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+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Log of the Jolly Polly, by Davis
+#20 in our series by Richard Harding Davis
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+The Log of The "Jolly Polly"
+
+by Richard Harding Davis
+
+May, 1999  [Etext #1808]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Log of the Jolly Polly, by Davis
+******This file should be named jlply10.txt or jlply10.zip*****
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+
+
+
+THE LOG OF THE "JOLLY POLLY"
+
+
+Temptation came to me when I was in the worst possible position to
+resist it.
+
+It is a way temptation has. Whenever I swear off drinking
+invariably I am invited to an ushers' dinner. Whenever I am rich,
+only the highbrow publications that pay the least, want my work.
+But the moment I am poverty-stricken the MANICURE GIRL'S MAGAZINE
+and the ROT AND SPOT WEEKLY spring at me with offers of a dollar a
+word. Temptation always is on the job. When I am down and out
+temptation always is up and at me.
+
+When first the Farrells tempted me my vogue had departed. On my
+name and "past performances" I could still dispose of what I wrote,
+but only to magazines that were just starting. The others knew I no
+longer was a best-seller. All the real editors knew it. So did the
+theatrical managers.
+
+My books and plays had flourished in the dark age of the
+historical-romantic novel. My heroes wore gauntlets and long
+swords. They fought for the Cardinal or the King, and each
+
+loved a high-born demoiselle who was a ward of the King or the
+Cardinal, and with feminine perversity, always of whichever one her
+young man was fighting. With people who had never read Guizot's
+"History of France," my books were popular, and for me made a great
+deal of money. This was fortunate, for my parents had left me
+nothing save expensive tastes. When the tastes became habits, the
+public left me. It turned to white-slave and crook plays, and to
+novels true to life; so true to life that one felt the author must
+at one time have been a masseur in a Turkish bath.
+
+So, my heroines in black velvet, and my heroes with long swords
+were "scrapped." As one book reviewer put it, "To expect the public
+of to-day to read the novels of Fletcher Farrell is like asking
+people to give up the bunny hug and go back to the lancers."
+
+And, to make it harder, I was only thirty years old.
+
+It was at this depressing period in my career that I received a
+letter from Fairharbor, Massachusetts, signed Fletcher Farrell. The
+letter was written on the business paper of the Farrell Cotton
+Mills, and asked if I were related to the Farrells of Duncannon, of
+the County Wexford, who emigrated to Massachusetts in 186o. The
+writer added that he had a grandfather named Fletcher and suggested
+we might be related. From the handwriting of Fletcher Farrell and
+from the way he ill-treated the King's English I did not feel the
+ties of kinship calling me very loud. I replied briefly that my
+people originally came from Youghal, in County Cork, that as early
+as 1730 they had settled in New York, and that all my relations on
+the Farrell side either were still at Youghal, or dead. Mine was
+not an encouraging letter; nor did I mean it to be; and I was
+greatly surprised two days later to receive a telegram reading,
+"Something to your advantage to communicate; wife and self calling
+on you Thursday at noon. Fletcher Farrell." I was annoyed, but also
+interested. The words "something to your advantage" always possess
+a certain charm. So, when the elevator boy telephoned that Mr. and
+Mrs. Farrell were calling, I told him to bring them up.
+
+My first glance at the Farrells convinced me the interview was a
+waste of time. I was satisfied that from two such persons, nothing
+to my advantage could possibly emanate. On the contrary, from their
+lack of ease, it looked as though they had come to beg or borrow.
+They resembled only a butler and housekeeper applying for a new
+place under the disadvantage of knowing they had no reference from
+the last one. Of the two, I better liked the man. He was an
+elderly, pleasant-faced Irishman, smooth-shaven, red-cheeked, and
+with white hair. Although it was July, he wore a frock coat, and
+carried a new high hat that glistened. As though he thought at any
+moment it might explode, he held it from him, and eyed it
+fearfully. Mrs. Farrell was of a more sophisticated type. The lines
+in her face and hands showed that for years she might have known
+hard physical work. But her dress was in the latest fashion, and
+her fingers held more diamonds than, out of a showcase, I ever had
+seen.
+
+With embarrassment old man Farrell began his speech. Evidently it
+had been rehearsed and as he recited it, in swift asides, his wife
+prompted him; but to note the effect he was making, she kept her
+eyes upon me. Having first compared my name, fame, and novels with
+those of Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, and Archibald Clavering
+Gunter, and to the disadvantage of those gentlemen, Farrell said
+the similarity of our names often had been commented upon, and that
+when from my letter he had learned our families both were from the
+South of Ireland, he had a premonition we might be related.
+Duncannon, where he was born, he pointed out, was but forty miles
+from Youghal, and the fishing boats out of Waterford Harbor often
+sought shelter in Blackwater River. Had any of my forebears, he
+asked, followed the herring?
+
+Alarmed, lest at this I might take offense, Mrs. Farrell
+interrupted him.
+
+"The Fletchers and O'Farrells of Youghal she exclaimed, "were
+gentry. What would they be doing in a trawler?"
+
+I assured her that so far as I knew, 1750 being before my time,
+they might have been smugglers and pirates.
+
+"All I ever heard of the Farrells," I told her, begins after they
+settled in New York. And there is no one I can ask concerning them.
+My father and mother are dead; all my father's relatives are dead,
+and my mother's relatives are as good as dead. I mean," I added,
+"we don't speak!"
+
+To my surprise, this information appeared to afford my visitors
+great satisfaction. They exchanged hasty glances.
+
+"Then," exclaimed Mr. Farrell, eagerly; "if I understand you, you
+have no living relations at all--barring those that are dead!"
+
+"Exactly!" I agreed.
+
+He drew a deep sigh of relief. With apparent irrelevance but with
+a carelessness that was obviously assumed, he continued.
+
+"Since I come to America," he announced, "I have made heaps of
+money. "As though in evidence of his prosperity, he flashed the
+high hat. In the sunlight it coruscated like one of his wife's
+diamonds. "Heaps of money," he repeated. "The mills are still in my
+name, he went on, "but five years since I sold them-- We live on
+the income. We own Harbor Castle, the finest house on the whole
+waterfront."
+
+"When all the windows are lit up," interjected Mrs. Farrell, "it's
+often took for a Fall River boat!"
+
+"When I was building it," Farrell continued, smoothly, "they called
+it Farrell's Folly; but not NOW." In friendly fashion he winked at
+me, "Standard Oil," he explained, "offered half a million for it.
+They wanted my wharf for their tank steamers. But, I needed it for
+my yacht!"
+
+I must have sat up rather too suddenly, for, seeing the yacht had
+reached home, Mr. Farrell beamed. Complacently his wife smoothed an
+imaginary wrinkle in her skirt.
+
+"Eighteen men!" she protested, "with nothing to do but clean brass
+and eat three meals a day!"
+
+Farrell released his death grip on the silk hat to make a sweeping
+gesture.
+
+"They earn their wages," he said generously.
+
+"Aren't they taking us this week to Cap May?"
+
+"They're taking the yacht to Cape May! corrected Mrs. Farrell; "not
+ME!"
+
+"The sea does not agree with her," explained Farrell; "WE'RE going
+by automobile." Mrs. Farrell now took up the wondrous tale
+
+It's a High Flyer, 1915 model," she explained; "green, with white
+enamel leather inside, and red wheels outside. You can see it from
+the window."
+
+Somewhat dazed, I stepped to the window and found you could see it
+from almost anywhere. It was as large as a freight car; and was
+entirely surrounded by taxi-starters, bellboys, and nurse-maids.
