Aladdin OBrien | Page 6

Gouverneur Morris
to the persuasion of a child and come up
by the roots. And then, Margaret pushing her best, and Aladdin prying
and grunting, the log was moved to within an ace of launching. Until
now, for she was too young to understand about daring and
unselfishness, Margaret had considered the log-launching as a game
invented by Aladdin to while away the dreary time; but now she
realized, from the look in the pale, set, freckly, almost comical face of
the boy, that deeds more serious were afoot, and when he said,
"Somebody'll pick me up, sure, Marg'ret, and help me come back and
get you," she broke out crying afresh and said, "Don't, 'Laddin!
Doo-on't, 'Laddin!"
"Don't cry, Marg'ret," said Aladdin, with a gulp. "I'd do more'n that for
you, and I can swim a little, too--b-better'n I can row."
"Oh, 'Laddin," said Margaret, "it's so cold in the water."
"Shucks!" said Aladdin, whose teeth had been knocking all night.
"She's the stanch little craft" (he had the phrase of a book) "Good Luck.
I'm the captain and you're the builder's daughter"--and so she was.
"Chrissen 'er, Marg'et. Kiss her on the bow an' say she's the Good
Luck."
Then Margaret, her hat over one ear, and the draggled ostrich feather
greatly in the way, knelt, and putting her arms about the shoreward end

of the log, kissed it, and said in a drawn little voice
"The Good Luck."
"And now, Margaret," said Aladdin, "you must stay right here' n' not go
'way from the shore, so's I can find you when I come back. But don't
just sit still all the time,--keep moving, so's not to get any colder,--'n I'll
come back for you sure."
Then, because he felt his courage failing, he said, "Good-by, Marg'ret,"
and turning abruptly, waded in to his ankles and bent over the log to
give it that final impetus which was to set it adrift. In his heart were
several things: the desire to make good, fear of the river, and, poignant
and bitter, the feeling that Margaret did not understand. He was too
young to believe that death might really be near him (almost reckless
enough not to care if he had), but keenly aware that his undertaking
was perilous enough to warrant a more adequate farewell. So he bent
bitterly over the log and stiffened his back for the heave. It must be
owned that Aladdin wanted more of a scene.
"'Laddin, I forgot something. Come back."
He came, his white lips drawn into a sort of smile. Then they kissed
each other on the mouth with the loud, innocent kiss of little children,
and after that Aladdin felt that the river was only a river, the cold only
cold, the danger only danger and flowers--more than flowers.
He moved the log easily and waded with it into the icy waters, until his
feet were dragged from the bottom, and after one awful instant of total
submersion the stanch little ship Good Luck and valiant Captain
Kissed-by-Margaret were embarked on the voyage perilous. His left
arm over and about the log, his legs kicking lustily like the legs of a
frog, his right hand paddling desperately for stability, Aladdin
disappeared into the fog. After a few minutes he became so freezing
cold that he would have let go and drowned gladly if it had not been for
the wonderful lamp which had been lighted in his heart.
Margaret, when she saw him borne from her by the irresistible current,

cried out with all the illogic of her womanly little soul, "Come back,
'Laddin, come back!" and sank sobbing upon the empty shore.

IV
However imminent the peril of the man, it is the better part of chivalry
to remain by the distressed lady, and though impotent to be of
assistance, we must linger near Margaret, and watch her gradually rise
from prone sobbing to a sitting attitude of tears. For a long time she sat
crying on the empty shore, regarding for the most part black life and
not at all the signs of cheerful change which were becoming evident in
the atmosphere about her. The cold breath across her face and hands
and needling through her shivering body, the increasing sounds of
treetops in commotion, the recurring appearance of branches where
before had been only an opaque vault, did little to inform her that the
fog was about to lift. The rising wind merely made her the more
miserable and alone. Nor was it until a disk of gold smote suddenly on
the rock before her that she looked up and beheld a twinkle of blue sky.
The fog puffed across the blue, the blue looked down again,--a bigger
eye than before,--a wisp of fog filmed it again, and again it
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