a shower." He lifted his table upon his head

and marched on, leading his flock.

All the population of the island was out of doors. The women and the

children were idling in groups; the men were listlessly following the

commissioner on his rounds. No spirit of rebelliousness was evident. The

men acted more like inquisitive sheep. They were of that abject variety

of poor whites who accept the rains from heaven and bow to the reign of

authority with the same unquestioning resignation.