le topic around Rockhaven
firesides was what object took Jess Hutton and his bride and Mona away
from the island and how long they would stay away.

Jess had said, "We want ter give Mona a little change o' scene 'n'
chance to see the world, 'n' jist when we'll cum back is no tellin'. Cum
back we shall some day, 'n' most likely glad ter git back tew." And then
when the affairs of the Hutton family no longer furnished food for
gossip, the island settled down once more into its monotonous winter
existence. Twice a week only now the _Rockhaven_ made her trip to the
mainland; but few people gathered for the Thursday evening prayer
meeting, for extra religion was at a discount during cold weather, and
only the most hardy of the fishermen ventured out. The tower on Norse
Hill, now coated with frozen sleet, looked like a gigantic monument; the
tides ebbed in and out the half-iced over harbor; the waves beat with
sullen roar into the gorge that no one visited, and life among the
shut-in islanders partook of the solemnity of the ocean's voice.

The crowd that had made Jess Hutton's store their club-room still
gathered there to swap yarns and discuss fish and fishing; also whether
his all-winter's absence was likely to result in the opening of the
quarry or not. Then, too, in this news bureau, Winn Hardy and Mona came
in for a share of gossip, and many a surmise as to their future was
exchanged. For they had been noticed many times together, and Mona's
visit to the city might mean much. No one had any data as to Jess
Hutton's future intentions or whether Hardy was likely to return; and
yet, so well did he stand with them, and so hopeful were they that he
would once more open the quarry when spring came, that they readily
believed it would come about.

Of the Rockhaven Granite Company collapse they knew not, for daily
papers never reached the island, and Jess for reasons of his own kept
silent.

The only unhappy one, however, was David Moore; and he recited his woes
in characteristic fashion to all who would listen. He had little idea of
the proprieties, and as he had almost shouted his love from the
house-tops, so now he declared his disappointment as loudly.

"It's my private 'pinion," he asserted, "they lugged Mona off just to
spite me and get her out o' my sight. I think it's a darn mean trick,
and I don't care who knows it! I kin see through the game, and they
calculated takin' her to the city 'nd give that feller Hardy a