My companion soon brought me to an opening in the hills which led
directly down to the beach. Immediately I saw lights before us moving to
and fro, and the busy hum of voices came upon the wind; forms were
indistinctly seen hurrying backward and forward upon the very verge of
the white foam boiling from the huge billows. Hastening to the spot, we
found a number of fishermen--their wives assisting in the
scrutiny--carefully examining the fragments of wreck which the waves
were from time to time casting up, and throwing with a heavy lunge upon
the shore. Either for purposes of plunder, or for the more ostensible
design of contributing to their preservation, sundry packages were
occasionally conveyed away, subsequently to an eager examination of
their contents. My associate ran into the thickest of the group,
anxiously inquiring as to the fate of the crew, and if any lives had
been preserved.
"I guess," cried an old hard-featured sinner, "they be where they'll
need no lookin' after. Last brast o' wind, six weeks agone next St
Barnaby, I gied my cabin to the lady and her children--an' the pains I
waur like to ha' for my labour--I didn't touch a groat till the parson
gied me a guinea out o' th' 'scription;--but I may trot gaily hoam
to-night.
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