Shall we describe the joy of the widow and the grandfather? No; there
are some sacred matters in life which are best left to the imagination.
The sunshine which had begun to scatter the clouds, and flood both land
and sea, was typical of the joy which could find no better means than
sobs wherewith to express gratitude to the God of mercy.
We have said that the gale had begun to abate. When the lifeboat
escaped from the turmoil of cross-seas that raged over the sands and got
into deep water, all difficulties and dangers were past, and she was
able to lay her course for Greyton harbour.
"Let's have another swig o' that cold tea," said Bob Massey, resuming
his rightful post at the helm. "It has done me a power o' good. I had
no notion that cold tea was so good for warmin' the cockles o' one's
heart."
Ah! Bob Massey, it was not the cold tea, but the saving of that little
girl that sent the life's blood careering so warmly through your veins!
However, there's no harm done in putting it down to the credit of the
cold tea. Had the tea been hot, there might have been some truth in
your fancy.
"What's the time?" asked Bob, with a sudden look of anxiety.
"Just gone ten," said Slag, consulting a chronometer that bore some
resemblance to an antique warming-pan.
The look of anxiety on the coxswain's countenance deepened.
"Ease off the sheet a bit," he said, looking sternly over the weather
quarter, and whistling for a fresher breeze, though most men would have
thought the breeze fresh enough already.
As if to accommodate him, and confirm the crew in the whistling
superstition, the breeze did increase at the moment, and sent the
lifeboat, as one of the men said, "snorin'" over the wild sea towards
the harbour of Greyton.
It was a grand sight to behold the pier of the little port on that
stormy morning. Of course, it had soon become known that the lifeboat
was out. Although at starting it had been seen by only a few of the old
salts--whose delight it was to recall the memory of grand stormy times
long past, by facing the gales at all hours in oiled coats and
sou'-westers--the greater part of the fishing village only became aware
of the fact on turning out to work in the morning. We have said that
the gale had moderated, and the sun had come out, so that the pier was
crowded, not only with fisher-folk, but with visitors to the port, and
other landsmen.
Great was the hope, and sanguine the expectation of the crowd, when,
after long and anxious waiting, the lifeboat was at last descried far
out at sea, making straight for the harbour.
"All right, Bill," exclaimed an old fisherman, who had been for some
time past sweeping the horizon with his glass, "the flag's a-flyin'."
"What does that mean?" asked a smart young lady, who had braved the
blast and run the risk of a salt-wash from the sprays at the pier-end in
her eager desire to see the boat arrive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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