+The chauffeur, and a deputy chauffeur, in a green livery with
+patent-leather leggings, were frowning upon the mob. They possessed
+the hauteur of ambulance surgeons. I returned to my chair, and then
+rose hastily to ask if I could not offer Mr. Farrell some
+refreshment.
+
+"Mebbe later," he said. Evidently he felt that as yet he had not
+sufficiently impressed me.
+
+"Harbor Castle," he recited, "has eighteen bedrooms, billiard-room,
+music-room, art gallery and swimming-pool." He shook his head. "And
+no one to use 'em but us. We had a boy." He stopped, and for an
+instant, as though asking pardon, laid his hand upon the knee of
+Mrs. Farrell. "But he was taken when he was four, and none came
+since. My wife has a niece," he added, "but----"
+
+"But," interrupted Mrs. Farrell, "she was too high and mighty for
+plain folks, and now there is no one. We always took an interest in
+you because your name was Farrell. We were always reading of you in
+the papers. We have all your books, and a picture of you in the
+billiard-room. When folks ask me if we are any relation--sometimes
+I tell 'em we ARE."
+
+As though challenging me to object, she paused.
+
+"It's quite possible," I said hastily. And, in order to get rid of
+them, I added: "I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll write to Ireland
+and----"
+
+Farrell shook his head firmly. "You don't need to write to
+Ireland," he said, "for what we want."
+
+"What DO you want?" I asked.
+
+"We want a SON," said Farrell; "an adopted son. We want to adopt
+YOU!"
+
+"You want to WHAT?" I asked.
+
+To learn if Mrs. Farrell also was mad, I glanced toward her, but
+her expression was inscrutable. The face of the Irishman had grown
+purple.
+
+"And why not?" he demanded. "You are a famous young man, all right,
+and educated. But there's nothing about me I'm ashamed of! I'm
+worth five million dollars and I made every cent Of it myself--and
+I made it honest. You ask Dun or Bradstreet, ask----"
+
+I attempted to soothe him.
+
+"THAT'S not it, sir, " I explained. "It's a most generous offer, a
+most flattering, complimentary offer. But you don't know me. I don
+t know you. Choosing a son is a very----"
+
+"I've had you looked up," announced Mrs. Farrell. "The Pinkertons
+give you a high rating. I hired 'em to trail you for six months."
+
+I wanted to ask WHICH six months, but decided to let sleeping dogs
+lie. I shook my head. Politely but firmly I delivered my ultimatum.
+
+"It is quite impossible!" I said firmly.
+
+Mrs. Farrell continued the debate. She talked in a businesslike
+manner and pronounced the arrangement one by which both sides would
+benefit. There were thousands of other Farrells, she pointed out,
+any one of whom they might have adopted. But they had selected me
+because in so choosing, they thought they were taking the least
+risk. They had decided she was pleased to say, that I would not
+disgrace them, and that as a "literary author " I brought with me
+a certain social asset.
+
+A clever, young businessman they did not want. Their business
+affairs they were quit able to manage themselves. But they would
+like as an adopted son one who had already added glory to the name
+of Farrell, which glory he was willing to share.
+
+"We wouldn't tie you down," she urged "but we would expect you to
+live at Harbor Castle a part of your time, and to call us Ma and
+Pa. You would have your own rooms, and your own servant, and there
+is a boat-house on the harbor front, where you could write your
+novels."
+
+At this, knowing none wanted my novels, I may have winced, for,
+misreading my discontent, Farrell hastily interrupted.
+
+"You won't have to work at all," he protested heartily. "My son can
+afford to live like a lord. You'll get all the spending money you
+want, and if you're fond of foreign parts, you can take the yacht
+wherever you please!"
+
+"The farther the better," exclaimed Mrs. Farrell with heat. "And
+when you get it there, I hope you'll SINK it!"
+
+"Maybe your friends would come and visit You," suggested Farrell,
+I thought, a trifle wistfully. "There's bathing, tennis, eight...
+bedrooms, billiard-room, art gallery----"
+
+"You told him that!" said Mrs. Farrell.
+
+I was greatly at a loss. Their offer was preposterous, but to them,
+it was apparently a perfectly possible arrangement. Nor were they
+acting on impulse. Mrs. Farrell had admitted that for six months
+she had had me "trailed." How to say "No" and not give offense, I
+found difficult. They were deeply in earnest and I could see that
+Farrell, at least, was by instinct generous, human, and kind. It
+was, in fact, a most generous offer. But how was I to tell them
+tactfully I was not for sale, that I was not looking for
+"ready-to-wear" parents, and that if I were in the market, they
+were not the parents I would choose. I had a picture of life at
+Harbor Castle, dependent upon the charity of the Farrells. I
+imagined what my friends would say to me, and worse, what they
+would say behind my back. But I was not forced to a refusal.
+
+Mr. Farrell rose.
+
+"We don't want to hurry you," he said. "We want you to think it
+over. Maybe if we get acquainted----"
+
+Mrs. Farrell smiled upon me ingratiatingly.
+
+"Why don't we get acquainted now?" she demanded. "We're motoring
+down to Cape May to stay three weeks. Why don't you come along--as
+our guest--and see how you like us?"
+
+I assured them, almost too hastily, that already was deeply
+engaged.
+
+As they departed, Farrell again admonished me to think it over.
+
+"And look me up at Dun's and Bradstreet's," he advised. "Ask 'em
+about me at the Waldorf. Ask the head waiters and bellhops if I
+look twice at a five spot!"
+
+It seemed an odd way to select a father, but I promised.
+
+I escorted them even to the sidewalk, and not without envy watched
+them sweep toward the Waldorf in the High Flyer, 1915 model. I
+caught myself deciding, were it mine, I would paint it gray.
+
+I was lunching at the Ritz with Curtis Spencer, and I looked
+forward to the delight he would take in my story of the Farrells.
+He would probably want to write it. He was my junior, but my great
+friend; and as a novelist his popularity was where five years
+earlier mine had been. But he belonged to the new school. His
+novels smelled like a beauty parlor; and his heroines, while always
+beautiful, were, on occasions, virtuous, but only when they thought
+it would pay.
+
+Spencer himself was as modern as his novels, and I was confident
+his view of my adventure would be that of the great world which he
+described so accurately.
+
+But to my amazement when I had finished he savagely attacked me.
+
+"You idiot!" he roared. "Are you trying to tell me you refused five
+million dollars-- just because you didn't like the people who
+wanted to force it on you? Where," he demanded, "is Cape May? We'll
+follow them now! We'll close this deal before they can change their
+minds. I'll make you sign to-night. And, then," he continued
+eagerly, "we'll take their yacht and escape to Newport, and you'll
+lend me five thousand dollars, and pay my debts, and give me back
+the ten you borrowed. And you might buy me a touring-car and some
+polo ponies and--and--oh, lots of things. I'll think of them as we
+go along. Meanwhile, I can't afford to give luncheons to
+millionaires, so you sign for this one; and then we'll start for
+Cape May."
+
+"Are you mad?" I demanded; "do you think I'd sell my honor!"
+
+"For five million dollars?" cried Spencer. "Don't make me laugh! If
+they want a REAL novelist for a son they can adopt me!"
+
+I replied with dignity that I would not disgrace the memory of my
+parents.
+
+"You have disgraced them!" retorted Spencer, "with your Musketeer
+novels for infants. You need money. To get it you may be tempted to
+write more novels. Here's your chance! Stop robbing the public, and
+lead an honest life. Think of all the money you could give to the
+poor, think of all the money you and I could lose at Monte Carlo!"
