Friend Island Read online

shore. It had its palm trees and its live things, just likemy own Anita, and I've sometimes wondered if this drifting piecehadn'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 pieceget within hailing distance than I hears a human holler and there wasa man dancing up and down on the shore like he was plumb crazy. Nextminute he had plunged into the narrow strip of water between us and ina 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 ofnot having no better sense than the man what wrote that board and thennearly committed suicide trying to get away from the best island inall the oceans. Glad enough he was to get back, though, for thecoconuts was running very short on the floater what had rescued him,and the turtle eggs wasn't worth mentioning. Being short of grub isthe surest way I know to cure a man's fear of the unknown."

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  "Well, to make a long story short, Nelson Smith told me he was aaeronauter. In them days to be an aeronauter was not the same as to bean aviatress is now. There was dangers in the air, and dangers in thesea, and he had met with both. His gas tank had leaked and he haddropped into the water close by Anita. A case or two of provisions wasall he could save from the total wreck.

  "Now, as you might guess, I was crazy enough to find out what hadscared this Nelson Smith into trying to swim the Pacific. He told me astory that seemed to fit pretty well with mine, only when it come tothe scary part he shut up like a clam, that aggravating way some menhave. I give it up at last for just man-foolishness, and we begun toscheme to get away.

  "Anita moped some while we talked it over. I realized how she must befeeling, so I explained to her that it was right needful for us to getwith our kind again. If we stayed with her we should probably quarrellike cats, and maybe even kill each other out of pure humancussedness. She cheered up considerable after that, and even, Ithought, got a little anxious to have us leave. At any rate, when webegun to provision up the little floater, which we had anchored tothe big island by a cable of twisted bark, the green nuts fell allover the ground, and Nelson found more turtle nests in a day than Ihad in weeks.

  "During them days I really got fond of Nelson Smith. He was acompanionable body, and brave, or he wouldn't have been a professionalaeronauter, 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 hewas 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 andthe air together and set up housekeeping in some quiet little town upin New England, maybe, after we had got away, if it had not been forwhat happened when we went. I never, let me say, was so deceived inany man before nor since. The thing taught me a lesson and I never wasfooled again.

  "We was all ready to go, and then one morning, like a parting giftfrom Anita, come a soft and favoring wind. Nelson and I run down thebeach together, for we didn't want our floater to blow off and leaveus. 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'tnoticed, and was going on.

  "But sudden the ground begun to shake under my feet, and the air wasfull of a queer, grinding, groaning sound, like the very earth was inpain.

  "I turned around sharp. There sat Nelson, holding his bleeding toe inboth fists and giving vent to such awful words as no decent sea-goinglady 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 upout 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 aswould have bespoke the raging protest of a continent.

  "I grabbed that fool man by the hand and run him down to the water. Wehad 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 nowblowing, and she had broke her cable. By the time we scrambled aboardgreat rocks was falling right and left. We couldn't see each other fora 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 mymouth, and shook my hair clear of cinders. 'So, that was the reasonyou up and left sudden when you was there before! You aggravated thatisland till the poor thing druv you out!'

  "'Well,' says he, and not so meek as I'd have admired to see him, 'howcould I know the darn island was a lady?'

  "'Actions speak louder than words,' says I. 'You should have knowed itby her ladylike behavior!'

  "'Is volcanoes and slingin' hot rocks ladylike?' he says. 'Is snakesladylike? T'other time I cut my thumb on a tin can, I cussed a littlebit. 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 inthe water, of course. Why wouldn't I? I'd ruther swim and drown thanbe stung or swallowed to death. But how was I t' know the snakes comeoutta the rocks because I cussed?'

  "'You, couldn't,' I agrees, sarcastic. 'Some folks never knows a ladytill 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! Takeshame to yourself, Nelly,' says I, right stern, 'that a decent littleisland like Anita can't associate with you peaceable, but you musthurt her sacredest feelings with language no lady would stand by tohear!'

  "I never did see Anita again. She may have blew herself right out ofthe ocean in her just wrath at the vulgar, disgustin' language ofNelson Smith. I don't know. We was took off the floater at last, and Ilost track of Nelson just as quick as I could when we was landed atFrisco.

  "He had taught me a lesson. A man is just full of mannishness, and thebest of 'em ain't good enough for a lady to sacrifice hersensibilities to put up with.

  "Nelson Smith, he seemed to feel real bad when he learned I was notfor him, and then he apologized. But apologies weren't no use to me. Icould never abide him, after the way he went and talked right in thepresence of me and my poor, sweet lady friend, Anita!"

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  Now I am well versed in the lore of the sea in all ages. Through mistsof time I have enviously eyed wild voyagings of sea rovers who rovedand spun their yarns before the stronger sex came into its own, andousted man from his heroic pedestal. I have followed--across theprinted page--the wanderings of Odysseus. Before Gulliver I haveburned the incense of tranced attention; and with reverent aweconsidered the history of one Munchausen, a baron. But alas, thesewere only men!

  In what field is not woman our subtle superior?

  Meekly I bowed my head, and when my eyes dared lift again, the ancientmariness had departed, leaving me to sorrow for my surpassed andoutdone idols. Also with a bill for macaroons and tea of suchincredible proportions that in comparison therewith I found it easy tobelieve her story!

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