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diff --git a/77366-0.txt b/77366-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8cba57 --- /dev/null +++ b/77366-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3728 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77366 *** + + +[Illustration: WHITE ISLAND, LOOKING SOUTHWEST FROM APPLEDORE.] + + + + + _Among the Isles of Shoals._ + + BY CELIA THAXTER. + + With Illustrations. + +[Illustration] + + “Only to hear and see the far-off sparkling brine.” + + TENNYSON. + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1873, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & COMPANY + + COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY ROLAND THAXTER + + COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY ROLAND THAXTER AND JOHN THAXTER + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + +[Illustration] + + + WHITE ISLAND, LOOKING SOUTHWEST + FROM APPLEDORE _Frontispiece._ + + TRAP DIKE, APPLEDORE Page 18 + + WHITE ISLAND “ 120 + + VIEW FROM THE SOUTHEASTERN + POINT OF APPLEDORE “ 180 + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +It is with reluctance that I suffer these fragmentary and inadequate +sketches of the Isles of Shoals to appear in book form. Except that +some account of the place, however slight, is so incessantly called for +by people who throng these islands in summer, I should hardly venture +to offer to the public so imperfect a chronicle, of which the most that +can be said is, that it is, perhaps, better than nothing. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +AMONG THE ISLES OF SHOALS. + + +In a series of papers published not many years ago, Herman Melville +made the world acquainted with the “Encantadas,” or Enchanted Islands, +which he describes as lying directly under the equator, off the coast +of South America, and of which he says: “It is to be doubted whether +any spot of earth can, in desolateness, furnish a parallel to this +group.” But their dark volcanic crags and melancholy beaches can +hardly seem more desolate than do the low bleached rocks of the Isles +of Shoals to eyes that behold them for the first time. Very sad they +look, stern, bleak, and unpromising, yet are they enchanted islands in +a better sense of the word than are the great Galapagos of which Mr. +Melville discourses so delightfully. + +There is a strange charm about them, an indescribable influence in +their atmosphere, hardly to be explained, but universally acknowledged. +People forget the hurry and worry and fret of life after living there +awhile, and, to an imaginative mind, all things become dreamy as they +were to the lotus-eaters, to whom + + “The gushing of the wave + Far, far away did seem to mourn and rave + On alien shores.” + +The eternal sound of the sea on every side has a tendency to wear +away the edge of human thought and perception; sharp outlines become +blurred and softened like a sketch in charcoal; nothing appeals to the +mind with the same distinctness as on the mainland, amid the rush and +stir of people and things, and the excitements of social life. This +was strikingly illustrated during the late war, which, while it wrung +the heart of the whole country, and stirred the blood of every man, +woman, and child on the continent, left the handful of human beings +upon these lonely rocks almost untouched. The echoes of woe and terror +were so faint and far they seemed to lose their significance among the +many-voiced waters they crossed, and reached at last the indifferent +ears they sought with no more force than a spent wave. + +Nine miles of the Atlantic Ocean intervene between these islands and +the nearest point of the coast of New Hampshire; but from this nearest +point the coast-line recedes gradually, in dim and dimmer distance, to +Cape Ann, in Massachusetts, twenty-one miles away at the southwest, and +to Cape Neddock, in Maine, sixteen miles distant in the northeast (in +clear weather another cape is faintly distinguishable beyond this), +and about one third of the great horizon is filled by this beautiful, +undulating line of land, which, under the touch of atmospheric change, +is almost as plastic as the clouds, and wears a new aspect with every +turn of wind and weather. + +Sailing out from Portsmouth Harbor with a fair wind from the +northwest, the Isles of Shoals lie straight before you, nine miles +away,--ill-defined and cloudy shapes, faintly discernible in the +distance. A word about the origin of this name, “Isles of Shoals.” They +are supposed to have been so called, not because the ragged reefs run +out beneath the water in all directions, ready to wreck and destroy, +but because of the “shoaling,” or “schooling,” of fish about them, +which, in the mackerel and herring seasons, is remarkable. As you +approach they separate, and show each its own peculiar characteristics, +and you perceive that there are six islands if the tide is low; but if +it is high, there are eight, and would be nine, but that a breakwater +connects two of them. Appledore, called for many years Hog Island, +from its rude resemblance to a hog’s back rising from the water, when +seen from out at sea, is the largest and most regular in shape. From +afar, it looks smoothly rounded, like a gradually sloping elevation, +the greatest height of which is only seventy-five feet above high-water +mark. A little valley in which are situated the buildings belonging to +the house of entertainment, which is the only habitation, divides its +four hundred acres into two unequal portions. Next, almost within a +stone’s throw, is Haley’s Island, or “Smutty-nose,” so christened by +passing sailors, with a grim sense of humor, from a long black point +of rock stretching out to the southeast, upon which many a ship has +laid her bones. This island is low and flat, and contains a greater +depth of soil than the others. At low tide, Cedar and Malaga are both +connected with it,--the latter permanently by a breakwater,--the whole +comprising about one hundred acres. Star Island contains one hundred +and fifty acres, and lies a quarter of a mile southwest of Smutty-nose. +Toward its northern end are clustered the houses of the little village +of Gosport, with a tiny church crowning the highest rock. Not quite +a mile southwest from Star, White Island lifts a lighthouse for a +warning. This is the most picturesque of the group, and forms, with +Seavey’s Island, at low water, a double island, with an area of some +twenty acres. Most westerly lies Londoner’s, an irregular rock with a +bit of beach, upon which all the shells about the cluster seem to be +thrown. Two miles northeast from Appledore, Duck Island thrusts out its +lurking ledges on all sides beneath the water, one of them running half +a mile to the northwest. This is the most dangerous of the islands, +and, being the most remote, is the only one visited to any great degree +by the shy sea-fowl that are nearly banished by civilization. Yet even +now, at low tide, those long black ledges are often whitened by the +dazzling plumage of gulls whose exquisite and stainless purity rivals +the new-fallen snow. The