+
+When he found I would not charter an auto-mobile and at once pursue
+the Farrells he changed his tactics. If I would not go to Cape May,
+then, he begged, I would go to Fairharbor. He asked that I would,
+at least, find out what I was refusing. Before making their offer,
+for six months, the Farrells had had me "looked up, " but, without
+knowing anything of them, after a talk of ten minutes I had turned
+them down. "Was that," he asked, "intelligent? Was it fair to the
+Farrells?" He continued to tempt me.
+
+"They told you to think it over," he persisted. "Very well, then,
+think it over at Fairharbor! For the next three weeks the Farrells
+will be at Cape May. The coast is clear. Go to Fairharbor as
+somebody else and be your own detective. Find out if what they tell
+you is true. Get inside information. Get inside Harbor Castle.
+Count the eighteen bedrooms and try the beds. Never mind the art
+gallery, but make sure there is a wine cellar.
+
+You can't start too soon, and I WILL GO WITH YOU!"
+
+I told him where he could go.
+
+We then tossed to see who should pay for the lunch and who should
+tip the head waiter. I lost and had to tip the head waiter. We
+separated, and as I walked down the Avenue, it seemed as though to
+the proprietor of every shop I passed I owed money. Owing them the
+money I did not so much mind; what most distressed me was that they
+were so polite about it. I had always wanted to reward their
+patience. A favorite dream of mine was to be able to walk down
+Fifth Avenue, my pockets stuffed with yellow bills, paying off my
+debts. Compared with my steadily decreasing income, how enormous my
+debts appeared; but when compared with the income of a man worth--
+say-five million dollars, how ridiculous! I had no more than
+reached my apartment, than a messenger-boy arrived with an
+envelope. It contained a ticket for a round trip on the New Bedford
+Line boat leaving that afternoon, a ticket for a stateroom, and a
+note from Curtis Spencer. The latter read: "The boat leaves at six
+to-night. You arrive at New Bedford seven to-morrow morning. New
+Bedford and Fairharbor are connected by a bridge. CROSS IT!"
+
+I tore the note in tiny fragments, and tossed them through the open
+window. I was exceedingly angry. As I stood at the window adding to
+the name of Curtis Spencer insulting aliases, the street below sent
+up hot, stifling odors: the smoke of taxicabs, the gases of an open
+subway, the stale reek of thousands of perspiring, unwashed bodies.
+From that one side street seemed to rise the heat and smells of all
+New York. For relief I turned to my work-table where lay the
+opening chapters of my new novel, "The White Plume of Savoy." But
+now, in the light of Spencer's open scorn, I saw it was impudently
+false, childish, sentimental. My head ached, the humidity sapped my
+strength, at heart I felt sick, sore, discouraged. I was down and
+out. And seeing this, Temptation, like an obsequious floorwalker,
+came hurrying forward.
+
+"And what may I show you to-day?" asked Temptation. He showed me
+the upper deck of the New Bedford boat feeling her way between the
+green banks of the Sound. A cool wind swept past me bearing clean,
+salty odors; on the saloon deck a band played, and from the
+darkness the lighthouses winked at me, and in friendly greeting the
+stars smiled. Temptation won. In five minutes I was feverishly
+packing, and at five-thirty I was on board. I assured myself I had
+not listened to Temptation, that I had no interest in Fairharbor.
+was taking the trip solely because it would give me a night's sleep
+on the Sound. I promised myself that on the morrow I would not even
+LOOK toward Harbor Castle; but on the evening following on the same
+boat, return to New York. Temptation did not stop to argue, but
+hastened after another victim.
+
+I turned in at nine o'clock and the coolness, and the salt air,
+blessed me with the first sleep I had known in weeks. And when I
+woke we were made fast to the company's wharf at New Bedford, and
+the sun was well up. I rose refreshed in body and spirit. No longer
+was I discouraged. Even "The White Plume of Savoy" seemed a
+perfectly good tale of romance and adventure. And the Farrells were
+a joke. Even if I were at Fairlharbor, I was there only on a lark,
+and at the expense of Curtis Spencer, who had paid for the tickets.
+Distinctly the joke was on Curtis Spencer. I lowered the window
+screen, and looked across the harbor. It was a beautiful harbor. At
+ancient stone wharfs Jay ancient whalers with drooping davits and
+squared yards, at anchor white-breasted yachts flashed in the sun,
+a gray man-of-war's man flaunted the week's laundry, a four-masted
+schooner dried her canvas, and over the smiling surface of the
+harbor innumerable fishing boats darted. With delight I sniffed the
+odors of salt water, sun-dried herring, of oakum and tar. The shore
+opposite was a graceful promontory crowned with trees and decorous
+gray-shingled cottages set in tiny gardens that reached to the very
+edge of the harbor. The second officer was passing my window and I
+asked what the promontory was called.
+
+"Fairharbor," he said. He answered with such proprietary pride and
+smiled upon Fairharbor with such approval that I ventured to guess
+it was his home.
+
+"That's right," he said; "I used to live at the New York end of the
+run-in a flat. But never again! No place for the boy to play but in
+the street. I found I could rent one of those old cottages over
+there for the same money I paid for the flat. So I cut out New
+York. My boy lives in a bathing suit now, and he can handle a
+catboat same as me. We have a kitchen garden, and hens, and the
+fishermen here will give you all the fish you can carry away--fish
+right out of the water. I guess I've smashed the high cost of
+living problem all right. I wouldn't go back to living in New York
+now--not if they gave me the PILGRIM.
+
+As though trying to prod my memory, I frowned. It was my conception
+of the part of a detective. "Hasn't Fletcher Farrell," I asked, "a
+house in Fairharbor?"
+
+"Harbor Castle," said the mate promptly. "It's on the other side of
+the point I'd as soon live in a jail!"
+
+"Why?" I exclaimed.
+
+But he was no longer listening. He pointed at the shore opposite.
+
+"See that flag running up the staff in that garden?" he cried.
+"'That's my boy signalling. I got to get to the boat deck and wave
+back!"
+
+I felt as a detective. I had acquired important information. The
+mate, a man of judgment, preferred Fairharbor to New York. Also, to
+living in Harbor Castle, he preferred going to jail.
+
+The boat on which I had arrived was listed to start back at six the
+same evening on her return trip to New York. So, at the office of
+the line I checked my valise, and set forth to explore New Bedford.
+
+The whaling vessels moored to a nearby wharf, I inspected from
+hatches to keels, and by those on board was directed to a warehouse
+where were stored harpoons, whalebone, and wooden figure-heads. My
+pleasure in these led to my being passed on to a row of "antique"
+shops filled with relics of the days of whaling and also with
+genuine pie-crust tables, genuine flint-lock muskets, genuine
+Liverpool pitchers. I coveted especially old-time engravings of the
+whalers, and was told at Hatchardson's book-store on the main
+street others could be found in profusion.
+
+Hatchardson's proved to be a place of great delight. As you entered
+there were counters for magazines and post-cards, popular music,
+and best-selling novels, while in the rear of the shop tables and
+shelves were stocked with ancient volumes, and on the wall
+surrounding them hung engravings, prints and woodcuts of even the
+eighteenth century. Just as the drugstore on the corner seemed to
+be a waiting station for those of New Bedford who used the
+trolley-cars, so for those who moved in automobiles, or still clung
+to the family carriage, Hatchardson's appeared to be less a shop
+than a public meeting-place. I noticed that the clerks, most of
+whom were women, were with the customers on a most friendly
+footing, addressing them, and by them being addressed by name.
