I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tale

eing very slow to catch fire, but burning consumedly when once ignited. Also he was sincere as the day, and had been treacherously used. So he raged at

s Sweetland sat around him and administered comfor

an' eat, as the wise king recommended, sayin', 'Stay me wi' flagons

ncle Issy, "an' turn from his vittles, an' pass hi

my nose," objec

hite you wasn', but y

ospect, and the tan sails of a small lugger were visible there, rounding the point to the

ow, did

n i' the forenoon. Jim L

ir, movin' his chattels. There's a hole in the roof of that new cottage of his that a man may put his Sunday hat dro'; and as for his old W

' said Jim, 'an' now you turns me out wi' a week's warnin'.' 'You've a-crossed my will,' says Tresidder,

aid 'twas low manners for bride an' groom to go to church from the same house. So no sooner was the Lewarnes out than he was in, like shufflin

s a trifle for

ee, my son niver to save no

promised

ee Sundays, bain't what they was for lack o' your enlivenin' flute-I can't say they be. An' to h

no doubt; but I'd take it

nin'; an' I cudn' help my thoughts dwellin' 'pon the dismal

ght up his cap and ru

r path above the cliffs. The air was warm, and he climbed in such hurry that the sweat soon began to drop from his forehead. By the time he reached the cliffs he was force

ngage to put a part of his legacy into the adventure. In fact, he was ready for anything that would take him out of Porthlooe. To live there and run the risk of meeting Ruby on the other man's arm was more than fle

es by the cliffs, and when he had accomplished

y a small patch cleared for potatoes, and here an oldi

ornin',

', holl

ack and retained the name of his profession, the parish register alone preserving his true name of Matthew Spry. He was a fervent Methodist-a local preacher, in fact-and was held in some admirati

nty frigate go cruisi

N

guns, I do b'lieve, an' all sail set. I cou

ey

under Bradden Point; so she's for Troy, t

ee her, if s

o' those customers. By all accounts you'm a man of to

horizon line, and answered, as if reading the s

k; for, of course, he knew Zeb's trouble. But after

he said; "pray t

s an hour, or thereabouts, then he turned aside over a stile and crossed a couple of meadows;

the farther shore. A thin haze of blue smoke lay over the town at his feet, and the noise of mallets in the ship-building yards came across to him throu

it had turned cold as ice. A new idea had taken him, an idea of which at first he felt fairly afraid. He passed a hand ove

up from the stone and went down the steep hill towards the ferry, stumbling over the rough stones

les. It plunged so steeply, and the houses on either side wedged it in so tightly, that to look down from the top was like peering into a well. A patch of blu

this, his face, which had been pale for the last five minutes, grew ashen-white. He halted for a

ee sat on a bench beside the door, and three more, with mugs of b

e bench, as Zeb passed. And Zeb tur

t is

e ye bou

the f

at left two minutes since an' wo

ld out his mug with the friendliest air, his head thrown ba

"I will; an' may the

sailor said, staring at him; "but split me i

b answered, "I was

e, when he spied a dark figure coming eastwards along the track; and, putting up a hand to ward off the level rays o

n he noticed the hollibubber standing in the

eart. God forgi'e me that, i' my shyness, I l

to know my affairs," Ze

nderly. He was desperately shy, as he had co

ather: an' surely we may know each other's burd

late, hol

over the purple sea. The ol

w s

ld my soul

live an' standin' here

?" Zeb aske

e flame of the sunset. "Turn aside, here, an' kneel down; I will wrestl

p. Can such things h

l and

words will I hear but the words of Lamech-'I ha' slain a man to my woundin

ld man tumbled beside the path with his head against the potato fence. Zeb with

hollibubber had picked himself up and was kneeling

b again, and dashed on