hand, strong, and skilful exertion, is drawn over the rail and secured. Sometimes, in the vicinity of the Salvages, a halibut takes a hook baited for cod, and is caught. Then follow the struggle of this immense flat fish to escape, and the counter-effort of vigorous arms to haul the fish to the sea's surface and the vessel's side. Presently the captive rises to sight and within reach; and, gaff and tackle being promptly used, is soon on deck. BY YACHT TO ANNISQUAM, GLOUCESTER, GRAPE ISLAND, NEWBURYPORT. Half-day or all-day voyaging in pleasure-boats and yachts is one of the delightful diversions of the summer sojourn at Pigeon Cove. One enjoyable sail is around Andrews' Point into Ipswich Bay, passing the indented north shore to Annisquam and Gloucester, by the way of Squam River. Beating into the bay, and then into the river, against the wind, and returning with sails filled before the wind, illustrate common alternations in human life. Another sail is across the bay to the mouth of Ipswich River and Grape Island, or into the Merrimack up to the fair city of Newburyport. THE SAIL TO THE ISLES OF SHOALS. Another is a sail of twenty-one miles to the Isles of Shoals. This voyage, if accomplished in a single day, affords but a brief time for a survey of the cluster of islands, now greatened and glorified by the pen of one who in childhood became familiar with their bold hard features, and also with their warmth and beauty in hollows and nooks; their delicate though unpretentious tokens of tenderness toward hearts needing the sunshine and blessing of smiles, in fragrant shrubs and bright-hued flowers, in mosses of colors unattained by the painter's art, in violets and pimpernels of blue and scarlet sheen unknown to their genera away from the pure atmosphere of the enfolding sea. How much of wonder and enchantment one intelligent and loving mind discerns, where whole generations have overpassed, seeing only barrenness and desolation! How to the vision unveiled uprise and glisten the dew-besprinkled grass-blades and gold-bedecked mullein-stalks, amid the waste of rough, unshapely rocks and moss-bound mould! And to the same vision how through the darkness and terror of the storm come revealings foretelling the advent of a fair, sweet day, when the whole sky shall be bright; and the earth and the sea, no longer in shadow, shall rejoice for the end of doubt, the establishment of reverent confidence and faith in the Father! Of course Mrs. Thaxter's "Wreck of the Pocahontas," which appeared in the " Atlantic Monthly," April, 1868, should follow these reflections: "I lit the lamps in the lighthouse tower, For the sun dropped down and the day was dead; They shone like a glorious clustered flower, Ten golden and five red. Looking across, where the line of coast Stretched darkly, shrinking away from the sea, The lights sprang out at its edge, They seemed to answer me! almost O warning lights, burn bright and clear, Good night! I called to the gulls that sailed A mournful breeze began to blow, Weird music it drew through the iron bars, And dimly peered the stars; The sails that flecked the ocean floor From east to west leaned low and fled; Flung by the fitful gust, there beat Against the window a dash of rain: Steady as tramp of marching feet Strode on the hurricane. And soon in ponderous showers the spray, Struck from the granite, reared and sprung, And clutched at tower and cottage gray, Where overwhelmed they clung The whole Atlantic's weight of brine. Heaven help the ship should drift our way! No matter how the light might shine When morning dawned, above the din Answered with cries each one. Into each other's eyes with fear We looked through helpless tears, as still One after one, near and more near, The signals pealed, until The thick storm seemed to break apart, To look, for naught could save. One glimpse of black hull heaving slow, Then closed the mists o'er canvas torn And tangled ropes, swept to and fro From masts that raked forlorn. Weeks after, yet ringed round with spray, Our island lay, and none might land; Though blue the waters of the bay Stretched calm on either hand. And when at last from the distant shore We told our tale, and the boatmen cried, "'Twas the Pocahontas,—all were lost! For miles along the coast the tide Her shattered timbers tost.' Then I looked the whole horizon round, — A child's grief struggling in my breast, O wherefore! Are we naught to Thee? Like senseless weeds that rise and fall Upon thine awful sea, are we No more then, after all?' |