Flood Tide

Flood Tide, by Sara Ware Bassett,
Illustrated

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Flood Tide, by Sara Ware Bassett,
Illustrated by M. L. Greer
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Flood Tide
Author: Sara Ware Bassett

Release Date: July 23, 2006 [eBook #18902]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLOOD
TIDE***
E-text prepared by Al Haines

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which

includes the original illustration. See 18902-h.htm or 18902-h.zip:
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/8/9/0/18902/18902-h/18902-h.htm) or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/8/9/0/18902/18902-h.zip)

FLOOD TIDE
by
SARA WARE BASSETT
Author of
"The Harbor Road," "The Wall Between," "Taming of Zenas Henry,"
etc.
With Frontispiece by M. L. Greer

[Frontispiece: "Delight's kinder bowled over by surprise, Tiny," Willie
explained gently.]

A. L. Burt Company Publishers -------- New York Published by
arrangement with Little, Brown and Company Copyright, 1921, By
Sara Ware Bassett. All rights reserved Published March, 1921

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
THE WEAVER AND HIS FANCIES II. WILLIE HAS AN IDEE III.
A NEW ARRIVAL IV. THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER ENTERS V.
AN APPARITION VI. MARRYING AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE

VII. A SECOND SPIRIT APPEARS VIII. SHADOWS IX. A
WIDENING OF THE BREACH X. A CONSPIRACY XI. THE
GALBRAITH HOUSEHOLD XII. ROBERT MORTON MAKES A
RESOLVE XIII. A NEWCOMER ENTERS XIV. THE SPENCES
ENTER SOCIETY XV. A REVELATION XVI. ANOTHER BLOW
DESCENDS XVII. A GRIM HAND INTERVENES XVIII. THE
PROGRESS OF ANOTHER ROMANCE XIX. WILLIE AS PILOT
XX. ONE MORE OF WILLIE'S SHIPS REACHES PORT XXI.
SURPRISES XXII. DELIGHT MAKES HER DECISION XXIII.
FAME COMES TO THE DREAMER OF DREAMS

FLOOD TIDE
CHAPTER I
THE WEAVER AND HIS FANCIES
Willie Spence was a trial. Not that his personality rasped society at
large. On the contrary his neighbors cherished toward the little old man,
with his short-sighted blue eyes and his appealing smile, an affection
peculiarly tender; and if they sometimes were wont to observe that
although Willie possessed some common sense he was blessed with
uncommon little of it, the observation was facetiously uttered and was
offered with no malicious intent.
In fact had one scoured Wilton from end to end it would have been
difficult to unearth a single individual who bore enmity toward the
owner of the silver-gray cottage on the Harbor Road. It was impossible
to talk ten seconds with Willie Spence and not be won by his kindliness,
his optimism, his sympathy, and his honesty. Willie probably could not
have dissembled had he tried, and fortunately his life was of so simple
and transparent a trend that little lay hidden beneath its crystalline
exterior. What he was he was. When baffled by phenomena he would
scratch his thin locks and with a smile of endearing candor frankly
admit, "I dunno." When, on the other hand, he knew himself to be
master of a debated fact, no power under heaven could shake the

tenacity with which he clung to his beliefs. There was never any
compromise with truth on Willie's part. A thing was so or it was not.
This reputation for veracity, linked as it was with an ingenuous good
will toward all mankind, had earned for Willie Spence such universal
esteem and tenderness that whenever the stooping figure with its ruddy
cheeks, soft white hair, and gentle smile made its appearance on the
sandy roads of the hamlet, it was hailed on all sides with the loving and
indulgent greetings of the inhabitants of the village.
Even Celestina Morton, who kept house for him and who might well
have lost patience at his defiance of domestic routine, worshipped the
very soil his foot touched. There was, of course, no denying that
Willie's disregard for the meal hour had become what she termed
"chronical" and severely taxed her forbearance; or that since she was a
creature of human limitations she did at times protest when the
chowder stood forgotten in the tureen until it was of Arctic temperature;
nor had she ever acquired the grace of spirit to amiably view freshly
baked popovers shrivel neglected into nothingness. Try as she would to
curb her tongue, under such circumstances, she occasionally would
burst out:
"I do wish, Willie Spence, you'd quit your dreamin' an' come to
dinner."
For answer Willie would rise hastily and stand arrested, a bit of string
in one hand and the hammer in the other, and peering reproachfully
over the top of his steel-bowed spectacles would reply:
"Law, Tiny! You wouldn't begretch me my dreams, would you?
They're about all I've got. If it warn't fur the things I dream