Page:The New England Magazine 1891, 5.1.djvu/75

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BOB WHITE.

By Kate Whiting.

A HAZE lies over meadow and hill, The drowsy calm of an August day;The cattle lounge 'neath the shady trees,The wheat is swayed by the sleepy breeze, The bees hum by in an idle way,And a voice from the wheat pipes plaintive still,   From morn to night,   "Bob White!" "Bob White!"
Poor bird! Does he answer not to your call? I have heard you whistle the long day through,Hidden away in the golden wheat.Do you think at last your love to meet
As you call for him there in the falling dew?Who knows? Pipe on by the old stone wall.   May he come ere night.    "Bob White!" "Bob White!"

THE GOULD ISLAND MYSTERY.

By David Buffum.

CHAPTER I.

THAT part of the island of Rhode Island called Ferry Neck, the spot where the first settlers built their houses and incorporated their "body politic," is a level peninsula near the north end of the island, comprising some three hundred acres and extending nearly to the mainland. Though comparatively destitute of trees, the location is beautiful. To the north is Mount Hope and the Cove; to the south, you look down Narragansett Bay, past picturesque little Gould Island with its cliffs and thick pine woods, between the green and fertile shores of Rhode Island on the one hand and the wooded hills of Tiverton on the other, straight out to sea.

Time has pretty effectually obliterated all traces of the houses of the settlers. Close to the south shore, however, can still be seen the remains of the foundation of a house built of small yellow brick, which would seem to indicate that the house which stood there was either of later date or better construction than the others. It was, in fact, both. It was standing and occupied long after the others had passed away; and connected with it is a story, the outlines of which can be found in the old records of the Society of Friends in Rhode Island, and which is an illustration of the strange springs which govern our human nature.

This house was built and for many years occupied by Isaiah Scott, a wealthy man for his times, who to the dignity of an elder in the Friends' meeting added the "claims of long descent." I should

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