+Finding I was free to wander where I pleased, I walked to the rear
+of the shop and from one of the tables picked up a much-worn
+volume. It was entitled "The Log of the JOLLY POLLY, and was
+illustrated with wood cuts showing square- rigged ships and whales
+Spouting. For five minutes, lost to my Surroundings, I turned the
+pages; and then became conscious that across the table some one was
+watching me. I raised my eyes and beheld a face of most surprising
+charm, intelligence and beauty. It was so lovely that it made me
+wince. The face was the fortune, and judging from the fact that in
+her hand she held a salesbook, the sole fortune, of a tall young
+girl who apparently had approached to wait on me. She was looking
+toward the street, so that, with the book- shelves for a
+back-ground, her face was in profile, and I determined swiftly that
+if she were to wait on me she would be kept waiting as long as my
+money lasted. I did not want "The Log of the JOLLY POLLY," but I
+did want to hear the lovely lady speak, and especially I desired
+that the one to whom she spoke should be myself.
+
+"What is the price of this?" I asked. With magnificent self-
+control I kept my eyes on the book, but the lovely lady was so long
+silent that I raised them. To my surprise, I found on her face an
+expression of alarm and distress. With reluctance, and yet within
+her voice a certain hopefulness, she said, "Fifty dollars."
+
+Fifty dollars was a death blow. I had planned to keep the young
+lady selling books throughout the entire morning, but at fifty
+dollars a book, I would soon be owing her money. I attempted to
+gain time.
+
+"It must be very rare!" I said. I was afraid to look at her lest my
+admiration should give offense, so I pretended to admire the book.
+
+"It is the only one in existence," said the young lady. "At least,
+it is the only one for sale! "
+
+We were interrupted by the approach of a tall man who, from his
+playing the polite host and from his not wearing a hat, I guessed
+was Mr. Hatchardson himself. He looked from the book in my hand to
+the lovely lady and said smiling, "Have you lost it?"
+
+The girl did not smile. To her, apparently, it was no laughing
+matter. "I don't know--yet," she said. Her voice was charming, and
+genuinely troubled.
+
+Mr. Hatchardson, for later I learned it was he, took the book and
+showed me the title-page.
+
+"This was privately printed in 1830," he said, "by Captain Noah
+Briggs. He distributed a hundred presentation copies among his
+family and friends here in New Bedford. It is a most interesting
+volume."
+
+I did not find it so. For even as he spoke the young girl, still
+with a troubled countenance, glided away. Inwardly I cursed Captain
+Briggs and associated with him in my curse the polite Mr.
+Hatchardson. But, at his next words my interest returned. Still
+smiling, he lowered his voice.
+
+"Miss Briggs, the young lady who just left us," he said, is the
+granddaughter of Captain Briggs, and she does not want the book to
+go out of the family; she wants it for herself." I interrupted
+eagerly.
+
+"But it is for sale?" Mr. Hatchardson reluctantly assented.
+
+"Then I will take it," I said.
+
+Fifty dollars is a great deal of money, but the face of the young
+lady had been very sad. Besides being sad, had it been aged, plain,
+and ill-tempered, that I still would have bought the book, is a
+question I have never determined.
+
+To Mr. Hatchardson, of my purpose to give the book to Miss Briggs,
+I said nothing. Instead I planned to send it to her anonymously by
+mail. She would receive it the next morning when I was arriving in
+New York, and, as she did not know my name, she could not possibly
+return it. At the post-office I addressed the "Log" to "Miss
+Briggs, care of Hatchardson's Bookstore," and then I returned to
+the store. I felt I had earned that pleasure. This time, Miss
+Briggs was in charge of the post-card counter, and as now a
+post-card was the only thing I could afford to buy, at seeing her
+there I was doubly pleased. But she was not pleased to see me.
+Evidently Mr. Hatchardson had told her I had purchased the "Log"
+and at her loss her very lovely face still showed disappointment.
+Toward me her manner was distinctly aggrieved.
+
+But of the "Log" I said nothing, and began recklessly purchasing
+post-cards that pictured the show places of New Bedford. Almost the
+first one I picked up was labelled "Harbor Castle. Residence of
+Fletcher Farrell." I need not say that I studied it intently.
+According to the post-card, Harbor Castle stood on a rocky point
+with water on both sides. It was an enormous, wide-spreading
+structure, as large as a fort. It exuded prosperity, opulence,
+extravagance, great wealth. I felt suddenly a filial impulse to
+visit the home of my would-be forefathers.
+
+"Is this place near here?" I asked.
+
+Miss Briggs told me that in order to reach it I should take the
+ferry to Fairbarbor, and then cross that town to the Buzzards Bay
+side.
+
+"You can't miss it," she said. "It's a big stone house, with red
+and white awnings. If you see anything like a jail in ruffles,
+that's it."
+
+It was evident that with the home I had rejected Miss Briggs was
+unimpressed; but seeing me add the post-card to my collection, she
+offered me another.
+
+"This," she explained, "is Harbor Castle from the bay. That is
+their yacht in the foreground."
+
+The post-card showed a very beautiful yacht of not less than two
+thousand tons. Beneath it was printed "HARBOR LIGHTS; steam yacht
+owned by Fletcher Farrell." I always had dreamed of owning a steam
+yacht, and seeing it stated in cold type that one was owned by
+"Fletcher Farrell," even though I was not that Fletcher Farrell,
+gave me a thrill of guilty pleasure. I gazed upon the post-card
+with envy.
+
+"HARBOR LIGHTS is a strange name for a yacht," I ventured. Miss
+Briggs smiled.
+
+"Not for that yacht," she said. "She never leaves it."
+
+I wished to learn more of my would-be parents, and I wished to keep
+on talking with the lovely Miss Briggs, so, as an excuse for both,
+I pretended I was interested in the Farrells because I had
+something I wanted to sell them.
+
+"This Fletcher Farrell must be very rich," I said. " I wonder," I
+asked, "if I could sell him an automobile?" The moment I spoke I
+noticed that the manner of Miss Briggs toward Me perceptibly
+softened. Perhaps, from my buying offhand a fifty-dollar book she
+had thought me one of the rich, and had begun to suspect I was
+keeping her waiting on me only because I found her extremely easy
+to look at. Many times before, in a similar manner, other youths
+must have imposed upon her, and perhaps, also, in concealing my
+admiration, I had not entirely succeeded.
+
+But, when she believed that, like herself, I was working for my
+living, she became more human.
+
+"What car are you selling?" she asked. "I am TRYING to sell," I
+corrected her, "the Blue Bird, six cylinder."
+
+"I never heard of it," said Miss Briggs.
+
+"Nor has any one else," I answered, with truth. "That is one reason
+why I can't sell it. I arrived here this morning, and," I added
+with pathos, "I haven't sold a car yet!"
+
+Miss Briggs raised her beautiful eyebrows skeptically. "Have you
+tried?" she said.
+
+A brilliant idea came to me. In a side street I had passed a garage
+where Photaix cars were advertised for hire. I owned a Phoenix, and
+I thought I saw a way by which, for a happy hour, I might secure
+the society of Miss Briggs.
+
+"I am an agent and demonstrator for the Phoenix also," I said
+glibly; "maybe I could show you one?"
+
+"Show me one?" exclaimed Miss Briggs. "One sees them everywhere!
+They are always under your feet!"
+
+"I mean," I explained, "might I take you for a drive in one?"
+
+It was as though I had completely vanished. So far as the lovely
+Miss Briggs was concerned I had ceased to exist. She turned toward
+a nice old lady.
