CIPHER : A Romance.

“Like a 0, which means much or nothing, as you use it.”

My Dear L:
Do you remember standing with me upon the bridge, and tossing chip boats into the river, and how eagerly we watched to see which should drift ashore, or wreck themselves against the stone pier, or remain idle and motionless in the eddy pool, and which should glide safely through the arch and down the smooth stream beyond?

Come, now, and help me launch another venture, the little craft
called “Cipher,” whose construction you have watched with such
ready sympathy and interest, and to whose freight you have so
largely contributed. What is to be its fate? Will it be stranded,
or shattered, or left idly in the pool, or run down by heavier craft,
or sunk by the missiles of those wicked boys upon the other bank?
Shall we call to the boys and deprecate their attack by a confession that our little boat is not an iron-clad war vessel, much less our final idea of an elegant yacht, and that even for a chip boat she has been almost spoiled by over-whittling? No, never mind the boys; let us say nothing at all to them, but, standing hand in hand, watch together the fortunes of our little craft, thanking God that, should she sink or should she swim, she does not carry our lives or our happiness with her.

J. G. A.