Part 3 — OUR SUPPLEMENT STORY COMPETITION.

“WHEN MY SHIP COMES HOME.”

A STORY IN MINIATURE.

First Prize (£2 2s.).

Letitia E. May, Tremayne, Alton, Hants.

Second Prize (£1 1s.).

Miss A. G. Pike, 21, Beatrice Avenue, Plymouth.

Third Prize (10s. 6d.).

Bessie Hine, 508, West Green Road, South Tottenham.

Honourable Mention.

“Dalkeith,” Southsea; Helen A. Rickards, Monmouth; Lucy Richardson, York; Relda Hofman, Paris; Ada A. Gage, Norwich; “Felicity,” Harwich, Essex; E. Jackson, Bow, E.; Lottie Hardy, Redcliffe Road, South Kensington; Margaret Rudd, Anerley; Edith Matthew, Beckenham; Elizabeth Rogers, Tramore, Co. Waterford; Florence L. Berry, Worcester; Florence Bensted, Deal; Alice E. Graves, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary; Lucy Bourne, Winchester; “Edythe,” Boscombe, Hants.

FIRST PRIZE ESSAY.

“When My Ship Comes Home.”

From childhood Harry Millbrooke resolved to marry Chatty Reeve when his ship came home. Now, Chatty declines to face the drudgery and monotony of domestic life. Harry regrets that she is influenced by her sister’s family worries, but he will not say good-bye to the old dream. Chatty determines to be a strong-minded spinster seeking her fortune in London where employment on the staff of a journal is promised by Joan Atherstone. Leaving Harry amidst the ruins of his fairy palace, she bids farewell to Audrey Woodville whose ship has come home with a lover who, after seven years’ absence, seeks his freedom. Audrey soars above her own trial, warns Chatty that she will not find the wilderness a paradise, and cheers Harry by assuring him that his ship will come home.

Chatty is disillusioned in London. The boarding-house is crowded. Some of its inmates are noisy and selfish. Poverty and care are stamped on all faces. Existence is a sad, despairing struggle. Joan forsakes the office in the Strand for a bicycle tour, and leaves Chatty to endure the burden of extra work in a stifling atmosphere. The country girl pines for the fresh breezes and sparkling waves of Northsea. She perceives the blessings she has cast away and the home she has despised. Chatty is lonely when Phœbe goes to keep house for an uncle, and after Esther’s wedding she feels an out-of-date regret that while her friend is happy on the old lines, she is unhappy on the new.

The climax comes. Faint and bewildered in crossing the street, Chatty regains consciousness in a hospital. When welcomed to her sister’s home she has changed from a self-reliant girl to a reserved woman. Barbara and Edward Purcell are very kind to her, and she resumes her post of governess, but all the old ties cannot be renewed so easily. Harry Millbrooke is in Copenhagen, and his mother has adopted pretty Etta Churton. Chatty reflects with a sigh that when her ship came home she sent it again to sea.

One balmy autumn day Harry returns and finds Chatty on the sea-shore. “Has my ship come home?” he asks. The answer is, “Yes, with torn sail and almost a wreck! But I know where my true haven is. I never want to go back to the waves of this troublesome world. I am safe in port at last.”

So this story, which our beloved authoress has woven round an attractive title, depicts the spirit of the age—the cry for emancipated womanhood, and ends to the happy music of wedding bells.

OUR NEXT STORY COMPETITION.

STORIES IN MINIATURE.

Subject:—“The G. O. P. Supplement for March.”

THE DEAF GIRL NEXT DOOR.

By HELEN MARION BURNSIDE (A Deaf Writer), Author of “Her Highland Laddie,” etc.

We offer three prizes of Two Guineas, One Guinea, and Half-a-Guinea for the three best papers on our “Story Supplement” for this month. The essays are to give a brief account of the plot and action of the story in the Competitor’s own words; in fact, each paper should be a carefully-constructed Story in Miniature, telling the reader in a few bright words what The Girl’s Own Story Supplement for the month is all about.

One page of foolscap only is to be written upon, and is to be signed by the writer, followed by her full address, and posted to The Editor, Girl’s Own Paper, in an unsealed envelope, with the words “Stories in Miniature” written on the left-hand top corner.

The last day for receiving the papers is March 20th; and no papers can in any case be returned.

Examiners:—The Author of the Story (Helen Marion Burnside), and the Editor of The Girl’s Own Paper.

FOOTNOTES:

[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text:

Page 350: artifical to artifical—“artificial flowers”.]