+
+"What can I show you, Mrs. Scudder?" she asked cheerily; "and how
+is that wonderful baby? "
+
+I felt as though I had been lifted by the collar, thrown out upon
+a hard sidewalk, and my hat tossed after me. Greatly shaken, and
+mentally brushing the dust from my hands and knees, I hastened to
+the ferry and crossed to Fairharbor. I was extremely angry. By an
+utter stranger I had been misjudged, snubbed and cast into outer
+darkness. For myself I readily found excuses. If a young woman was
+so attractive that at the first sight of her men could not resist
+buying her fifty-dollar books and hiring automobiles in which to
+take her driving, the fault was hers. I assured myself that girls
+as lovely as Miss Briggs were a menace to the public. They should
+not be at large. An ordinance should require them to go masked. For
+Miss Briggs also I was able to make excuses. Why should she not
+protect herself from the advances of strange young men? If a
+popular novelist, and especially an ex-popular one, chose to go
+about disguised as a drummer for the Blue Bird automobile and
+behaved as such, and was treated as such, what right had he to
+complain? So I persuaded myself I had been punished as I deserved.
+But to salve my injured pride I assured myself also that any one
+who read my novels ought to know my attitude toward any lovely lady
+could be only respectful, protecting, and chivalrous. But with this
+consoling thought the trouble was that nobody read my novels.
+
+In finding Harbor Castle I had no difficulty. It stood upon a rocky
+point that jutted into Buzzards Bay. Five acres of artificial lawn
+and flower-beds of the cemetery and railroad- station school of
+horticulture surrounded it, and from the highroad it was protected
+by a stone wall so low that to the passerby, of the beauties of
+Harbor Castle nothing was left to the imagination. Over this wall
+roses under conflicting banners of pink and red fought fiercely.
+One could almost hear the shrieks of the wounded. Upon the least
+thorny of these I seated myself and in tender melancholy gazed upon
+the home of my childhood. That is, upon the home that might-have-
+been.
+
+When surveying a completed country home, to make the owner
+thoroughly incensed the correct thing to say is, "This place has
+great possibilities!"
+
+Harbor Castle had more possibilities than any other castle I ever
+visited. But in five minutes I had altered it to suit myself. I had
+ploughed up the flower-beds, dug a sunken garden, planted a wind
+screen of fir, spruce, and Pine, and with a huge brick wall secured
+warmth and privacy. So pleased was I with my changes, that when I
+departed I was sad and downcast. The boat-house of which Mrs.
+Farrell had spoken was certainly an ideal work-shop, the
+tennis-courts made those at the Newport Casino look like a ploughed
+field, and the swimming-pool, guarded by white pillars and overhung
+with grape-vines, was a cool and refreshing picture. As, hot and
+perspiring, I trudged back through Fairharbor, the memory of these
+haunted me. That they also tempted me, it is impossible to deny.
+But not for long. For, after passing through the elm-shaded streets
+to that side of the village that faced the harbor, I came upon the
+cottages I had seen from the New Bedford shore. At close range they
+appeared even more attractive than when pointed out to me by the
+mate of the steamboat. They were very old, very weather-stained and
+covered with honeysuckle. Flat stones in a setting of grass led
+from the gates to the arched doorways, hollyhocks rose above hedges
+of box, and from the verandas one could look out upon the busy
+harbor and the houses of New Bedford rising in steps up the sloping
+hills to a sky-line of tree-tops and church spires. The mate had
+told me that for what he had rented a flat in New York he had
+secured one of these charming old world homes. And as I passed them
+I began to pick out the one in which when I retired from the world
+I would settle down. This time I made no alterations. How much the
+near presence of Miss Briggs had to do with my determination to
+settle down in Fairharbor, I cannot now remember. But, certainly as
+I crossed the bridge toward New Bedford, thoughts of her entirely
+filled my mind. I assured my self this was so only because she was
+beautiful. I was sure her outward loveliness advertised a nature
+equally lovely, but for my sudden and extreme interest I had other
+excuses. Her in dependence in earning her living, her choice in
+earning it among books and pictures, her pride of family as shown
+by her efforts to buy the family heirloom, all these justified my
+admiration. And her refusing to go joy-riding with an impertinent
+stranger, even though the impertinent stranger was myself, was an
+act I applauded. The more I thought of Miss Briggs the more was I
+disinclined to go away leaving with her an impression of myself so
+unpleasant as the one she then held. I determined to remove it. At
+least, until I had redeemed myself, I would remain in New Bedford.
+The determination gave me the greatest satisfaction. With a light
+heart I returned to the office of the steamboat line and retrieving
+my suit-case started with it toward the Parker House. It was now
+past five o'clock, the stores were closed, and all the people who
+had not gone to the baseball game with Fall River were in the
+streets. In consequence, as I was passing the post-office, Miss
+Briggs came down the steps, and we were face to face.
+
+In her lovely eyes was an expression of mingled doubt and
+indignation and in her hand freshly torn from the papers in which
+I had wrapped it, was "The Log of the JOLLY POLLY." In action Miss
+Briggs was as direct as a submarine. At sight of me she attacked.
+"Did you send me this?" she asked.
+
+I lowered my bag to the sidewalk and prepared for battle. "I didn't
+think of your going to the post-office," I said. "I planned you'd
+get it to-morrow after I'd left. When I sent it, I thought I would
+never see you again."
+
+"Then you did send it!" exclaimed Miss Briggs. As though the book
+were a hot plate she dropped it into my hand. She looked straight
+at me, but her expression suggested she was removing a caterpillar
+from her pet rosebush.
+
+"You had no right," she said. "You may not have meant to be
+impertinent, but you were!"
+
+Again, as though I had disappeared from the face of the earth, Miss
+Briggs gazed coldly about her, and with dignity started to cross
+the street. Her dignity was so great that she glanced neither to
+the left nor right. In consequence she did not see an automobile
+that swung recklessly around a trolley-car and dived at her. But
+other people saw it and shrieked. I also shrieked, and dropping the
+suit-case and the "Log," jumped into the street, grabbed Miss
+Briggs by both arms, and flung her back to the sidewalk. That left
+me where she had been, and the car caught me up and slammed me head
+first against a telegraph pole. The pole was hard, and if any one
+counted me out I did not stay awake to hear him. When I came to I
+was conscious that I was lying on a sidewalk; but to open my eyes,
+I was much too tired. A voice was saying, "Do you know who he is,
+Miss?"
+
+The voice that replied was the voice of the lovely Miss Briggs. But
+now I hardly recognized it. It was full of distress, of tenderness
+and pity.
+
+"No, I don't know him," it stammered. "He's a salesman--he was in
+the store this morning--he's selling motor-cars." The first voice
+laughed.
+
+"Motor-cars!" he exclaimed. "That's why he ain't scared of 'em. He
+certainly saved you from that one! I seen him, Miss Briggs, and he
+most certainly saved your life!"
+
+In response to this astonishing statement I was delighted to hear
+a well-trained male chorus exclaim in assent.
+
+The voices differed; some spoke in the accents of Harvard, pure and
+undefiled, some in a "down East" dialect, others suggested Italian
+peanut venders and Portuguese sailors, but all agreed that the life
+of Miss Briggs had been saved by myself. I had intended coming to,
+but on hearing the chorus working so harmoniously I decided I had
+better continue unconscious.
+
+Then a new voice said importantly: "The marks on his suitcase are
+'F. F., New York."
