I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales

arols ushered in the day, a certain languor not seldom pervaded the services of the Church a few hours later. Red eyes and heavy, young limbs hardly rested from the Dashing White

ed at midnight. The building stands high above a bleak peninsula on the South Coast, and the congregation had struggled up with heads slanted sou'-west against the weather that drove up the Channel in a black fog. Now, having gained shelter, they quickly lost the glow of endeavour,

ing back at the end of the Psalms, and eyeing his fiddle dubiously; "If Sternho

the second fiddle-a screw-faced man tightly

to cuss the singers when the

s Sweetland, bending across from the left. Now Elias was a bachelor, and had blown the serpent from hi

d among the proper psa'ms, 'specially since Chris'mas three year, when we sat in the forefront of the gallery, an'

at hour, I do b'lieve. Though I'd as lief you didn't mentio

looked up for a moment, as a scud of rain splashed on

m intervals, and a drop o' cider in the mouthpieces i

rew as p

ed boy o' mine, I keep silence, yea, even from hard words, considerin' what's to co

hy he looks

g Zeb Minards, who sat on their left and f

feelin',

er; very whitely, a

by sympathy, handed a

, the bass-viol player; "But cast your eyes, good friends, 'pon a little slip o' heart's delight down in t

orld's way

dn't miss the importance of i

Pa'son Babbage by the desk statin' forth my own banns, an' me with my clean shirt collar limp as a flounder. As for your mother, Zeb, nuthin 'ud do but she must dream o' runnin' water that Saturday night, an' want to c

ust daunt a man to hear his name loudly couple

n ended. There was a scraping of feet, then a clearing of throat

out, grey morning or white, a gloom rested always on the singers' gallery, cast by the tower upon the south side, that stood apart from the main building, connected only by the porch roof, as by an isthmus. And upon eyes used to this comparative obscurity the nave produced the effect of a bright parterre of flowers, especially in those days when all the women wore scarlet cloaks, to scare th

ree words from the mouth of Old Ze

-ye s

ng the rest of the canticle his eyes were glued to the score, and seemed

us, my son," commented his father at

eppermint lozenge had somehow jolted into his windpipe, and

unheeded. The crowder, with his eyes contemplatively fastened on the capital of a distant pill

he, had a-dropped in, in passin', an' heard me read the same. 'Hullo!' he'd 'a said, 'You've a-put the same words twice over.' 'How's that?' 'How's that? Why,

ve and wholly flattering sketch. "No-really now! Though, indeed, strange wo

eaded old antic,- leave that to the musicianers. At the word 'whales,' let the music go snorty; an' for wells, gliddery; a

mfortable sounds were issuing. His eyes rolled

he back, Calvin

pa'son at' h

For 'tis clunk or stuff

pew as Calvin Oke brought down his open palm with a whack! knocking the suffer

between Zebedee Minards, bachelor, and Ruby Tresidder, spinster, both of thi

ned. Parson Babbage broke off his sentence and looked also, keeping his forefinger on the fluttering page. On the threshold stood a

ck! a

sbands' hats, and stood up also. The choir in the gallery craned forward, for the church-do

e's s

t, an' comin' full

board!" spoke up a woman's voice, in

you know, G

no longer-must be off

first, but fair pla

the short grass, blowing the women's skirts wide and straining their bonnet-strings, pressing the men's trousers tight against their shins as they bent against it in the attitude of butting rams and scanned the coast-line to the sou'-west. Ruby

d her by, she felt suddenly out of tune with them, especially with Zeb, who, at least, might have understood her better. Some angry tears gathered in her eyes at the callous indifference of her

along my second-best glass, under the Dook o' Cumberland's picter i' the parlour, 'longside o' last year's

lready fighting her way out along the headland to a point where Zeb s

eb

is ear. He faced round with a start, nodded as i

lling and sinking, and the puffs of foam that shot up like white smoke at her feet and drenched her gown. Beyond, the sea, the sky, and the irregular coast with its fri

r gnawing at her face, and the spray for spoiling her bonnet and t

eb

back in her ear, kissing her w

in comparison with it. But, at this instant, a small group of men and women joined them, and, catch

you; but don't 'ee take on so. Think how much

ly. Zeb answered it with a point-blank stare of bew

r, Zeb?" called

N

the wind the better to wink at the company, "that 'tis lucky for some folks Gauger Hocken hain't extr

'em 'pon the road, a minute

ger Hocken to warn the church-folk first; and him a man of n

p, now suddenly flung his left out in the directi

moment it had doubled its size-had become a blur-then a shape. And at length, out of the lead

one, while Ruby dug her

e with a rush like a greyhound's, heeling over the whitened water, close under the cliffs, and closer with every i

affer's Rock. By crum! if she does, the

es, her steerin' gear's broke," ans

ooner came tearing abreast of it, a huge sea caught her broadside, and lifted as if to fling her high and dry. The men and women on the headland held t

shouted young Zeb, sha

ney, or

r the schooner must dash upon the Raney-a reef, barely covered at high water, barring entrance to the cove-or avoiding this, must be shattered on the

it, half buried in the seas through which she was being impelled; she saw distinctly one form, and one only, on the deck beside the helm-a form that flung up

ng her eyes, an age before the crash came, and

from her face the others were tw