English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
Presently he found the cave-mouth, and noted in his mind the best way
thither. The cave seemed to him a very sweet place; the mouth was all
fringed with little ferns; inside it was dry and clean; and in a few
hours he had disposed all his small goods within it. There was a low
slope, on one side of the rocks, where the fern grew plentifully. He
gathered great armfuls of the dry red stalks, and made himself a
rustling bed. So the day wore pleasantly away. One of his cares was to
find water; but here it seemed that God blessed him very instantly, for
he found a place near the sea, where a little spring soaked cool out of
the rock, with a pleasant carpet of moss and yellow flowers. He found,
too, some beds of shell-fish, which he saw would give him food and bait
for his fishing. So about sundown he cast a line from the end of the
rocks and presently caught a fish, a ling, which lives round rocky
shores. This he broiled at a small fire of driftwood, for he had brought
tinder with him; and it pleased him to think of the meal that the
Apostles took with the risen Christ, a meal which He had made for them,
and to which He Himself called them; for that, too, was a broiled fish,
and eaten by the edge of the sea. Also he ate a little of the bread he
had brought with him; and with it some of a brisk juicy herb, called
samphire, that sprouted richly in the cliff, which gave his meat an
aromatic savour; and with a drink of fresh spring water he dined well,
and was content; then he climbed within the cave, and fell asleep to the
sound of the wind buffeting in the cliff, and the fall of great waves on
the sea beaches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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