ledges run toward the west and north; but +at the east and south the shore is bolder, and Shag and Mingo Rocks, +where, during or after storms, the sea breaks with magnificent effect, +lie isolated by a narrow channel from the main granite fragment. A +very round rock west of Londoner’s, perversely called “Square,” and +Anderson’s Rock, off the southeast end of Smutty-nose, complete the +catalogue. + +Smutty-nose and Appledore are almost united by a reef, bare at low +tide, though a large vessel can pass between them even then. Off the +landing at White Island the Devil’s Rock rolls an incessant breaker, +and makes an attempt to reach the shore perilous in any but the +serenest weather. Between Londoner’s and Star is another, hardly bare +at low tide; a perpetual danger, for it lies directly in the path of +most of the sailing vessels, and many a schooner has been “brought up +all standing” by this unexpected obstacle. Another rock, about four +miles east of Appledore, rejoices in the significant title of the “Old +Harry.” Old Harry is deeply sunk beneath the surface, and never betrays +himself except in great storms, when an awful white spray rises afar +off, and the Shoalers know how tremendous are the breakers that send it +skyward. + +The names of the towns, Appledore, Gosport, and, along the coast, +Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, Ipswich, Portland, Bangor, Newbury, +Amesbury, Salisbury, and many more, are all borrowed from towns on, or +not far from, the coasts of England and Wales, as may be seen from the +maps of those countries. Salisbury Beach fronts our islands. Amesbury +lies farther inland, but the gentle outline of Po Hill, in that town, +is the last eminence of any importance on the southern end of the coast +line. + +The dividing line between Maine and New Hampshire passes through the +group, giving Appledore, Smutty-nose, and Duck Islands to Maine, and +the rest to New Hampshire; but their allegiance to either is a matter +of small importance, the few inhabitants troubling themselves but +little about what State they belong to. Till within a few years no +taxes were required of them, and they enjoyed immunity from this and +various other earthly ills as completely as the gulls and loons that +shared their dwelling-place. + +Swept by every wind that blows, and beaten by the bitter brine for +unknown ages, well may the Isles of Shoals be barren, bleak, and bare. +At first sight nothing can be more rough and inhospitable than they +appear. The incessant influences of wind and sun, rain, snow, frost, +and spray, have so bleached the tops of the rocks, that they look +hoary as if with age, though in the summer-time a gracious greenness +of vegetation breaks here and there the stern outlines, and softens +somewhat their rugged aspect. Yet so forbidding are their shores, +it seems scarcely worth while to land upon them,--mere heaps of +tumbling granite in the wide and lonely sea,--when all the smiling, +“sapphire-spangled marriage-ring of the land” lies ready to woo the +voyager back again, and welcome his returning prow with pleasant +sights and sounds and scents that the wild wastes of water never know. +But to the human creature who has eyes that will see and ears that will +hear, nature appeals with such a novel charm, that the luxurious beauty +of the land is half forgotten before one is aware. Its sweet gardens, +full of color and perfume, its rich woods and softly swelling hills, +its placid waters, and fields and flowery meadows, are no longer dear +and desirable; for the wonderful sound of the sea dulls the memory +of all past impressions, and seems to fulfil and satisfy all present +needs. Landing for the first time, the stranger is struck only by the +sadness of the place,--the vast loneliness; for there are not even +trees to whisper with familiar voices,--nothing but sky and sea and +rocks. But the very wildness and desolation reveal a strange beauty to +him. Let him wait till evening comes, + + “With sunset purple soothing all the waste,” + +and he will find himself slowly succumbing to the subtile charm of that +sea atmosphere. He sleeps with all the waves of the Atlantic murmuring +in his ears, and wakes to the freshness of a summer morning; and it +seems as if morning were made for the first time. For the world is +like a new-blown rose, and in the heart of it he stands, with only +the caressing music of the water to break the utter silence, unless, +perhaps, a song-sparrow pours out its blissful warble like an embodied +joy. The sea is rosy, and the sky; the line of land is radiant; the +scattered sails glow with the delicious color that touches so tenderly +the bare, bleak rocks. These are lovelier than sky or sea or distant +sails, or graceful gulls’ wings reddened with the dawn; nothing takes +color so beautifully as the bleached granite; the shadows are delicate, +and the fine, hard outlines are glorified and softened beneath the +fresh first blush of sunrise. All things are speckless and spotless; +there is no dust, no noise, nothing but peace in the sweet air and +on the quiet sea. The day goes on; the rose changes to mellow gold, +the gold to clear, white daylight, and the sea is sparkling again. A +breeze ripples the surface, and wherever it touches the color deepens. +A seine-boat passes, with the tawny net heaped in the stern, and the +scarlet shirts of the rowers brilliant against the blue. Pleasantly +their voices come across the water, breaking the stillness. The +fishing-boats steal to and fro, silent, with glittering sails; the +gulls wheel lazily; the far-off coasters glide rapidly along the +horizon; the mirage steals down the coast-line, and seems to remove it +leagues away. And what if it were to slip down the slope of the world +and disappear entirely? You think, in a half-dream, you would not care. +Many troubles, cares, perplexities, vexations, lurk behind that far, +faint line for you. Why should you be bothered any more? + + “Let us alone. Time driveth onward fast, + And in a little while our lips are dumb.” + +And so the waves, with their lulling murmur, do their work, and you are +soothed into repose and transient forgetfulness. + +The natives, or persons who have been brought up here, find it almost +as difficult to tear themselves away from the islands as do the Swiss +to leave their mountains. From a civilized race’s point of view, this +is a curious instance of human perversity, since it is not good for +men to live their whole lives through in such remote and solitary +places. Nobody hears of people dying of homesickness for New York, or +Albany, or Maine, or California, or any place on the broad continent; +but to wild and lonely spots like these isles humanity clings with +an intense and abiding affection. No other place is able to furnish +the inhabitants of the Shoals with sufficient air for their capacious +lungs; there is never scope enough elsewhere; there is no horizon; +they must have sea-room. On shore it is to them as if all the trees +and houses crowded against the windows to suffocation; and I know a +youth who, when at the age of thirteen he made his first visit