+
+I appreciated instantly that to be identified as Fletcher Farrell
+meant humiliation and disaster. The other Fletcher Farrells would
+soon return to New Bedford. They would learn that in their absence
+I had been spying upon the home I had haughtily rejected. Besides,
+one of the chorus might remember that three years back Fletcher
+Farrell had been a popular novelist and might recognize me, and
+Miss Briggs would discover I was not an automobile agent and that
+I had lied to her. I saw that I must continue to lie to her. I
+thought of names beginning with " F," and selected " Frederick
+Fitzgibbon." To christen yourself while your eyes are shut and your
+head rests on a curb-stone is not easy, and later I was sorry I had
+not called myself Fairchild as being more aristocratic. But then it
+was too late. As Fitzgibbon I had come back to life, and as
+Fitzgibbon I must remain.
+
+When I opened my eyes I found the first voice belonged to a
+policeman who helped me to my feet and held in check the male
+chorus. The object of each was to lead me to a drink. But instead
+I turned dizzily to Miss Briggs. She was holding my hat and she
+handed it to me. Her lovely eyes were filled with relief and her
+charming voice with remorse.
+
+"I--I can't possibly thank you," she stammered. "Are you badly
+hurt?"
+
+I felt I had never listened to words so original and well chosen.
+In comparison, the brilliant and graceful speeches I had placed on
+the lips of my heroines became flat and unconvincing,
+
+I assured her I was not at all hurt and endeavored, jauntily, to
+replace my hat. But where my head had hit the telegraph pole a
+large bump had risen which made my hat too small. So I hung it on
+the bump. It gave me a rakish air. One of the chorus returned my
+bag and another the "Log." Not wishing to remind Miss Briggs of my
+past impertinences; I guiltily concealed it.
+
+Then the policeman asked my name and I gave the one I had just
+invented, and inquired my way to the Parker House. Half the chorus
+volunteered to act as my escort, and as I departed, I stole a last
+look at Miss Briggs. She and the policeman were taking down the
+pedigree of the chauffeur of the car that had hit me. He was trying
+to persuade them he was not intoxicated, and with each speech was
+furnishing evidence to the contrary.
+
+After I had given a cold bath to the bump on my head and to the
+rest of my body which for the moment seemed the lesser of the two,
+I got into dry things and seated myself on the veranda of the
+hotel. With a cigar to soothe my jangling nerves, I considered the
+position of Miss Briggs and myself. I was happy in believing it had
+improved. On the morrow there was no law to prevent me from
+visiting Hatchardson's Bookstore, and in view of what had happened
+since last I left it, I had reason to hope Miss Briggs would
+receive me more, kindly. Of the correctness of this diagnosis I was
+at once assured. In front of the hotel a district messenger-boy
+fell off his bicycle and with unerring instinct picked me out as
+Mr. Fitzgibbon of New York. The note he carried was from Miss
+Briggs. It stated that in the presence of so many people it had
+been impossible for her to thank me as she wished for the service
+I had rendered her, and that Mrs. Cutler, with whom she boarded,
+and herself, would be glad if after supper I would call upon them.
+I gave the messenger-boy enough gold to enable him to buy a new
+bicycle and in my room executed a dance symbolizing joy. I then
+kicked my suit-case under the bed. I would not soon need it. Now
+that Miss Briggs had forgiven me, I was determined to live and die
+in New Bedford.
+
+The home of Mrs. Cutler, where Miss Briggs lodged and boarded, was
+in a side street of respectable and distinguished antiquity. The
+street itself was arched with the branches of giant elms, and each
+house was an island surrounded by grass, and over the porches
+climbed roses. It was too warm to remain indoors, so we sat on the
+steps of the porch, and through the leaves of the elms the electric
+light globe served us as a moon. For an automobile salesman I was
+very shy, very humble.
+
+Twice before I had given offense and I was determined if it lay
+with me, it would not happen again. I did not hope to interest Miss
+Briggs in myself, nor did I let it appear how tremendously I was
+interested in her. For the moment I was only a stranger in a
+strange land making a social call. I asked Miss Briggs about New
+Bedford and the whaling, about the books she sold, and the books
+she liked. It was she who talked. When I found we looked at things
+in the same way and that the same things gave us pleasure I did not
+comment on that astonishing fact, but as an asset more precious
+than gold, stored it away. When I returned to the hotel I found
+that concerning Miss Briggs I had made important discoveries. I had
+learned that her name was Polly, that the JOLLY POLLY had been
+christened after her grandmother, that she was an orphan, that
+there were relatives with whom she did not "hit it off," that she
+was very well read, possessed of a most charming sense of humor,
+and that I found her the most attractive girl I had ever met.
+
+The next morning I awoke in an exalted frame of mind. I was in love
+with life, with New Bedford, and with Polly Briggs. I had been in
+love before but never with a young lady who worked in a shop, and
+I found that loving a lady so occupied gives one a tremendous
+advantage. For when you call she must always be at home, nor can
+she plead another engagement. So, before noon, knowing she could
+not deny herself, I was again at Hatchardson's, purchasing more
+postal-cards. But Miss Briggs was not deceived. Nor apparently was
+any one else. The BEDFORD MERCURY had told how, the previous
+evening, Frederick Fitzgibbon, an automobile salesman from New
+York, had been knocked out by an automobile while saving Miss Polly
+Briggs from a similar fate; and Mr. Hatchardson and all the old
+ladies who were in the bookstore making purchases congratulated me.
+It was evident that in Miss Briggs they took much more than a
+perfunctory interest. They were very fond of her. She was an
+institution; and I could see that as such to visitors she would be
+pointed out with pride, as was the new bronze statue of the
+Whaleman in Court House Square. Nor did they cease discussing her
+until they had made it quite clear to me that in being knocked out
+in her service I was a very lucky man. I did not need to be told
+that, especially as I noted that Miss Briggs was anxious lest I
+should not be properly modest. Indeed, her wish that in the eyes of
+the old ladies I should appear to advantage was so evident, and her
+interest in me so proprietary, that I was far from unhappy.
+
+The afternoon I spent in Fairharbor. From a real estate agent I
+obtained keys to those cottages on the water-front that were for
+rent, and I busied myself exploring them. The one I most liked I
+pretended I had rented, and I imagined myself at work among the
+flower-beds, or with my telescope scanning the shipping in the
+harbor, or at night seated in front of the open fire watching the
+green and blue flames of the driftwood. Later, irresolutely, I
+wandered across town to Harbor Castle, this time walking entirely
+around it and coming upon a sign that read, "Visitors Welcome. Do
+not pick the flowers."
+
+Assuring myself that I was moved only by curiosity, I accepted the
+invitation, nor, though it would greatly have helped the appearance
+of the cemetery-like beds, did I pick the flowers. On a closer view
+Harbor Castle certainly possessed features calculated to make an
+impecunious author Stop, look, and listen. I pictured it peopled
+with my friends. I saw them at the long mahogany table of which
+through the French window I got a glimpse, or dancing in the
+music-room, or lounging on the wicker chairs on the sweeping
+verandas. I could see them in flannels at tennis, in bathing- suits
+diving from the spring-board of the swimming pool, departing on
+excursions in the motor-cars that at the moment in front of the
+garage were being sponged and polished, so that they flashed like
+mirrors. And I thought also of the two-thousand-ton yacht and to
+what far countries, to what wonderful adventures it might carry me.
+
+But all of these pictures lacked one feature. In none of them did
+Polly Briggs appear. For, as I very well knew, that was something
+the ambitions of Mrs. Farrell would not permit. That lady wanted me
+as a son only because she thought I was a social asset. By the same
+reasoning, as a daughter-in-law, she would not want a shop-girl,
+especially not one who as a shop-girl was known to all New Bedford.
