I Am Also Bound To Mention, That Protruding
From His Coat-Pocket Were Certain Sheets Of Music, With
The Name Of "Alice Louisa," Written Therein In A Remarkably
Pretty Hand, Which Led Me To Believe That The Doctor Had
Not Entirely Confined His Energies To The Acquisition Of
Hens And Vegetables.
The rest of the day was spent in
packing away our newly-purchased stores, and making the
ship as tidy as circumstances would admit.
I am afraid,
however, many a smart yachtsman would have been scandalized
at our decks, lumbered up with hen-coops, sacks of coal,
and other necessaries, which, like the Queen of Spain's
legs, not only ought never to be seen, but must not be
supposed even to exist, on board a tip-top craft.
By the evening, the gale, which had been blowing all day,
had increased to a perfect hurricane. At nine o'clock we
let go a second anchor; and I confess, as we sat comfortably
round the fire in the bright cheerful little cabin, and
listened to the wind whistling and shrieking through the
cordage, that none of us were sorry to find ourselves in
port on such a night, instead of tossing on the wild
Atlantic - though we little knew that even then the
destroying angel was busy with the fleet of fishing-boats
which had put to sea so gallantly on the evening of our
arrival. By morning the neck of the gale was broken, and
the sun shone brightly on the white rollers as they chased
each other to the shore; but a Queen's ship was steaming
into the bay, with sad news of ruin out to seaward; - towing
behind her, boats, water-logged, or bottom upwards, - while
a silent crowd of women on the quay were waiting to learn
on what homes among them the bolt had fallen.
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