to +the mainland, descended to the cellar of the house in which he found +himself, in the not over-populous city of Portsmouth, and spent the few +hours of his stay sitting dejectedly upon a wood-pile, in mute protest +against the condition of things in general, and the pressure of human +society in particular. + +Each island has its peculiar characteristics, as I said before, and no +two are alike, though all are of the same coarse granite, mixed with +masses and seams of quartz and feldspar and gneiss and mica-slate, +and interspersed with dikes of trap running in all directions. Upon +Appledore, for the most part, the trap runs from north to south, while +the veins of quartz and feldspar run from east to west. Sometimes the +narrow white quartz veins intersect the dark trap, in parallel lines, +now wavering, and now perfectly straight, and showing a surface like +that of some vast piece of inlaid work. Each island presents its +boldest shore to the east, to breast the whole force of the great +Atlantic, which every year assails the iron cliffs and headlands with +the same ponderous fury, yet leaves upon them so little trace of its +immense power,--though at White Island, on the top of a precipitous +rock called “The Head,” which is nearly fifty feet high, lies a bowlder +weighing fifteen tons, tossed there from below by the breakers. The +shores are seldom very bold, but on the east they are often very +striking with their rifts and chasms, and roughly piled gorges, and +square quarries of stone, and stairways cut as if by human hands. +The trap rock, softer than the granite, is worn away in many places, +leaving bare perpendicular walls fifteen or twenty feet high. The +largest trap dike upon Appledore runs across the island from northeast +to southwest, disappears in the sea, and reappears upon Smutty-nose, +a quarter of a mile distant in a straight line. In some places, the +geologist will tell you, certain deep scratches in the solid rock +mean that here the glacier ground its way across in the world’s +earlier ages. Frequently the trap rock is honeycombed in a curious +fashion,--filled with small holes on the surface, as if drops of +water falling for years in the same spots had worn these smooth round +hollows. This always happens close to the water, and only in the trap +rock, and looks as if it might be the result of the flying spray which, +in winter and toward spring, when the northwest gales blow sometimes +for three weeks steadily day and night, beats continually upon the +shore. + +[Illustration: TRAP DIKE, APPLEDORE.] + +The coast-line varies, of course, with high or low tide. At low water +the shores are much more forbidding than at high tide, for a broad band +of dark sea-weed girdles each island, and gives a sullen aspect to the +whole group. But in calm days, when the moon is full and the tides are +so low that it sometimes seems as if the sea were being drained away on +purpose to show to eager eyes what lies beneath the lowest ebb, banks +of golden green and brown moss thickly clustered on the moist ledges +are exposed, and the water is cut by the ruffled edges of the kelps +that grow in brown and shining forests on every side. At sunrise or +sunset the effect of the long rays slanting across these masses of rich +color is very beautiful. But at high tide the shores are most charming; +every little cove and inlet is filled with the music of the waves, +and their life, light, color, and sparkle. Who shall describe that +wonderful noise of the sea among the rocks, to me the most suggestive +of all the sounds in nature? Each island, every isolated rock, has its +own peculiar rote, and ears made delicate by listening, in great and +frequent peril, can distinguish the bearings of each in a dense fog. +The threatening speech of Duck Island’s ledges, the swing of the wave +over Halfway Rock, the touch of the ripples on the beach at Londoner’s, +the long and lazy breaker that is forever rolling below the lighthouse +at White Island,--all are familiar and distinct, and indicate to the +islander his whereabouts almost as clearly as if the sun shone brightly +and no shrouding mist were striving to mock and to mislead him. + +There are no beaches of any considerable size along the circle of +these shores, and except in two narrow fissures, one on Malaga and +one on Star, only a few feet wide at their widest, there is no fine, +clean sand, such as lies sparkling on the coast at Rye, opposite, and +shows, faintly glimmering, white in the far distance. The dock at +Smutty-nose is filled with coarse sand and mud, like the little basin +of the “Upper Cove” on Appledore; and the largest beach on Star, of +the same character, is covered with a stratum of fish-bones several +feet deep,--by no means a pleasantly fragrant pavement. Roughly +rounded pebbles, not beautiful with warmth of color like those on the +Cohasset beaches, but a cold, hard combination of gray granite and +dark trap, are heaped in the coves. Indian arrowheads of jasper and +flint have been found among them. Now and then a smoother bit consists +of a coarse gravel, which, if you examine, you will find to be +principally composed of shells ground fine by the waves, a fascinating +mixture of blue and purple mussels, lined with the rainbow tints of +mother-of-pearl, and fragments of golden and ruddy snail-shells, and +striped and colored cockles; with here and there a piece of transparent +quartz, white or rosy, or of opaque feldspar, faintly straw-colored, +or of dull-purple porphyry stone, all clean and moist with the +odorous brine. Upon Appledore and the little islets undevastated by +civilization these tiny coves are the most delightful places in the +world, lovely with their fringe of weeds, thistles, and mullein-stalks +drawn clearly against the sky at the upper edge of the slope, and +below, their mosaic of stone and shell and sea-wrack, tangles of kelp +and driftwood,--a mass of warm neutral tints,--with brown, green, and +crimson mosses, and a few golden snail-shells lying on the many-tinted +gravel, where the indolent ripples lapse in delicious murmurs. There +are few shells more delicate than the variegated snails and cockles +and stout whelks that sparsely strew the beaches, but these few are +exceedingly beautiful, and more precious from their rarity. Two kinds +of pure white spiral shells, not quite an inch long, are occasionally +found, and cause one to wonder how they can be rolled together with the +heavy pebbles by the breakers and not be annihilated. + +After the dark blue mussel-shells have lain long on shore in sun and +rain, they take a curious satin sheen, lovely to behold, and the +larger kind, shedding their coat of brown varnish, are colored like +the eastern sky in clear winter sunsets, a rosy purple, with pearly +linings streaked with iridescent hues. The driftwood is always full +of suggestions:--a broken oar; a bit of spar with a ragged end of +rope-yarn attached; a section of a mast hurriedly chopped, telling +of a tragedy too well known on the awful sea; a water-worn buoy, or +flakes of rich brown bark, which have been peacefully floated down +the