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The Life-Saver
(Lubir.)
By JOHN ELLERIDGE CHANDOS
OH, the power of a smile ! When the daughter of Herodias danced before a court and snared the heart of a king in the maze of her flying feet, he offered to give whatever her heart should most desire. Then he refused her the head of John the Baptist until she smiled at him from her insolent eyes.
When the fairer daughter of a nobler race than that of Salome was granted a greater gift than kings can bestow, because the dawn of youth in her heart ever shone in her eyes, it was what she had wished for, a light that should illumine the whole world — she was given a sun-kist smile. But that might have been only for the many who loved her, of the few who lived near her, so it was transmuted to the swift-moving pictures and thus scattered to all parts of the
earth, strewing the dust-gray paths of the weary and heart-hungry with flowers of encouragement and good cheer.
Such was the smile of Jessica.
Daughter of a coast-guard captain, with only life-savers for a corps of ad
mirers, and the best of them, John Ronald, stationed at Cape Elizabeth, where he had to be signaled when needed, Jessica's environment was too narrow for one of her rare gifts. Jack was big and strong, but he had known Jessica as a child and was boyishly slow in lighting the vernal fire in her bosom. He seemed not to comprehend w h y the bud of girlhood suddenly breaks into full bloom and becomes strangely sweet with a fragrance that s t ir s the heart of man. He glared and scowled at her instead of laughing with her when she laughed at him, not knowing that the hearts of women are the hearts of children for the sake of children. All that he knew was that Jessica had a flame of yellow hair, merry blue eyes, cheeks ever responsive to the smiles trembling on her lips, and wit as sharp and dangerous as a hatpin. Also, Jack did not realize that Jessica was clever. For each happy hour in her company he had to spend a day among his fellow-men to recover from a tremendous sense of his own importance. 121
JACK AND JESSICA