+My mood as I turned my back upon the golden glories of Harbor
+Castle and walked to New Bedford was thoughtful.
+
+I had telegraphed my servant to bring me more clothes and my
+Phoenix car; and as I did not want him inquiring for Fletcher
+Farrell had directed him to come by boat to Fall River.
+Accordingly, the next morning, I took the trolley to that city, met
+him at the wharf, and sent him back to New York. I gave him a check
+with instructions to have it cashed in that city and to send the
+money, and my mail, to Frederick Fitzgibbon. This ALIAS I explained
+to him by saying I was gathering material for an article to prove
+one could live on fifty cents a day. He was greatly relieved to
+learn I did not need a valet to help me prove it.
+
+I returned driving the Phoenix to New Bedford, and as it was a
+Saturday, when the store closed at noon, I had the ineffable
+delight of taking Polly Briggs for a drive. As chaperons she
+invited two young friends of hers named Lowell. They had been but
+very lately married, and regarded me no more than a chauffeur they
+had hired by the hour. This left Polly who was beside me on the
+front seat, and myself, to our own devices. Our devices were
+innocent enough. They consisted in conveying the self-centred
+Lowells so far from home that they could not get back for supper
+and were so forced to dine with me. Polly, for as Polly I now
+thought of her, discovered the place. It was an inn, on the edge of
+a lake with an Indian name. We did not get home until late, but it
+had been such a successful party that before we separated we
+planned another journey for the morrow. That one led to the Cape by
+way of Bourne and Wood's Hole, and back again to the North Shore to
+Barnstable, where we lunched. It was a grand day and the first of
+others just as happy. After that every afternoon when the store
+closed I picked up the Lowells; and then Polly, and we sought
+adventures. Sometimes we journeyed no farther than the baseball
+park, but as a rule I drove them to some inn for dinner, where
+later, if there were music, we danced, if not, we returned slowly
+through the pine woods and so home by the longest possible route.
+The next Saturday I invited them to Boston. We started early, dined
+at the Touraine and went on to a musical comedy, where I had
+reserved seats in the front row. This nearly led to my undoing.
+Late in the first act a very merry party of young people who had
+come up from Newport and Narragansett to the Coates-Islip wedding
+filled the stage boxes and at sight of me began to wave and beckon.
+They were so insistent that between the acts I thought it safer to
+visit them. They wanted to know why I had not appeared at the
+wedding, and who was the beautiful girl.
+
+The next morning on our return trip to New Bedford Polly said, "I
+read in the papers this morning that those girls in that theatre
+party last night were the bridesmaids at the Coates-Islip wedding.
+They seemed to know you quite well.
+
+I explained that in selling automobiles one became acquainted with
+many people.
+
+Polly shook her head and laughed. Then she turned and looked at me.
+
+"You never sold an automobile in your life," she said.
+
+With difficulty I kept my eyes on the road; but I protested
+vigorously.
+
+"Don't think I have been spying," said Polly; "I found you out
+quite by accident. Yesterday a young man I know asked me to
+persuade you to turn in your Phoenix and let him sell you one of
+the new model. I said you yourself were the agent for the Phoenix,
+and he said that, on the contrary, HE was, and that you had no
+right to sell the car in his TERRITORY." I grinned guiltily and
+said:
+
+Well, I HAVEN'T sold any, have I?"
+
+That is not the point," protested Polly. "What was your reason for
+telling me you were trying to earn a living selling automobiles?"
+
+"So that I could take you driving in one," I answered.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Polly.
+
+There was a pause during which in much inward trepidation I avoided
+meeting her eyes. Then Polly added thoughtfully, "I think that was
+a very good reason."
+
+In our many talks the name of the Fletcher Farrells had never been
+mentioned. I had been most careful to avoid it. As each day passed,
+and their return imminent, and in consequence my need to fly grew
+more near, and the name was still unspoken, I was proportionately
+grateful. But when the name did come up I had reason to be pleased,
+for Polly spoke it with approval, and it was not of the owner of
+Harbor Castle she was speaking, but of myself. It was one evening
+about two weeks after we had met, and I had side-stepped the
+Lowells and was motoring with Polly alone. We were talking of our
+favorite authors, dead and alive.
+
+"You may laugh," said Polly, and she said it defiantly, "and I
+don't know whether you would call him among the dead or the living,
+but I am very fond of Fletcher Farrell!"
+
+My heart leaped. I was so rattled that I nearly ran the car into a
+stone wall. I thought I was discovered and that Polly was playing
+with me. But her next words showed that she was innocent. She did
+not know that the man to whom she was talking and of whom she was
+talking were the same. "Of course you will say," she went on, "that
+he is too romantic, that he is not true to life. But I never lived
+in the seventeenth century, so I don't know whether he is true to
+life or not. And I like romance. The life I lead in the store gives
+me all the reality I want. I like to read about brave men and great
+and gracious ladies."
+
+I never met any girls like those Farrell write about, but it's nice
+to think they exist. I wish I were like them. And, his men,
+too--they make love better than any other man I ever read about."
+
+"Better than I do?" I asked.
+
+Polly gazed at the sky, frowning severely. After a pause, and as
+though she had dropped my remark into the road and the wheels had
+crushed it, she said, coldly, "Talking about books----"
+
+"No," I corrected, "we were talking about Fletcher Farrell."
+
+"Then," said Polly with some asperity, "don't change the subject.
+Do you know," she went on hurriedly, "that you look like him --like
+the pictures of him--as he was."
+
+"Heavens!" I exclaimed, "the man's not dead!"
+
+"You know what I mean," protested Polly. "As he was before he
+stopped writing."
+
+"Nor has he stopped writing," I objected; "his books have stopped
+selling." Polly turned upon me eagerly.
+
+"Do you know him?" she demanded. I answered with caution that I had
+met him.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, "tell me about him!"
+
+I was extremely embarrassed. It was a bad place. About myself I
+could not say anything pleasant, and behind my back, as it were, I
+certainly was not going to say anything unpleasant. But Polly
+relieved me of the necessity of saying anything.
+
+"I don't know any man," she exclaimed fervently, "I would so like
+to meet!"
+
+It seemed to me that after that the less I said the better. So I
+told her something was wrong with the engine and by the time I had
+pretended to fix it, I had led the conversation away from Fletcher
+Farrell as a novelist to myself as a chauffeur.
+
+The next morning at the hotel, temptation was again waiting for me.
+This time it came in the form of a letter from my prospective
+father-in-law. It had been sent from Cape May to my address in New
+York, and by my servant forwarded in an envelope addressed to
+Frederick Fitzgibbon."
+
+It was what in the world of commerce is called a "follow-up"
+letter. It recalled the terms of his offer to me, and improved upon
+them. It made it clear that even after meeting me Mr. Farrell and
+his wife were still anxious to stand for me as a son. They were
+good enough to say they had found me a "perfect gentleman." They
+hoped that after considering their proposition I had come to look
+upon it with favor.
+
+As his son, Mr. Farrell explained, my annual allowance would be the
+interest on one million dollars, and upon his death his entire
+fortune and property he would bequeath to me. He was willing, even
+anxious, to put this in writing. In a week he would return to
+Fairharbor when he hoped to receive a favorable answer. In the
+meantime he enclosed a letter to his housekeeper.
+
+"Don't take anything for granted," he urged, "but go to Fairharbor
+and present this letter. See the place for yourself. Spend the week
+there and act like you were the owner. My housekeeper has orders to
+take her orders from you. Don't refuse something you have never
+seen!"