rivers of Maine and out on the wide sea, to land at last here +and gladden firesides so remote from the deep green wood where they +grew; pine-cones, with their spicy fragrance yet lingering about +them; apples, green spruce twigs, a shingle, with some carpenter’s +half-obliterated calculations pencilled upon it; a child’s roughly +carved boat; drowned butterflies, beetles, birds; dead boughs of ragged +fir-trees completely draped with the long, shining ribbon-grass that +grows in brackish water near river mouths. The last, after lying awhile +in the wind and sun, present a weird appearance, for the narrow ribbons +are dried and bleached as white as chalk, and shiver and shudder with +every wind that blows. It used to be a great delight to hold such a +bough aloft, and watch all the long, delicate pennons and streamers +fly trembling out on the breeze. Beyond high-water mark all things +in the course of time take a uniform gray color from the weather; +wood, shells, stones, deposited by some great tide or storm, and left +undisturbed for months, chocolate-colored bark and yellow shingle and +gray stone are not to be distinguished one from another, except by +their shape. Of course all white things grow whiter, and shells already +colorless become as pure as snow. Sometimes the slabs and blocks of +wood that float ashore have drifted so long that they are water-logged, +and covered with a rich growth of mosses, barnacles, and wondrous +sea-creatures. Sometimes they are completely riddled by the pholas, and +the hardest shells are pierced smoothly through and through by these +soft worms. + +But as a child I was never without apprehension when examining the +drift, for I feared to find some too dreadful token of disaster. After +the steamer Bohemian was wrecked (off Halifax, I think) a few years +ago, bales of her costly cargo of silks and rich stuffs and pieces +of the wreck were strewn along the coast even to Cape Ann; and upon +Rye Beach, among other things, two boots came on shore. They were not +mates, and each contained a human foot. That must have been a grewsome +discovery to him who picked them up. + +There are not many of these quiet coves. In general a confusion reigns +as if an earthquake had rent and split the coasts, and tumbled the +masses in chaotic heaps. On Appledore and the larger islands the +interior is rather smoother, though nowhere will you find many rods +of plain walking. Slopes of greenness alternate with the long white +ledges, and here and there are bits of swampy ground and little +valleys where the turf is short, and the sheep love to browse, and +the mushrooms grow in August and September. There are no trees +except, perhaps, a few balm-of-gilead trees on Star and a small elm +on Appledore, which has been struggling with the bleakness of the +situation some twenty years. It is very probable that the islands were +wooded many years ago with spruce and pine perhaps,--a rugged growth. +I am certain that cedars grew there, for I found on the highest part +of Smutty-nose Point, deep down in a crevice in the rocks, a piece of +a root of cedar-wood, which, though perfectly preserved, bore marks of +great age, being worn as smooth as glass with the raindrops that had +penetrated to its hiding-place. There are a few bushes, browsed down +by the sheep, with maple, poplar, and birch leaves; and I have seen +the crumbling remains of the stump of some large tree in the principal +gorge or valley at Appledore. The oldest inhabitants remember quite an +orchard on Smutty-nose. In the following note (for which I am indebted +to Mr. T. B. Fox) from “Christopher Leavitt’s Voyage into New England” +in the year 1623, it appears that there were trees, though not of the +kind the voyagers wished to see. He says: “The first place I set my +foot upon in New England was the Isles of Shoulds. We could see not +one good timber tree, or so much good ground as to make a garden. Good +fishing-place for six ships,” he goes on to say, “not more for want of +good storage rooms. Harbor indifferent good. No savages at all.” That +was two hundred and forty-six years ago. In the Rev. Jedediah Morse’s +journal of a mission to the Shoals in August, 1800, he says, referring +to the wretched state of the inhabitants of Star Island at that time, +“All the trees, and the bushes even, have been consumed, and they have +cut up, dried, and burned many acres of the sward, leaving only naked +rocks where formerly there was the finest pasturage for cows.” The +bushes have never grown again on Star; but Appledore, wherever there is +soil enough to hold a root, is overgrown with huckleberry and bayberry +bushes, the glossy green leaves of the latter yielding a wholesome, +aromatic fragrance, which accords well with the fresh and healthy +sea-odors. Blackberry, raspberry, wild currant, and gooseberry bushes +also flourish; there are clumps of elder and sumach, woodbine and the +poison ivy, shrubs of wild-cherry and shadbush, and even one little +wild apple-tree that yearly bears a few large, bright blossoms. + +It is curious to note the varieties of plants, wild-flowers, and +grasses on this island alone. There are six different ferns, and many +delicate flowers bloom in the spring, whose faces it is a continual +surprise to find looking up at you from the rough ground, among the +rocks. Every flower seems twice as beautiful under these circumstances; +and it is a fact that the salt air and a peculiar richness in the soil +give a luxuriance of growth and a depth of color not found elsewhere. +“Is that willow-weed” (or whatever it may be)? “I never saw any so +bright!” is a remark often heard from strangers visiting the islands +for the first time. The pale-pink herb-robert, for instance, blushes +with a tint almost as deep as a damask rose, and as for the wild-roses, +I heard some one say they were as “bright as red carnations.” In the +spring the anemones are stained with purple and pink and yellow in a +way that makes their sisters of the mainland seem pallid beside them; +and the violets are wonderful,--the blue ones so large and dark, and +the delicately-veined white ones rich with creamy fragrance. + +The calyx of the shadbush-flower is dyed with purple, almost crimson, +and the color runs into the milky whiteness of the petals. The little +pimpernel (when it has anything but salt gravel to grow in, for it +runs fairly into the sea) is clear vermilion, and the pearly eyebright +is violet on the edges; the shy celandine glows golden in its shady +clefts, and the spotted jewel-weed is as rich and splendid as a flower +in Doctor Rappacini’s famous garden. Sometimes it is as if the order +of nature were set aside in this spot; for you find the eyebright and +pimpernel and white violets growing side by side until the frost comes +in November; often October passes with no sign of frost, and the autumn +lingers later than elsewhere. I have even seen the iris and wild-rose +and golden-rod and aster in blossom together, as if, not having the +example of the world before their eyes, they followed their own sweet +will, and bloomed when they took the fancy. As for garden flowers, when +you plant them in this soil they fairly run mad with color. People +say, “Do give me some seeds of these wonderful flowers”; and they +sow them in their gardens on the mainland, and they come up decorous, +commonplace, and pale, like their sisters in the same soil. The little +spot of earth on which they grow at the island is like a mass of +jewels. Who shall describe the pansies, richly streaked with burning +gold; the dark velvet coreopsis and the nasturtium; the larkspurs, blue +and brilliant as lapis-lazuli; the “ardent marigolds,” that flame like +mimic suns? The sweet-peas are of a deep, bright rose-color, and their +odor is like rich wine, too sweet almost to be borne, except when the +pure fragrance of mignonette is added,--such mignonette as never grows +on shore. Why should the poppies blaze in such imperial scarlet? What +quality is hidden in this thin soil, which so transfigures all the +familiar flowers with fresh beauty? I have heard it said that it is the +crumbled rock which so enriches the earth, but I do not know. + +If a flock of sheep and various cows did not browse over Appledore +incessantly, it would be a little wilderness of wild-flowers in the +summer; they love the soil and climate, and put forth all their +strength and loveliness. And every year or two a new kind appears, of +which the seed has been brought by some bird, or, perhaps, shaken +out of a bundle of hay. Last summer, for the first time, I found the +purple polygala growing in a meadowy piece of turf on the south side +of the island. Columbines and the fragrant ground-nut, helianthus, and +various other plants, grow only on Duck Island; and it is singular +that the little potentilla, which I am told grows elsewhere only on +mountain-sides, is found here on all the islands. At Smutty-nose +alone certain plants of the wicked-looking henbane (_Hyoscyamus +niger_) flourish, and, on Londoner’s only, there spreads at the top +of the beach a large sea-lungwort (_Mertensia maritima_). At Star the +crooked little ways between the houses are lined with tall plants of +the poisonous hemlock (the _Conium_ that made the death-draught of +Socrates), which flourishes amain, and is the only green thing out of +the small walled enclosures, except the grass and the burdocks; for the +cows and the children devastate the ground. + +Appledore is altogether the most agreeable in its aspect of all the +islands, being the largest, and having a greater variety of surface +than the rest. Its southern portion is full of interest, from the +traces of vanished humanity which one beholds at every step; for the +ground in some places is undermined with ancient graves, and the ruined +cellars of houses wherein men and women lived more than a century ago +are scattered here and there to the number of seventy and more. The +men and women are dust and ashes; but here are the stones they squared +and laid; here are the thresholds over which so many feet have passed. +The pale green and lilac and golden lichens have overgrown and effaced +all traces of their footsteps on the door-stones; but here they passed +in and out,--old and young, little feet of children, heavy tramp of +stalwart fishermen, lighter tread of women, painful and uncertain steps +of age. Pleasant it is to think of the brown and swarthy fisherman, +the father, standing on such a threshold, and with the keen glance all +seafaring men possess sweeping the wide horizon for signs of fair or +foul weather; or the mother, sitting in the sun on the step, nursing +her baby, perhaps, or mending a net, or spinning,--for the women here +were famous spinners, and on Star Island yet are women who have not +forgotten the art. Pleasanter still to think of some slender girl at +twilight lingering with reluctant feet, and wistful eyes that search +the dusky sea for a returning sail whose glimmer is sweeter than +moonlight or starlight to her sight,--lingering still, though her +mother calls within and the dew falls with the falling night. I love +to people these solitudes again, and think that those who lived here +centuries ago were decent, God-fearing folk, most of them,--for so +tradition says;[A] though in later years they fell into evil ways, and +drank “fire-water,” and came to grief. And all the pictures over which +I dream are set in this framework of the sea, that sparkled and sang, +or frowned and threatened, in the ages that are gone as it does to-day, +and will continue to smile and threaten when we who listen to it and +love it and fear it now are dust and ashes in our turn. + +[A] “The character and habits of the original settlers for industry, +intelligence, and pure morals have acquired for them great respect in +the estimation of posterity.”--_Williamson’s History of Maine._ + +Some of the cellars are double, as if two families had built together; +some are distinctly marked; in others the stones have partly fallen +in; all are more or less overgrown with lichens, and thick, short turf +creeps everywhere in and about them. Sometimes garlands of woodbine +drape the walls, and poison-ivy clasps and knots itself about the +rocks; clumps of sweet flowering-elder cluster in the corners, or +graceful, stag-horned sumachs, or raspberry bushes with ruddy fruit. +Wild spiked thistles spread, and tall mullein-stalks stand like +sentinels on guard over the desolation. Beautiful it is to see the +delicate herb-robert’s rosy flowers among the rough heaps of rocks, +like a tender afterthought where all is hard and stern. + +It is a part of the religious belief of the Shoalers, that the ruinous +cairn on the summit of Appledore was built by the famous John Smith +and his men when they discovered the islands in the year 1614; and I +will not be so heretical as to doubt the fact, though it seems just as +likely that it was set up by fishermen and sailors as a landmark. At +any rate, nobody knows when it was not there, and it is perfectly safe +to imagine any origin for it. I never could be precisely certain of the +site of the first meeting-house on this island, “built (of brick) at a +very early period, possibly the first in the province,” says Williamson +in his “History of Maine.” Probably there was no cellar beneath it, and +the slight underpinning has been scattered and obliterated by time,--a +fate which many of the houses must have shared in like manner. When man +has vanished, Nature strives to restore her original order of things, +and she smooths away gradually all traces of his work with the broad +hands of her changing seasons. The men who built the Pyramids felt +this; but will not the world spin long enough to level their masonry +with the desolate sands? Neither is there any sign of the foundation +of that “Academy” to which “even gentlemen from some of the principal +towns on the sea-coast sent their sons for literary instruction,”--I +quote again from Williamson. How like a dream it seems, looking now at +these deserted rocks, that so much happened here in the years that are +gone! The connection of Spain with these islands always had a great +fascination for me; it is curious that the brightest and gayest of +lands, all aglow with