The Measure of a Man | Page 5

rapidly rising, and in a few minutes there was an impetuous shout
for the storm jib, "Quick," and down came a blast from the north, and
with a rip and a roar the yacht leaped her full length. If her canvas had
been spread, she would have gone to the bottom; but under bare masts
she came quickly and beautifully to her bearings, shook herself like a
gull, and sped southward.
All night they were beating about in a fierce wind and heavy sea; and
Hatton, lying awake, listened to the mysterious hungering voice of the
waves, till he was strangely sad and lonely. And there was no Captain
to talk with, though he could hear his hoarse, strong voice above the
roar of wind and waters. For the sea was rising like the gable of a house,
but the yacht was in no trouble; she had held her own in far worse seas.
In the morning the sky was of snaky tints of yellow and gray, but the
wind had settled and the waves were flatting; but John saw bits of
trailing wreckage floating about their black depths, making the Firth
look savagely haggard.
On the second evening the Captain came to eat his dinner with John.
"The storm is over, Mr. Hatton," he said. "The sea has been out of her
wits, like an angry woman; but," he added with a smile, "we got the
better of her, and the wind has gone down. There is not breeze enough
now to make the yacht lie over."
"I could hear your voice, strong and cheerful, above all the uproar,
Captain, so I had no fear."
"We had plenty of sea room, sir, a good boat, and--"
"A good captain."
"Yes, sir, you may say that. The Pentland roared and raged a bit, but the
sea has her Master. She hears a voice we cannot hear. It says only three
words, Mr. Hatton, three words we cannot hear, but a great calm
follows them."
"And the three words are--?"

"_Peace! Be still_!"
Then John Hatton looked with a quick understanding into his Captain's
face, and answered with a confident smile,
"O Saxon Sailor thou hast had with thee, The Sailor of the Lake of
Galilee."
"I hope, and I believe so, sir. I have been in big storms, and felt it."
"I got a glimpse of you in a flash of lightning that I shall never forget,
Captain Cook. You were standing by the wheel, tightening your hat on
your head; your feet were firm on the rolling deck, and you were
searching the thickest of the storm with a cheerful, confident face. Do
you like a storm?"
"Well, sir, smooth sea-sailing is no great pleasure. I would rather see
clouds of spray driving past swelling sails, than feel my way through a
nasty fog. Give me a sea as high as a masthead, compact as a wall, and
charging with the level swiftness of a horse regiment, and I would
rather take a ship through it, than make her cut her way through a thick,
black fog, as if she was a knife. In a storm you see what you are doing,
and where you are going, but you hev to steal and creep and sneak
through a fog, and never know what trap or hole may be ahead of you. I
know the sea in all her ways and moods, sir. Some of them are rather
trying. But my home and my business is on her, and in her worst
temper she suits me better than any four-walled room, where I would
feel like a stormy petrel shut up in a cage. The sea and I are kin. I often
feel as if I had tides in my blood that flow and ebb with her tides."
"I would not gainsay you, Captain. Every man's blood runs as he feels.
You were a different man and a grander man when you were guiding
the yacht through the storm than you are sitting here beside me eating
and drinking. My blood begins to flow quick when I go into big rooms
filled with a thousand power looms. Their noise and clatter is in my
ears a song of praise, and very often the men and women who work at
them are singing grandly to this accompaniment. Sometimes I join in
their song, as I walk among them, for the Great Master hears as well as

sees, and though these looms are almost alive in their marvelous skill, it
may be that He is pleased to hear the little human note mingling with
the voices of the clattering, humming, burring looms."
"To be sure He is. The song of labor is His, and I hev no doubt it is
quite as sweet in