Nobody

"What for?"

"What for?" said Lois, laughing. "If you ask, it is no use to tell you,

Mr. Caruthers."

"Ah, be generous!" said Tom. "I'm a stupid fellow, I know; but do tryand help me a little to a sense of the beautiful. Is it thebeautiful, by the way, or is it something else?"

Lois's laugh rang softly out again. She was a country girl, it is true; but her laugh was as sweet to hear as the ripple of the waters amongthe stones. The laugh of anybody tells very much of what he is, makingrevelations undreamt of often by the laugher. A harsh croak does notcome from a mind at peace, nor an empty clangour from a heart full ofsensitive happiness; nor a coarse laugh from a person of refinedsensibilities, nor a hard laugh from a tender spirit. Moreover, peoplecannot dissemble successfully in laughing; the truth comes out in astartling manner. Lois's laugh was sweet and musical; it was a pleasureto hear. And Tom's eyes said so.

"I always knew I was a stupid fellow," he said; "but I never feltmyself so stupid as to-day! What is it, Miss Lothrop?"

"What is what, Mr. Caruthers? – I beg your pardon."

"What is it you find in this queer place?"

"I am afraid it is waste trouble to tell you."

"Good morning!" cried a cheery voice here from below them; and lookingtowards the water they saw Mr. Lenox, making his way as best he couldover slippery seaweed and wet rocks.

"Hollo, George!" cried Tom in a different tone – "What are you doingthere?"

"Trying to keep out of the water, don't you see?"

"To an ordinary mind, that object would seem more likely to be attainedif you kept further away from it."

"May I come up where you are?"

"Certainly!" said Lois. "But take care how you do it."

A little scrambling and the help of Tom's hand accomplished the feat; and the new comer looked about him with much content.

"You came the other way," he said. "I see. I shall know how next time.

What a delightful post, Miss Lothrop!"

"I have been trying to find what she came here for; and she won't tellme," said Tom.

"You know what you came here for," said his friend. "Why cannot youcredit other people with as much curiosity as you have yourself?"

"I credit them with more," said Tom. "But curiosity on Appledore willfind itself baffled, I should say."

"Depends on what curiosity is after," said Lenox. "Tell him, Miss

Lothrop; he will not be any the wiser."

"Then why should I tell him?" said Lois.

"Perhaps I shall!"

Lois's laugh came again.

"Seriously. If any one were to ask me, not only what we but whatanybody should come to this place for, I should be unprepared with ananswer. I am forcibly reminded of an old gentleman who went up MountWashington on one occasion when I also went up. It came on to rain – asudden summer gust and downpour, hiding the very mountain it self fromour eyes; hiding the path, hiding the members of the party from eachother. We were descending the mountain by that time, and it wasticklish work for a nervous person; every one was committed to his ownsweet guidance; and as I went blindly stumbling along, I came every nowand then upon the old gentleman, also stumbling along, on his donkey.And whenever I was near enough to him, I could hear him dismallysoliloquizing, 'Why am I here!' – in a tone of mingled disgust andself-reproach which was in the highest degree comical."

"So that is your state of mind now, is it?" said Tom.

"Not quite yet, but I feel it is going to be. Unless Miss Lothrop canteach me something."

"There are some things that cannot be taught," said Lois.

"And people – hey? But I am not one of those, Miss Lothrop."

He looked at her with such a face of demure innocence, that Lois couldnot keep her gravity.

"Now Tom is," Lenox went on. "You cannot teach him anything, Miss

Lothrop. It would be lost labour."

"I am not so stupid as you think," said Tom.

"He's not stupid – he's obstinate," Lenox went on, addressing himself toLois. "He takes a thing in his head. Now that sounds intelligent; butit isn't, or he isn't; for when you try, you can't get it out of hishead again. So he took it into his head to come to the Isles of Shoals, and hither he has dragged his mother and his sister, and hither byconsequence he has dragged me. Now I ask you, as one who can tell – whathave we all come here for?"

Half-quizzically, half-inquisitively, the young man put the question, lounging on the rocks and looking up into Lois's face. Tom grewimpatient. But Lois was too humble and simple-minded to fall into thesnare laid for her. I think she had a half-discernment of a hiddenintent under Mr. Lenox's words; nevertheless in the simple dignity oftruth she disregarded it, and did not even blush, either withconsciousness or awkwardness. She was a little amused.

"I suppose experience will have to be your teacher, as it is otherpeople's."

"I have heard so; I never saw anybody who had learned much that way."

"Come, George, that's ridiculous. Learning by experience isproverbial," said Tom.

"I know! – but it's a delusion nevertheless. You sprain your ankle amongthese stones, for instance. Well – you won't put your foot in thatparticular hole again; but you will in another. That's the way you do,Tom. But to return – Miss Lothrop, what has experience done for you inthe Isles of Shoals?"

"I have not had much yet."

"Does it pay to come here?"

"I think it does."

"How came anybody to think of coming here at first? that is what Ishould like to know. I never saw a more uncompromising bit ofbarrenness. Is there no desolation anywhere else, that men should cometo the Isles of Shoals?"

"There was quite a large settlement here once," said Lois.

"Indeed! When?"

"Before the war of the revolution. There were hundreds of people; sixhundred, somebody told me."

"What became of them?"

"Well," said Lois, smiling, "as that is more than a hundred years ago,