The Mermaid

The Mermaid, by Lily Dougall

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Title: The Mermaid A Love Tale
Author: Lily Dougall

Release Date: December 7, 2006 [eBook #20054]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE MERMAID
"Lady, I fain would tell how evermore Thy soul I know not from thy body, nor Thee from myself, neither our love from God."
A Love Tale
by
L. DOUGALL
Author of Beggars All, What Necessity Knows, Etc.

New York D. Appleton and Company 1895 Copyright, 1895, by D. Appleton and Company.

CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--THE BENT TWIG 1
II.--THE SAD-EYED CHILD 4
III.--LOST IN THE SEA 11
IV.--A QUIET LIFE 19
V.--SEEN THROUGH BLEAR EYES 24
VI.--"FROM HOUR TO HOUR WE RIPE----" 34
VII.--"A SEA CHANGE" 41
VIII.--BELIEF IN THE IMPOSSIBLE 49
IX.--THE SEA-MAID'S MUSIC 56
X.--TOWED BY THE BEARD 65
XI.--YEARS OF DISCRETION 71
BOOK II.
I.--THE HAND THAT BECKONED 75
II.--THE ISLES OF ST. MAGDALEN 85
III.--BETWEEN THE SURF AND THE SAND 90
IV.--WHERE THE DEVIL LIVED 101
V.--DEVILRY 109
VI.--THE SEA-MAID 118
VII.--THE GRAVE LADY 122
VIII.--HOW THEY LIVED ON THE CLOUD 126
IX.--THE SICK AND THE DEAD 136
X.--A LIGHT-GIVING WORD 141
XI.--THE LADY'S HUSBAND 149
XII.--THE MAIDEN INVENTED 155
XIII.--WHITE BIRDS; WHITE SNOW; WHITE THOUGHTS 166
XIV.--THE MARRIAGE SCENE 173
BOOK III.
I.--HOW WE HUNTED THE SEALS 183
II.--ONCE MORE THE VISION 188
III.--"LOVE, I SPEAK TO THY FACE" 193
IV.--HOPE BORN OF SPRING 201
V.--TO THE HIGHER COURT 208
VI.--"THE NIGHT IS DARK" 216
VII.--THE WILD WAVES WHIST 227
VIII.--"GOD'S IN HIS HEAVEN" 236
IX.--"GOD'S PUPPETS, BEST AND WORST" 249
X.--"DEATH SHRIVE THY SOUL!" 254
XI.--THE RIDDLE OF LIFE 263
XII.--TO CALL A SPIRIT FROM THE VASTY DEEP 271
XIII.--THE EVENING AND THE MORNING 283
THE MERMAID.

BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
THE BENT TWIG.
Caius Simpson was the only son of a farmer who lived on the north-west coast of Prince Edward's Island. The farmer was very well-to-do, for he was a hard-working man, and his land produced richly. The father was a man of good understanding, and the son had been born with brains; there were traditions of education in the family, hence the name Caius; it was no plan of the elder man that his son should also be a farmer. The boy was first sent to learn in what was called an "Academy," a school in the largest town of the island. Caius loved his books, and became a youthful scholar. In the summer he did light work on the farm; the work was of a quiet, monotonous sort, for his parents were no friends to frivolity or excitement.
Caius was strictly brought up. The method of his training was that which relies for strength of character chiefly upon the absence of temptation. The father was under the impression that he could, without any laborious effort and consideration, draw a line between good and evil, and keep his son on one side of it. He was not austere--but his view of righteousness was derived from puritan tradition.
A boy, if kindly treated, usually begins early to approve the only teaching of which he has experience. As a youth, Caius heartily endorsed his father's views, and felt superior to all who were more lax. He had been born into that religious school which teaches that a man should think for himself on every question, provided that he arrives at a foregone conclusion. Caius, at the age of eighteen, had already done much reasoning on certain subjects, and proved his work by observing that his conclusions tallied with set models. As a result, he was, if not a reasonable being, a reasoning and a moral one.
We have ceased to draw a distinction between Nature and the forces of education. It is a great problem why Nature sets so many young people in the world who are apparently unfitted for the battle of life, and certainly have no power to excel in any direction. The subjective religion which Caius had been taught had nourished within him great store of noble sentiment and high desire, but it had deprived him of that rounded knowledge of actual life which alone, it would appear, teaches how to guide these forces into the more useful channels. Then as to capacity, he had the fine sensibilities of a poet, the facile introspection of the philosophical cast of mind, without the mental power to write good verse or to be a philosopher. He had, at least in youth, the conscience of a saint without the courage and endurance which appear necessary to heroism. In mockery the quality of ambition was bestowed upon him