sunshine and so rich with southern beauty, should +be in any way linked with this place, so remote and desolate. “In 1730, +and afterwards, three or four ships used to load at the Shoals with +winter and spring merchantable fish for Bilboa in Spain.” What wondrous +craft must have navigated these waters,--lazy, lumbering old ships, +with quaintly carved figure-heads, and high-peaked sterns and prows, +and heavy draperies of weather-beaten sails, picturesque and charming +to behold, and well enough for the sparkling Mediterranean, but not the +sort of build to battle with the Atlantic breakers, as several wrecks +of vessels caught in the terrible gales and driven upon the pitiless +ledges might testify! The ship Sagunto, it is said, met her destruction +here as late as the year 1813; and there are faint echoes of other +disasters of the kind, but the names of other ships have not come down +to us. One wrecked on Appledore left only a quantity of broad silver +pieces sprinkled about the rocks to tell of the calamity. A fisherman +from Star, paddling over in his dory to explore the coves and chasms +for driftwood (for the island was uninhabited at the time), came +suddenly upon the glittering coins. His amazement was boundless. After +filling his pockets, a sudden terror possessed him; he began to have +a suspicion that something uncanny lurked at the bottom of such good +fortune (for the superstition of the natives is very great), and fled +home to tell his neighbors, who came in a body and made short work of +the process of gathering the rest of the treasure. Occasionally, since +that time, coins have been found about the southeast point, whereon the +unknown vessel struck and was completely destroyed. Of course Captain +Kidd, “as he sailed,” is supposed to have made the locality one of his +many hiding-places. I remember being awed when a child at the story +of how a certain old black Dinah, an inhabitant of Portsmouth, came +out to Appledore, then entirely divested of human abodes, and alone, +with only a divining-rod for company, passed several days and nights +wandering over the island, muttering to herself, with her divining-rod +carefully balanced in her skinny hands. Robert Kidd’s buried treasure, +if it existed, never signalled from below to that mystic rod, and the +old negress returned empty-handed; but what a picture she must have +made wandering there in the loneliness, by sunlight, or moonlight, +or starlight, with her weird figure, her dark face, her garments +fluttering in the wind, and the awful rod in her hand! + +On Star Island, I have been told, a little three-legged black pot +full of gold and silver pieces was dug up not very many years ago; +and it is certainly true that Mr. Samuel Haley, who lived upon and +owned Smutty-nose, in building a wall, turned over a large, flat stone +beneath which lay four bars of solid silver. He must have been a fine, +energetic old fellow, that Samuel Haley. With this treasure, says +tradition again, he built, at great trouble and expense, the sea-wall +which connects Smutty-nose with Malaga, and makes a safe harbor for +distressed mariners in stormy weather. (This name Malaga, by the way, +is a very distinct token of the Spaniards.) Not only did Haley build +the sea-wall, but he erected salt-works which “manufactured excellent +salt for the curing of fish,” and stretched a ropewalk over the +uneven ground to the extent of two hundred and seventy feet, and set +up windmills to catch with their wide wings all the winds that blew, +that he might grind his own corn and wheat, and live as independently +as possible of his fellow-men; for that is one of the first things a +settler on the Isles of Shoals finds it necessary to learn. He planted +a little orchard where the soil was deepest, and with much cherishing +care contrived to coax his cherry-trees into abundant fruitfulness, and +in every way made the most of the few advantages of the place. The old +square house which he built upon his island, and which still stands, +had, long ago, a broad balcony running the whole length of the house +beneath the second-story windows. This being in a ruinous condition, I +never dared venture out upon it; but a large, square lookout, with a +stout railing, which he built on the top of the house, remained till +within a few years; and I found it a charming place to linger in on +still days, and watch the sky and the sea and the vessels, and the play +of color over the bright face of the world. Looking from that airy +station years ago, I used to think how many times he had sat there with +his spy-glass, scanning the horizon and all within it, while the wind +ruffled his gray hair and the sun shone pleasantly across his calm old +face. Many years of his useful, happy life he lived there, and left +behind him a beloved and honorable name. His descendants, still living +upon Star, are among the best people in the village. A young girl +bearing his name was lately married to one of the youthful fishermen. +Star Island might well be proud of such a girl, so modest and sweet, +and pretty too, slender and straight, dark-haired, brown-eyed,--as +picturesque a creature as one would wish to see, with a delicate rose +in her cheek and a clear light of intelligence in her eyes. Considering +her, and remembering this ancient ancestor of hers, I thought she +came honestly by her gentle, self-reliant expression, and her fine +bearing, full of unconscious dignity and grace. The old man’s quaint +epitaph speaks of his humanity in “receiving into his enclosure many +a poor, distressed seaman and fisherman in distress of weather.” “In +distress of weather!” One must live in such a place fully to comprehend +the meaning of the words. It was his custom every night to put in +his bedroom window, over the broad balcony facing the southeast, a +light which burned all night,--a little act of thoughtfulness which +speaks volumes. I think the lighthouse could not have been kindled at +that time, but I am not sure. There is much uncertainty with regard +to dates and records of those old times. Mr. Haley is said to have +died in 1811, but I have always heard that he was living when the +Sagunto was wrecked upon his island, which happened, according to the +Gosport records, in 1813. This is the entry: “Ship Sagunto stranded +on Smotinose Isle Jany 14^{th} 1813 Jany 15^{th} one man found, Jany +16^{th} 6 men found 21--7 the Number of men yet found Belonging to +said ship twelve.” I am inclined to think the writer made a mistake in +his date as well as his spelling and arithmetic, for it is an accepted +tradition that Mr. Haley found and buried the dead crew of that ship, +and I have always heard it spoken of as a simple fact. On that stormy +January night, runs the story, he placed the light as usual in his +chamber window, and I dare say prayed in his good heart that no vessel +might be wandering near this dangerous place, tossed helpless on the +raging sea in the thick darkness and bitter cold and blinding snow. But +that night the great ship Sagunto drove, crashing, full upon the fatal +southeast point, in sight of the tiny spark that burned