I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales

hrow across the three hundred yards that separated her from the cliffs; no swimmer that could carry a rope across those breakers; nor any boat t

beach, and on the near side of the Raney a shapeless fragment, pounded and washed

lantern for the tossing stern-light of a comrade, the second ship had charged full-tilt on the reef and hung herself upon it, as a hunter across a fence. Before she could swing round, her back was broken; her stern parted, slipped back and s

id Elias Sweetland, grimly, as he took

usiness on descending to the Cove had been to pack Ruby and Mary Jane off to bed with a sound rating. Parson Babbage had descended also, carrying a heavy cane (the very same with which he broke the head of a Radical agitator in the bar of the "Jo

alive t

a glass at his l

er, so far as I can see; but 'tis all a raffle o' spars and riggin'

wn the glass, with a whitened f

terrible!" he said, very slowly, a

be I to look? Aw, p

ut there's

tched t

er her lee! I saw en move- a bla

ook. "Darned if I won't!" he said. "Cast over them corks, Sim Udy

answered

n, an' hitch a doz

ed his father,

Zeb, who by this time

which, he sets up as jowter-han'some painted cart, tidy little mare, an' all complete, besides a bravish sum laid by. A man of substance, sirs-a

r, an' tie thicky knot

propensities wi' the strap-ay, hours. D'ee think I raised 'ee up so carefully to chuck thyself away 'pon

ferule of his cane deep in the sand, "be content to have begot

d the waist, an' pay out steady. You, Jim, look to this. R-r-r-mortal cold water, friends!" He stood for a moment, clenching his teeth-a fine figu

et thank God for what he sees, sometimes. Hey, Farmer! I wish I was

'll make a h

asn't thinking o' her. Ho

nd had wound tightly round his wrist the end of a rope that hung over the bows. If the rope gave, or the mast worked clear of the tangle that held it and floated off, he w

ine slowly. In fact, the feat was less dangerous than it seemed to the spectators. A few hours before, it was impossible; but by this there was little more than a heavy swell after the first twenty yards of surf. Zeb's chief difficulty would

unging down into a smooth trough of water with the mast directly beneath. As he shot down, the mast ros

yes wide open, and seemed to stare at Zeb and wriggle about in the stir of the sea as if they lived. Spent and wretched as he was, it lifted his hair. He almost called out to them at first, and then he dragged his gaze off them, and turned it to the right. The survivor still clung here, and Zeb-who had been vaguely wondering how on earth he contrived to keep his seat and yet hold on by th

ong towards the stranger. They had seen his success from the beach, and Jim Lewarne, with plenty o

" he called out; "I'm g

t with his foot, as a pettish child mig

that's a curst foolish trick, all the sa

no sign of

ed Zeb: "must get past en an' make fast

; and a struggle followed, which ended in Zeb's getting

leg over the mast: "ingratitood's worse than witchcraft. Sit ye

swung in towards the vessel's ribs till he touched one, caught, and passed the line around it, high up, with a quick double half-hitch.

erfully set o

from cold and exposure. But he was handsome, for all that- a fellow not mu

hat now connected the wreck with the shore, he sat d

ky, is

ha

man from

st, and let me slip 'em round yourn.

other, with a shiver, "you are sav

'ee s

ld yes

along. Tide's runnin' again by now. When you'm tired, hold fast by the rope an' sing out to me.

the night. Those fools-" he br

d," put in

. I climbed down half an hour before it went. I tell you what, though; m

le handsome chap, and as clean-built as ever I see. Now then, one arm round my neck and t'other on th

t on, though very soon the struggle became a blind and horrible nightmare to him. The arm seemed to creep round his throat and strangle him, and

air clinging to the line, and at a standstill. And when the four were helped through the breakers

age in a dazed, uncertain fashion, and uttering the words as if they had

too, fainted, into

oth up to Sheba," s

y-eyed, getting ready the breakfast, dashed up-stairs with the news that two dea

exclaimed, "to frighten

I'm goin' down to peep; for there's a kind o' what-I-can't-tell-'ee abo

ack panting, to find

ul news I ha' to tell,

hold o' the bed-post to

how to break it softly

not dead

is

d husband, mi

the world s

he fell downward in a swound, marvellous like to death for all to behold. So they brought en up here, 'long wi' the chap he'd a-saved, an'

the stairs. Running to the kitchen doo

the group merely lifted their heads at her entrance, the old cro

dee, and go up-stairs agen to your prayers; for this

r this extravagant charge and bridling, "pray rememb

oice, "but that's the spirit fo

es were set in a cadaverous, but handsome, face; and the face belonged to the strange

who you may

to excuse my rising

s Zebedee