The Pilot and his Wife | Page 2

his certificate; and it was thought that on the occasion in
question the father had taken the son's blame upon himself. Since then
he had shunned society, and had retired with his wife to his present
habitation, whither, after their son was drowned, they had brought their
little orphan granddaughter, who now was his sole companion. His only
ostensible means of living were by shoemaking, and by fishing, the
produce of which he generally disposed of to passing ships, and, during
the earlier period of his sojourn there, by shooting occasionally. But it
was understood that he received a small regular contribution from
several of the pilots, certificated or otherwise, of the district, for
keeping a fire alight on his hearth during the dark autumn nights, and
so giving them, by the light from his two windows, something to steer
by when they arrived off the coast after nightfall. Whether the light was
shown for their benefit particularly, or whether it was not rather
intended for the guidance of smuggling vessels standing in under cover
of the night to land their cargoes, it was not their business to inquire. Its
friendly assistance was, at all events, not unacknowledged by these
latter, and very acceptable presents, in the shape of kegs of spirits, bags
of coffee, tobacco, meal, and so forth, would, from time to time, come
rolling into the old man's room, so that upon the whole, he was
well-to-do enough out there upon his rock.
Of late years he had fallen into feeble health, and found it not so easy to
row the long distance over to land. Even in his best days he had, owing
to an old injury to one of his legs, found some difficulty in getting
down to the boat; and now, therefore, he sat during the greater part of
the day over the hearth, in his woolen jacket and leather breeches, with
his indoor work. Now and then, when his granddaughter--a child with a
thick crop of hair falling about her ears, and a rough dog constantly at
her heels--would burst into the house with all the freshness of the
outside air blowing round her, as it were, and deliver herself of her
intelligence, he might be drawn, perhaps, to the window to look out
over the sea, and afterwards, like a growling bear disturbed from its lair,
even follow her with some difficulty out of the door with the spyglass.
There he would station himself, so as to use her shoulder as a rest for
his shaking hand, and with his never-ceasing directions and growling

going on behind her neck, she would do her best to fix the glass on the
desired object. His crossness would then disappear, little by little, in
their joint speculation as to what ship it could be, or in whatever
remarks it might suggest; and after giving his decision, the old man
would generally hobble in again.
He was really very proud of his granddaughter's cleverness. She could
distinguish with her naked eye as clearly as he could through the glass.
She never made a mistake about the craft, large or small, that belonged
to that part of the coast, and could, besides, say to a nicety, what sort of
master each had. Her superiority of sight she asserted, too, with a
tyranny to which he made no resistance, although it might have tried a
temper many degrees more patient than his was.
One day, however, she was at a loss. They made out a crescent on the
flag, and this caused even the old man a moment's astonishment. But he
declared then, for her information, shortly and decisively, that it was a
"barbarian."
This satisfied her for a moment. But then she asked--
"What is a barbarian, grandfather?"
"It is a Turk."
"Yes, but a Turk?"
"Oh! it's--it's--a Mohammedan--"
"A what!--a Moham--"
"A Mohammedan--a robber on board ship."
"On board ship!"
He was not going to give up his ascendancy in the matter, hard as she
pushed him; so he bethought him of a pack of old tales there-anent, and
went on to explain drily--

"They go to the Baltic--to Russia--to salt human flesh."
"Human flesh!"
"Yes, and sometimes, too, they seize vessels in the open sea and do
their salting there."
She fixed a pair of large, terrified eyes on him, which made the old man
continue--
"And it is especially for little girls they look. That meat is the finest,
and goes by tons down to the Grand Turk."
Having played this last trump, he was going in again, but was stopped
by her eager question--
"Do they use a glass there on board?" And when he said they did, she
slipped quickly by him through the door, and kept cautiously within as
long as the vessel