peacefully, +unwavering, in that quiet chamber. Her costly timbers of mahogany and +cedar-wood were splintered on the sharp teeth of those inexorable +rocks; her cargo of dried fruits and nuts and bales of broadcloth and +gold and silver, was tossed about the shore, and part of her crew were +thrown alive upon it. Some of them saw the light, and crawled toward +it benumbed with cold and spent with fatigue and terror. The roaring +of the storm bore away their faint cries of distress; the old man +slept on quietly, with his family about him, sheltered, safe; while a +stone’s-throw from his door these sailors strove and agonized to reach +that friendly light. Two of them gained the stone-wall in front of the +house, but their ebbing strength would not allow them to climb over; +they threw themselves upon it, and perished miserably, with safety, +warmth, and comfort so close at hand! In the morning, when the tumult +was somewhat hushed, and underneath the sullen sky rolled the more +sullen sea in long, deliberate waves, the old man looked out in the +early light across the waste of snow, and on the wall lay--something +that broke the familiar outline, though all was smooth with the pure, +soft snow. He must put on coat and cap, and go and find out what this +strange thing might be. Ah, that was a sight for his pitying eyes under +the cold and leaden light of that unrelenting morning! He summoned his +sons and his men. Quickly the alarm was given, and there was confusion +and excitement as the islanders, hurriedly gathering, tried if it were +possible yet to save some life amid the wreck. But it was too late; +every soul was lost. Fourteen bodies were found at that time, strewn +all the way between the wall and that southeast point where the vessel +had gone to pieces. The following summer the skeleton of another was +discovered among some bushes near the shore. The imagination lingers +over those poor drowned sailors; strives to figure what each man was +like, what might have been the musical name of each (for all names in +Spanish should be musical, with a reminiscence of flute and guitar in +them); dwells on the dark-olive faces and jet-black hair, the graceful +foreign dress,--curious short jackets, perhaps, with bits of bright +embroidery that loving hands had worked for them, all stained and +tarnished by the brine. No doubt some of them wore about their necks a +cross or amulet, with an image of the “Blessed Virgin” or the “Son of +God,” that so they might be saved from just such a fate as this; and +maybe some one among these sailor-men carried against his heart a lock +of hair, dark and lustrous before the washing of the cold waves dulled +the brightness of its beauty. Fourteen shallow graves were quarried +for the unknown dead in the iron earth, and there they lie, with him +who buried them a little above in the same grassy slope. Here is his +epitaph:-- + + “In memory of Mr. Samuel Haley + Who died in the year 1811 + Aged 84 + He was a man of great Ingenuity + Industry Honor and Honesty, true to his + Country & A man who did A great + Publik good in Building A + Dock & Receiving into his + Enclosure many a poor + Distressed Seaman & Fisherman + In distress of Weather.” + +A few steps from their resting-place the low wall on which the two +unfortunates were found frozen is falling into ruin. The glossy green +leaves of the bayberry-bushes crowd here and there about it, in odorous +ranks on either side, and sweetly the warm blush of the wild-rose glows +against its cool gray stones. Leaning upon it in summer afternoons, +when the wind is quiet and there steals up a fragrance and fresh murmur +from the incoming tide, when the slowly mellowing light lies tranquil +over the placid sea, enriching everything it touches with infinite +beauty,--waves and rocks that kill and destroy, blossoming roses and +lonely graves,--a wistful sadness colors all one’s thoughts. Afar off +the lazy waters sing and smile about that white point, shimmering +in the brilliant atmosphere. How peaceful it is! How innocent and +unconscious is the whole face of this awful and beautiful nature! But, +listening to the blissful murmur of the tide, one can but think with +what another voice that tide spoke when it ground the ship to atoms and +roared with sullen thunder about those dying men. + +There is no inscription on the rough boulders at the head and foot +of these graves. A few more years, and all trace of them will be +obliterated. Already the stones lean this way and that, and are half +buried in the rank grass. Soon will they be entirely forgotten; the +old, old world forgets so much! And it is sown thick with graves from +pole to pole. + +“These islands bore some of the first footprints of New-England +Christianity and civilization. They were for a long time the abode of +intelligence, refinement, and virtue, but were afterwards abandoned +to a state of semi-barbarism.” The first intelligence of the place +comes to us from the year 1614, when John Smith is supposed to have +discovered them. The next date is of the landing of Christopher +Leavitt, in 1623. In 1645, three brothers, Robert, John, and Richard +Cutts, emigrated from Wales, and on their way to the continent paused +at the Isles of Shoals, and, finding them so pleasant, made their +settlement here. Williamson mentions particularly Richard Gibson, +from Topsham, England, and various other men from England and Wales. +Many people speedily joined the little colony, which grew yearly +more prosperous. In 1650, the Rev. John Brock came to live among the +islanders, and remained with them twelve years. All that we hear of +this man is so fine, he is represented as having been so faithful, +zealous, intelligent, and humane, that it is no wonder the community +flourished while he sat at the helm. It was said of him, “He dwells as +near Heaven as any man upon earth.” Cotton Mather thus quaintly praises +him: “He was a good _grammarian_, chiefly in this, that he still _spoke +the truth from his heart_. He was a good _logician_, chiefly in this, +that he _presented himself unto God with a reasonable service_. He was +a good _arithmetician_, chiefly in this, that he _so numbered his days +as to apply his heart unto wisdom_. He was a good _astronomer_, chiefly +in this, _that his conversation was in Heaven_.... So much belonged to +this _good man_, that so _learned a life_ may well be judged worthy of +being a _written one_.” After him came a long procession of the clergy, +good, bad, and indifferent, up to the present time, when “divine +service,” so-called, has seemed a mere burlesque as it has been often +carried on in the little church at Star. + +Last summer I was shown a quaint little book entitled “The Fisherman’s +Calling. A brief essay to Serve the Great Interests of Religion +among our Fishermen. By Cotton Mather, D. D. Boston in New England. +Printed: Sold by T. Green. 