The Pilot and his Wife

nd to come out. She was a square-rigged vessel, with a crew of nineteen hands all told, which had plied for many yea

was considered among the sailors of the district a very high honour indeed-the more so that her master

that they were bound on a longer voyage than usual. On board she had with her still the captain's son, Carl Beck, a smart young naval officer, with his sister and a small party of their friends, who meant to land out on the Torungens in the sailing-boat they had in tow. They wished

e reefs, and a line of dark fire-fringed clouds about the sunset, which looked like heavy weather coming up, the pleasur

d with a fringe of foam round its base; and he could see old Jacob's granddaughter standing by the wall of the house with the glass. He had chosen on purpose a conspicuous place, and stood with his back

freight into the sail-boat, he waved his hat, and his whole face lighted up with joy as he saw h

inspirited for the whole voyage; and the first thing he should do when they arrived at Boston would be to buy a dress and a ring; and when he came home h

g if he was going to sleep there, and whether he wanted something to wake him up. T

time the sea was running high, and they were plunging through the darkness under a double-reefed mainsail, the moon every now and then clearing an open space in the storm-

me to time he stood up and tried to keep himself warm by exercising his arms. He sang, or more often took up afresh upon each recovery of consciousness a verse of a half-Swedish ballad about a "girl so true," that he wished he then h

s he paced to and fro by the fore-hatch, lost in his dreams,

ught that he was performing b