The Pilot and his Wife

the sea the white walls of the Great and Little Torungen Lighthouses, each on its bare rock-island of corresponding name, the

-birds not unfrequently dashing themselves to death against the thick glass panes at night; while in winter all communic

s now living can remember the time when for long reaches the only lighting was the gleam of the white breakers themselves. And the

ack and one side almost up to the eave of the roof stuck into a heap of stones, so that it had the appearance of bending forward to let the storm sweep over it. The lo

nd sideboard, which no one would have dreamt of finding under such a roof. In one corner there stood an old spinning-wheel covered with dust, and with a smoke-blackened tuft of wool still h

ss spectacles with which he greeted any casual stranger who might come into the house had very little welcome in it, and an expression about his sunken mouth and sharp chin said plainly enough that the other might state his business at once and be gone. He sought no company; and the only time he had ever been seen at church was when he came rowing over to Trom? with his wife's body in her coffin.

is only ostensible means of living were by shoemaking, and by fishing, the produce of which he generally disposed of to passing ships, and, during the earlier period of his sojourn there, by shooting occasionally. But it was understood that he received a small regular contribution from several of the pilots, certificated or otherwise, of the district, for keeping a fire alight on his hearth during the dark autumn nights, and so giving them, by the light from his two windows, something to steer by when they arrived off the coast after nightfall. Whet

crop of hair falling about her ears, and a rough dog constantly at her heels-would burst into the house with all the freshness of the outside air blowing round her, as it were, and deliver herself of her intelligence, he might be drawn, perhaps, to the window to look out over the sea, and afterwards, like a growling bear disturbed from its lair, even follow her with some difficulty out of the door with the spyglass. There he would s

mistake about the craft, large or small, that belonged to that part of the coast, and could, besides, say to a nicety, what sort of master each had. Her super

and this caused even the old man a moment's astonishment. But he declared t

r for a moment. B

barbarian,

s a T

but a

-it's-a M

t!-a M

n-a robber o

oard

r, hard as she pushed him; so he bethought him of a pac

ltic-to Russia-to

an f

y seize vessels in the open s

terrified eyes on him, whic

they look. That meat is the finest, a

he was going in again, but wa

ipped quickly by him through the door, and kept cautiously within as lo

ld man looked very sly over his work, whilst she w

et rid of them? If I was ca

ou were captain of a

very now and then there might perhaps come a boat on one errand or another, and a couple of times she had paid a visit to her maternal aunt on land, at Arendal. Her grandfather had taught her to read and write, and with what she found in the Bible and psalm-book, a

. It represented the frigate Naiad, with the brigs Samso, Kiel, and Lolland, in furious conflict with the English ship of the line Dictator, w

e; and many a time in fancy had she stood there and fought the Englishman. Men-of-war and their officers had become the highest conception of her fancy, an