The Log of the "Jolly Polly"Davis, Richard Harding
General
The Log of the "Jolly Polly"
Davis, Richard Harding
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
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
Fairharbor, 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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