She baked for him pies,
cookies, and doughnuts of a delicious russet tint and sent them to the
station, that their aroma might gently prod into action her lover's
faintness of heart; these visible tokens of her devotion would
disappear, however, leaving behind them only a tranquil sense of
enjoyment; and as this lessened the fervor of her admirer's
determination would evaporate. Then Sarah Libbie would resort to less
ephemeral offerings,--scarves, wristers, mittens, patiently knitted
from blue wool and representing such an endless number of stitches that
Jack never viewed them without elation.
And as if these proofs of her regard were not sufficient, every evening
just at sundown she would light a lantern and flash a good-night to him
across the waters that estranged them. It was a pretty custom that had
had its beginning when the boy and girl had lived as neighbors on the
deserted highway that followed the horseshoe curve of the Belleport
shore. They had evolved a code whereby, with much labor it must be
admitted, they were able to spell out messages that flickered their way
through the night with the beauty of a firefly's revel; but when Jack
had taken up work with the coast guard, this old-time substitute for
speech had been abandoned, giving place to the briefer method of three
nightly flashes.
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