The Pilot and his Wife | Page 6

reefs, and a line
of dark fire-fringed clouds about the sunset, which looked like heavy
weather coming up, the pleasure party determined to leave the vessel
here, instead of going on, as they had intended, to the larger of the two
islands.
As they went over the side Salvé Kristiansen was standing out on the
forecastle gazing eagerly over to where the barren mass of rock lay like
a dipping hull in the distance, bathed in the evening sun, and with a
fringe of foam round its base; and he could see old Jacob's
granddaughter standing by the wall of the house with the glass. He had
chosen on purpose a conspicuous place, and stood with his back against
the stay, so heavy of heart and sad at having to go away, that it would
have taken very little to make him burst into tears. It seemed to have
dawned upon him all of a sudden that he was in love.
To try whether it was upon him that she was directing the glass, or at
the unusual discharging of freight into the sail-boat, he waved his hat,
and his whole face lighted up with joy as he saw her return his signal.
He took off his hat again, and received another wave of the glass in
reply.
He stood there then straining his eyes abstractedly in the direction of
the rock until it disappeared behind them in the gathering twilight. He
had been inspirited for the whole voyage; and the first thing he should
do when they arrived at Boston would be to buy a dress and a ring; and
when he came home he determined that his first business should be to
make an expedition to the island, and put a certain question to a certain

person whom he knew out there.
He was roused from his abstraction by the boatswain bawling out his
name, and asking if he was going to sleep there, and whether he wanted
something to wake him up. The order had been given to make all snug
for the night, as the breeze was freshening.
The watches had been set at noon, and the starboard and larboard watch
told off, as customary on the first day a vessel goes to sea. Salvé had
the middle watch; and by that time the sea was running high, and they
were plunging through the darkness under a double-reefed mainsail, the
moon every now and then clearing an open space in the storm--clouds
that were driving like smoke before it, so that he could fitfully
distinguish objects over the deck, even to the look-out man's looming
figure out upon the forecastle.
Upon the capstan bar sat a sailor in oilskin clothes, who had probably
been on shore the previous night and not closed his eyes, and who was
making great efforts to keep awake. His head, however, would still
keep nodding; and from time to time he stood up and tried to keep
himself warm by exercising his arms. He sang, or more often took up
afresh upon each recovery of consciousness a verse of a half-Swedish
ballad about a "girl so true," that he wished he then had by his side, for
the time without her seemed so long. Now and then the spray of a sea
would bring him more sharply to himself, but it did not last long; and
so the ditty, which was melancholy to the last degree, would begin
afresh.
Salvé was far too restless to have any desire to sleep, and as he paced to
and fro by the fore-hatch, lost in his dreams, and listened to the song, it
seemed to him a most touching one.
The nodding sailor little thought that he was performing before a
deeply-moved audience.
CHAPTER V.
The party, meanwhile, that had left the ship, were passing the night

with old Jacob on Torungen. They had tried first to beat out to the
larger island, but the sea had risen, darkness had set in, and it had soon
become evident that it was no longer pleasure-sailing for a boat with
ladies in it. They had determined, therefore, rather than go about for
home, and lose the whole sporting expedition, which was to have lasted
for two or three days, to spend the night on Little Torungen and see
what the morning would do for them.
Great was old Jacob's astonishment, it may readily be supposed, when
there came in the late evening a knocking at the door, and he saw by
the light from the hearth no less than six grand folk come streaming in,
with two ladies amongst them. He shaded his eyes with his hand, and
looked at them in mute amazement.
As for Elizabeth, if it had been a train of fairies that had suddenly