Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/241

 Ten Days in Nantucket.

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��roofs, and sides, all finished alike, which Burdette has described as " being shingled, shangled, shongled, and shun- gled." Tom was struck with the little railings which crowned so many of the houses ; and which, since the old fish- ing day's prosperity did not call the people on the house-tops to watch anx- iously for the expected ships, were now more ornamental than useful. They passed at the corner of Ray's Court a sycamore tree, the largest and oldest on the island, and soon halted at the neat Soldiers' Monument, so suggestive of the patriotic valor of the island-people. Later, they found on Winter Street the Coffin School-house, — a brick build- ing with two white pillars in front and a white cupola, — which was back from the street, behind some shade trees, and surrounded by an iron fence. As they looked at it Miss Ray read aloud the words inscribed on the front :

Founded 1827 by Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin Bart.

ERECTED

1852.

They were also interested to see near by, a large white building, known as the High School-house. As they neared home, Tom's eyes noticed the sign of a Nantucket birds' exhibition and a visit to that place was made.

During the walk, Mrs. Gordon had been particularly interested in the large cobble-stones which the uneven streets supported in addition to the green grass, and also the peculiar Nantucket cart, with its step behind.

On their return to their boarding- place, they joined a party that had been formed to go to the Cliff, a sa,ndy bluff about a mile north from the town, where they were told was to be found the best still-water bathing on the island. Soon they were all on the yacht " Daunt-

��less," which hourly plied between the two places ; in twenty minutes they were landed at the Cliff; and fifteen minutes later they were all revelling in the warm, refreshing water, Bessie de- clared that in all her large bathing ex- perience on the north shore she had never enjoyed anything like this. Miss Ray felt that here in this warm, still water was her opportunity to leani to swim so she accepted the kind teach- ing of a friend ; but, alas, her efforts savored more of hard work to plough up the Atlantic ocean than of the de- lightful pleasure of acquiring knowledge for some possible future use. While Miss Ray was thus struggling with the ocean, and Bessie, and Tom were sport- ing like two fish — for both were at home in the water — Mr. Gordon was looking around the Cliff with his bus- iness eye wide open. As he walked along the road back from the shore, and saw the fine views which it afforded him, he admired the judgment of Eastman Johnson, the artist, in building his sum- mer house and studio there. A httle farther on, upon the Bluffs, the highest point on the island, he noted the house of Charles O'Connor with the little brick building close by for his library ; and he decided that an island which could give such physical benefit as this was said to have giv^en to Mr. O 'Connor, would not be a bad one in which to in- vest. So the value of the Cliff or Bluffs was jotted down in his note-book for future use.

At the same time that Mr. Gordon was exploring the land, Mrs. Gordon was in the office of two gallant young civil en- gineers, exploring the harbor. In fact, she was studying a map of the sur- roundings of the harbor which these young men had made to aid them in their work of building a jetty from Brant Point to the bell-buoy. As she

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