+
+This part of the letter made me feel as mean and uncomfortable as
+a wet hen. The open, almost too open, methods of Mr. Farrell made
+my own methods appear contemptible. He was urging me to be his
+guest and I was playing the spy. But against myself my indignation
+did not last. A letter, bearing a special delivery stamp which
+arrived later in the afternoon from Mrs. Farrell turned my
+indignation against her, and with bitterness. She also had been
+spying. Her letter read:
+
+The Pinkerton I employed to report on you states that after losing
+you for a week he located you at New Bedford, that you are living
+under the name of Fitzgibbon, and that you have made yourself
+conspicuous by attentions to a young person employed in a shop.
+This is for me a great blow and disappointment, and I want you to
+clearly understand Mr. Farrell's offer is made to you as an
+unmarried man. I cannot believe your attentions are serious, but
+whether they are serious or not, they must cease. The detective
+reports the pair of you are now the talk of Fairharbor. You are
+making me ridiculous. I do not want a shop-girl for a
+daughter-in-law and you will either give up her acquaintance or
+give up Harbor Castle!
+
+I am no believer in ultimatums. In attaining one's end they seldom
+prove successful. I tore the note into tiny pieces, and defiantly,
+with Polly in the seat beside me, drove into the open country. At
+first we picked our way through New Bedford, from the sidewalks her
+friends waved to her, and my acquaintances smiled. The detective
+was right. We had indeed made ourselves the talk of the town, and
+I was determined the talk must cease.
+
+We had reached Ruggles Point when the car developed an illness. I
+got out to investigate. On both sides of the road were tall
+hemlocks and through them to the west we could see the waters of
+Sippican Harbor in the last yellow rays of the sun as it sank
+behind Rochester. Overhead was the great harvest moon.
+
+Polly had taken from the pocket of the car some maps and
+guide-books, and while I lifted the hood and was deep in the
+machinery she was turning them over.
+
+"What," she asked, "is the number of this car? I forget."
+
+As I have said, I was preoccupied and deep in the machinery; that
+is, with a pair of pliers I was wrestling with a recalcitrant wire.
+Unsuspiciously I answered: "Eight-two- eight"
+
+A moment later I heard a sharp cry, and raised my head. With eyes
+wide in terror Polly was staring at an open book. Without
+appreciating my danger I recognized it as "Who's Who in
+Automobiles." The voice of Polly rose in a cry of disbelief.
+
+"Eight-two-eight," she read, "owned by Fletcher Farrell, Hudson
+Apartments, New York City." She raised her eyes to mine.
+
+"Is that true?" she gasped. "Are you Fletcher Farrell?" I leaned
+into the car and got hold of her hand.
+
+"That is not important," I stammered. "What is important is this:
+Will you be Mrs. Fletcher Farrell?"
+
+What she said may be guessed from the fact that before we returned
+to New Bedford we drove to Fairharbor and I showed her the cottage
+I liked best. It was the one with the oldest clapboard shingles,
+the oldest box hedge, the most fragrant honeysuckles, and a lawn
+that wet its feet in the surf. Polly liked it the best, too.
+
+By now the daylight had gone, and on the ships the riding lights
+were shining, but shining sulkily, for the harvest moon filled the
+world with golden radiance. As we stood on the porch of the empty
+cottage, in the shadow of the honeysuckles, Polly asked an
+impossible question. It was:
+
+"How MUCH do you love me?"
+
+"You will never know," I told her, "but I can tell you this: I love
+you more than a two-thousand-ton yacht, the interest on one million
+dollars, and Harbor Castle!"
+
+It was a wasteful remark, for Polly instantly drew away.
+
+"What DO you mean?" she laughed.
+
+"Fletcher Farrell of Harbor Castle," I explained, "offered me those
+things, minus you. But I wanted you."
+
+"I see," cried Polly, "he wanted to adopt you. He always talks of
+that. I am sorry for him. He wants a son so badly." She sighed
+softly, "Poor uncle!"
+
+"Poor WHAT!" I yelled.
+
+"Didn't you know," exclaimed Polly, "that Mrs. Farrell was a
+Briggs! She was my father's sister."
+
+"Then YOU," I said, "are the relation who was 'too high and
+mighty'!" Polly shook her head.
+
+"No," she said, "I didn't want to be dependent."
+
+"And you gave up all that," I exclaimed, "and worked at
+Hatchardson's, just because you didn't want to be dependent!"
+
+"I like my uncle-in-law very much," explained Polly, "but not my
+aunt. So, it was no temptation. No more," she cried, looking at me
+as though she were proud of me, "than it was to you."
+
+In guilty haste I changed the subject. In other words, I kissed
+her. I knew some day I would have to confess. But until we were
+safely married that could wait. Before confessing I would make sure
+of her first. The next day we announced our engagement and Polly
+consented that it should be a short one. For, as I pointed out,
+already she had kept me waiting thirty years. The newspapers dug up
+the fact that I had once been a popular novelist, and the pictures
+they published of Polly proved her so beautiful that, in
+congratulation, I received hundreds of telegrams. The first one to
+arrive came from Cape May. It read:
+
+My dear boy, your uncle elect sends his heartiest congratulations
+to you and love to Polly. Don't make any plans until you hear from
+me--am leaving to-night. FLETCHER FARRELL.
+
+In terror Polly fled into my arms. Even when NOT in terror it was
+a practice I strongly encouraged.
+
+"We are lost!" she cried. "They will adopt us in spite of
+ourselves. They will lock us up for life in Harbor Castle! I don't
+WANT to be adopted. I want YOU! I want my little cottage!"
+
+I assured her she should have her little cottage; I had already
+bought it. And during the two weeks before the wedding, when I was
+not sitting around Boston while Polly bought clothes, we
+refurnished it. Polly furnished the library, chiefly with my own
+books, and "The Log of the JOLLY POLLY." I furnished the kitchen.
+For a man cannot live on honeysuckles alone. My future uncle-in-law
+was gentle but firm.
+
+"You can't get away from the fact," he said, that you will be my
+nephew, whether you like it or not. So, be kind to an old man and
+let him give the bride away and let her be married from Harbor
+Castle."
+
+In her white and green High Flier car and all of her diamonds, Mrs.
+Farrell called on Polly and begged the same boon. We were too happy
+to see any one else dissatisfied; so though we had planned the
+quietest of weddings, we gave consent. Somehow we survived it. But
+now we recall it only as that terrible time when we were never
+alone. For once in the hands of our rich relations the quiet
+wedding we had arranged became a royal alliance, a Field of the
+Cloth of Gold, the chief point of attack for the moving-picture
+men.
+
+The youths who came from New York to act as my ushers informed me
+that the Ushers' Dinner at Harbor Castle-from which, after the fish
+course, I had fled--was considered by them the most successful
+ushers' dinner in their career of crime. My uncle-in-Law also
+testifies to this. He ought to know. At four in the morning he was
+assisting the ushers in throwing the best man and the butler into
+the swimming-pool.
+
+For our honeymoon he loaned us the yacht. "Take her as far as you
+like," he said. "After this she belongs to you and Polly. And find
+a better name for her than Harbor Lights. It sounds too much like
+a stay-at-home. And I want you two to see the world." I thanked
+him, and suggested he might rechristen her the JOLLY POLLY.
+
+"That was the name," I pointed out, "of the famous whaler owned by
+Captain Briggs, your wife's father, and it would be a compliment to
+Polly, too."
+
+My uncle-in-law-elect agreed heartily; but made one condition:
+
+"I'll christen her that," he said, "if you will promise to write a
+new Log of the JOLLY POLLY." I promised. This is it.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Log of the Jolly Polly, by Davis
+
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