Adrift in a Boat

Adrift in a Boat, by W.H.G.
Kingston

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Title: Adrift in a Boat
Author: W.H.G. Kingston
Release Date: October 17, 2007 [EBook #23048]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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A BOAT ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Adrift in a Boat, by W.H.G. Kingston.
CHAPTER ONE.
THE PICNIC ON THE SANDS--THE MIDSHIPMAN--HARRY

MERRYWEATHER AND DAVID MORETON CAUGHT BY THE
TIDE--THE ALARM.
Few parts of the shores of old England present more beautiful and
romantic scenery than is to be found on the coast of Cornwall. There
are deep bays, and bold headlands, and wild rocks, and lofty cliffs, and
wooded heights, and bare downs, and yellow sands full of the most
minute and delicate shells, so delicate that it is surprising how they
could have existed in the rough and boisterous ocean, and been cast up
whole from the depths below. In one of those beautiful bays, many
years ago, a large party was collected, on a bright afternoon in the early
part of autumn. Among the party were persons of all ages, but most of
them were young, and all were apparently very busy. Some were
engaged in tending a fire over which a pot was boiling, and others were
collecting drift-wood thrown up close under the cliff, with which to
feed it. Two or three young ladies, under the superintendence of a
venerable matron, were spreading a tablecloth, though the sand looked
so smooth and clear that it did not seem as if the most dainty of people
could have required one. Several were very eager in unpacking sundry
hampers and baskets, and in carrying the dishes and plates, and bottles
of wine, and the numerous other articles which they contained, to the
tablecloth. Two young ladies had volunteered to go with a couple of
pails to fetch water from a spring which gushed out of the cliff, cool
and fresh, at some distance off, and two young gentlemen had offered
to go and, assist them, which was very kind in the young gentlemen, as
they certainly before had not thought of troubling themselves about the
matter. To be sure the young ladies were very pretty and very agreeable,
and it is possible that their companions might not have considered the
trouble over-excessive. The youngest members of the party were as
busy as the rest, close down to the water collecting the beautiful shells
which have been mentioned. The shells were far too small to be picked
up singly, and they therefore came provided with sheets of thick
letter-paper, into which they swept them from off the sand where they
had been left by the previous high tide. A loud shout from a hilarious
old gentleman, who had constituted himself director of the
entertainment, and who claimed consequently the right of making more
noise than anybody else, or indeed than all the rest put together, now

summoned them up to the tablecloth, to which at the sound, with no
lingering steps, they came, exhibiting their treasures on their arrival to
their older friends. The party forthwith began to seat themselves round
the ample tablecloth, but they took up a good deal more room than had
it been spread on a table. The variety of attitudes they assumed was
amusing. The more elderly ladies sat very upright, with their plates on
their laps; the younger ones who had gone for the water, and their
friends of the same age, managed to assume more graceful attitudes;
while the young men who had been to school and college, and had read
how the Romans took their meals, stretched themselves out at the feet
of the former, leaning on their elbows, and occasionally, when not
actually engaged in conveying ham and chicken or pie to their mouths,
giving glances at the bright and laughing eyes above them. The
hilarious old gentleman tried kneeling, that he might carve a round of
beef placed before him, but soon found that attitude anything but
pleasant to his feelings; then he sat with one side to the cloth, then with
the other. At last he scraped a trench in the sand sufficient to admit his
outstretched legs, and, placing the beef before him, carved vigorously
away till all claimants were supplied. The younger boys and girls,
tucking their legs under them like Turks, speedily bestowed their
undivided attention to the task of stowing away the good things spread
out