Emilie the Peacemaker | Page 7

sailing, and though I have sailed many and many
a mile, in large vessels and small, I always hold to it that it is ticklish
work for the young and giddy. Why sometimes you are on the sea,
Miss, ah, as calm as it is now--all in peace and safety--a squall comes,

and before you know what you are about you are capsized. I had told
him this, and he knew it, Miss, but he got a good many idle
acquaintances, as I told you, and they tempted him often to do bold
reckless things such as boys call brave."
"It was one morning at the end of September, Bob says to me, 'Father,
we are going to keep my birthday; I am sixteen to-day,' and so he was,
bless him, sixteen the very day he died. 'We are going to keep my
birthday,' says he, 'Newton, and Somers, and Franklin, and I, we are all
going to Witton,' that is the next town, Miss, as you may know, 'we are
going to have a sail there, and dine at grandmother's, and home again at
night, eh Father.' 'Bob,' says I, 'I can't give my consent; that ticklish
sailing boat of young Woods' requires wiser heads and steadier hands
than your's to manage. You know my opinion of sailing, and you won't
grieve me, I hope, by going.' I might have told him, but I did not, that I
did not like the lads he was going with, but I knew that would only
make him angry, and do no good just as his heart was set upon a frolic
with them, so I said nought of that, but I tried to win him, (that's my
way with the young ones,) though I failed this time; go he would, and
he would have gone, let me have been as angry as you please. But I
have this comfort, that no sharp words passed my lips that day, and no
bitter ones his. I saw he was set on the frolic, and I hoped no harm
would come of it. How I watched the sky that day, Miss, no mortal
knows; how I started when I saw a sea gull skim across the waves! how
I listened for the least sound of a squall! Snap was just as fidgetty
seemingly, and we kept stealing down to the beach, long before it was
likely they should be back. As I stood watching there in the evening,
where I knew they would land, I saw young Newton's mother; she
pulled me by my sleeve, anxious like, and said, 'What do you think of
the weather Joe?' 'Why, Missis,' said I, 'there is an ugly look about the
sky, but I don't wish to frighten you; please God they'll soon be home,
for Bob promised to be home early.'"
"Well, Miss, there we stood, the waves washing our feet, till it grew
dark, and then I could stand it no longer. I said to the poor mother,
'keep a good heart,' but I had little hope myself, God knows, and off I
made for Witton. Well, they had not been there, I found the

grandmother had seen nothing of them. They were picked up a day or
so after, all four of them washed up by the morning tide; their boat had
drifted no one knows where, and no one knows how it happened; but I
suppose they were driven out by the fresh breeze that sprung up, and
not knowing how to manage the sails, they were capsized."
"There they all lay. Miss, in the churchyard. It was a solemn sight, I can
tell you, to see those four coffins, side by side, in the church. They
were all strong hearty lads, and all under seventeen. I go and sit on his
grave sometimes, and spell over all I said, and all he said that day; and
glad enough I am, that I can remember neither cross word nor cross
look. Ah, my lady, I should remember it if it had been so. We think we
are good fathers and good friends to them we love while they are alive,
but as soon as we lose 'em, all the kindness we ever did them seems
little enough, while all the bad feelings we had, and sharp words we
spoke, come up to condemn us."
By this time they had reached the fisherman's cottage; it was prettily
situated, as houses on the south coast often are, under the shadow of a
fine over-hanging cliff. Masses of rock, clad with emerald green, were
scattered here and there, and the thriving plants in the little garden,
gave evidence of the mildness of the air in those parts, though close
upon the sea. The cottage was very low, but