The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 1, January, 1884Various
History
The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 1, January, 1884
Various
Massachusetts -- Periodicals; New England -- Periodicals
As they stopped to gaze around them for a moment, they saw, a little
more than half a mile off, Haley's (or Smutty Nose) Island, with its few
black houses, prominent among which was the one stained by an awful
tragedy. Mrs. Tracy hoped that it would soon be taken down, for it was
too suggestive of terror and wickedness to be always in sight of those
seeking rest and peace on the islands. Reuben said that Smutty Nose was
the most verdant of all the islands, and the one the earliest settled;
while Duck Island, three miles away, was noted for its game. He also
remembered, much to his mother's surprise, that Cedar Island was only
three eighths of a mile distant, and Londoner not a quarter of a mile
away. When Frank added that Appledore was seven eighths of a mile off,
and White Island nearly two miles distant, Reuben, not to be outdone by
him, said that Star Island was three quarters of a mile long, and half a
mile wide, while Appledore was a mile long. They would have gone on till
all their knowledge had been told, if Mrs. Tracy had not suggested that
they continue their walk over the rocks which gave Star Island its
natural grandeur. They would have liked to have remained there all of
the afternoon, to have enjoyed the waves as they dashed up over the
rocks; but they only stopped long enough to find Miss Underhill's Chair,
the name of a large rock, on which Frank read aloud an inscription
stating the fact, that, in 1848, on that spot, Miss Underhill, a loved
missionary teacher, was sitting, when a great wave came and washed her
away. Miss De Severn said that her body was found a week later at York
Beach, where the tide had left it.
On their way back to the hotel they noticed some willows and wild roses,
enclosed in a wooden fence, wherein Mrs. Tracy said would be found the
graves of three little children of a missionary who once lived upon the
island; whereupon the boys searched until they found the three following
inscriptions: "Jessie," two years, "Millie," four years, and "Mittie,"
seven years old. Under the name of Mittie they said was inscribed:
"I don't want to die, but I'll do just as Jesus wants me to."
Mrs. Tracy found herself looking back tenderly to this sacred spot, as
she followed the boys to the other side of the Oceanic to see the ruins
of the old Fort, which Reuben said had been useful before the
Revolutionary War.
On their way to the steamer, which was to leave in a few minutes, they
stepped into a small graveyard of dark stones, of which Mrs. Tracy said
all but one were inscribed with the name of Caswell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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