Thus Miss Anne lived her life from week to week in that remote place.
Her only excitement came when very bad weather broke on us. If vessels
were in danger off our savage rocks, she would stand on the cliffs while
the spray lashed up in her face and drenched her with its bitter
saltness. If a shipwrecked crew were brought ashore she always liked to
take in one or two of the men, and her house was kept in a sad turmoil
until her guests had gone away. There are Italians, Norwegians, Swedes,
and Frenchmen, besides our own countrymen, who remember the exquisite
lady with gratitude. Very few people knew how Miss Anne came to live
unmarried, and in solitude; but there is a sorrowful story that explains
all. The Fisher's Friend had been the greatest beauty in all the north
country, and many men had loved her. One mad young fellow asked her to
marry him. She liked him, but she had always said that she never would
have him for a husband unless he gave up his wild ways. Again and again
they quarrelled, and made friends when he promised to be better. At last
she said something very bitter to him, and ordered him out of her sight.
He tramped in his own woods all night, and in the morning he galloped
his big brown horse down to the sea. He met Miss Anne and straightened
his horse across her path. She spoke sharply to him again, as he dashed
the spurs in, and went away. Next morning Miss Anne heard that he had
hung himself in the barn, and that he had left a note upbraiding her.
She turned very white, and went to her room, where she stayed praying
all day. The young Squire's death really ended her life.
After she had grown old, she failed one morning to rise early, and the
servants, who had been used to hear the quick sound of her feet whenever
the dawn came, grew alarmed. They sent for Big Tom, and Tom broke open
Miss Anne's bedroom door about noon. She was lying dead, and on her
breast they found a miniature portrait of a handsome and dark-looking
young man. She had worn her sweetheart's likeness for fifty years.
THE COASTGUARD.
Winter and summer, every night about six o'clock, a tall man, dressed in
blue, strode over the moor. Sometimes he looked on the ground for a long
time together, and seemed to be buried in deep thought. When he came to
the stream he always found another man waiting for him on the far side,
and this man was accompanied by a rough water-spaniel. The two friends,
who were both coastguards, held a little chat, and then the dog was told
to go over for the letters. The spaniel swam across, received the blue
despatches, and carried them to his master; then, with a cheery
good-night, the men turned back and went across the dark moor to their
homes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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