1712,” and I found the following incident +connected with Mr. Brock’s ministry at the Shoals: “To Illustrate and +Demonstrate the Providence of God our Saviour over the Business of +fishermen, I will entertain you with Two short Modern Histories.” Then +follows an account of some Romish priests upon some isles belonging to +Scotland, who endeavored to draw the poor fishermen over to popery. +The other is this: “When our Mr. Brock lived on the Isles of Shoals, +he brought the Fishermen into an agreement that besides the Lord’s +Day they would spend one day of every month together in the worship +of the Glorious Lord. A certain day which by their Agreement belonged +unto the Exercises of Religion being arrived, they came to Mr. Brock, +and asked him, that they might put by their meeting and go a Fishing, +because they had Lost many Days by the Foulness of the weather. He, +seeing that without and against his consent they resolved upon doing +what they asked of him, replied, ‘If you will go away I say unto you, +‘Catch Fish if you can!’ But as for you that will tarry, and worship +our Lord Jesus Christ this day, I will pray unto Him for you that you +may afterwards take fish till you are weary.’ Thirty men went away +from the meeting and Five tarried. The thirty that went away from the +meeting with all their Craft could catch but four Fishes. The Five +which tarried went forth afterwards and _they_ took _five Hundred_. The +Fishermen were after this Readier to hearken unto the Voice of their +Teacher.” + +If virtue were often its own reward after a fashion like this, in what +a well-conducted world we should live! Doubtless the reckless islanders +needed the force of all the moral suasion good Mr. Brock could bring +to bear upon them; too much law and order they could not have; but I +like better this story of the stout old fisherman who in church so +unexpectedly answered his pastor’s thrilling exhortation, “Supposing, +my brethren, that any of you should be overtaken in the bay by a +northeast storm, your hearts trembling with fear, and nothing but death +before, whither would your thoughts turn? what would you do?”--with the +instant inspiration of common-sense, “I’d hoist the foresail and scud +away for Squam!” + +The first church on Star was built principally of timbers from the +wrecks of Spanish ships, but it has been partially burned and rebuilt +twice. Various rough characters, given over to hard drinking, and +consequently lawless living, have joined the colony within the last ten +years, and made the place the scene of continually recurring fires. On +going down to Appledore one spring I was surprised at the daily and +nightly jangling of the dull bell at Star,--a dissonant sound borne +wildly on the stormy wind to our dwelling. “What is Star Island ringing +for?” I kept asking, and was as often answered, “O, it’s only Sam Blake +setting his house on fire!”--the object being to obtain the insurance +thereupon. + +On the Massachusetts records there is a paragraph to the effect that, +in the year 1653, Philip Babb, of Hog Island, was appointed constable +for all the islands of Shoals, Star Island excepted. To Philip Babb we +shall have occasion to refer again. “In May, 1661,” says Williamson, +“being places of note and great resort, the General Court incorporated +the islands into a town called Appledore, and invested it with the +powers and privileges of other towns.” There were then about forty +families on Hog Island, but between that time and the year 1670 these +removed to Star Island and joined the settlement there. This they were +induced to do partly through fear of the Indians, who frequented Duck +Island, and thence made plundering excursions upon them, carrying +off their women while they were absent fishing, and doing a variety +of harm; but, as it is expressly stated that people living on the +mainland sent their children to school at Appledore that they might +be safe from the Indians, the statement of their depredations at the +Shoals is perplexing. Probably the savages camped on Duck to carry on +their craft of porpoise-fishing, which to this day they still pursue +among the islands on the eastern coast of Maine. Star Island seemed +a place of greater safety; and probably the greater advantages of +landing and the convenience of a wide cove at the entrance of the +village, with a little harbor wherein the fishing-craft might anchor +with some security, were also inducements. William Pepperell, a native +of Cornwall, England, emigrated to the place in the year 1676, and +lived there upwards of twenty years, and carried on a large fishery. +“He was the father of Sir William Pepperell, the most famous man Maine +ever produced.” For more than a century previous to the Revolutionary +War there were at the Shoals from three to six hundred inhabitants, +and the little settlement flourished steadily. They had their church +and school-house, and a court-house; and the usual municipal officers +were annually chosen, and the town records regularly kept. From three +to four thousand quintals of fish were yearly caught and cured by the +islanders; and, beside their trade with Spain, large quantities of fish +were also carried to Portsmouth, for the West India market. In 1671 +the islands belonged to John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges. This +man always greatly interested me. He must have been a person of great +force of character, strong, clear-headed, full of fire and energy. He +was appointed governor-general of New England in 1637. Williamson has +much to say of him: “He and Sir Walter Raleigh, whose acquaintance +was familiar, possessing minds equally elastic and adventurous, +turned their thoughts at an early period of life towards the American +hemisphere.” And the historian thus goes on lamenting over him: “Fame +and wealth, so often the idols of superior intellects, were the +prominent objects of this aspiring man. Constant and sincere in his +friendships, he might have had extensively the estimation of others, +had not selfishness been the centre of all his efforts. His life and +name, though by no means free from blemishes, have just claims to the +grateful recollections of the Eastern Americans and their posterity.” + +From 1640 to 1775, says a report to the “Society for Propagating the +Gospel among the Indians and Others in North America,” the church at +the Shoals was in a flourishing condition, and had a succession of +ministers,--Messrs. Hull, Brock, Belcher, Moody, Tucke, and Shaw, all +of whom were good and faithful men; two, Brock and Tucke, being men +of learning and ability, with peculiarities of talent and character +admirably fitting them for their work on these islands. Tucke was +the only one who closed his life and ministry at the Shoals. He was +a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 1723, was ordained +at the Shoals July 20, 1732, and died there August 12, 1773,--his +ministry thus covering more than forty years. His salary in 1771 was +paid in merchantable fish, a quintal to a man, when there were on +the Shoals from ninety to one hundred men, and a quintal of fish was +worth a guinea. His grave was accidentally discovered in 1800, and +the Hon. Dudley Atkins Tyng, who interested himself most charitably +and indefatigably for the good of these islands, placed over it a +slab of stone, with an inscription which still remains to tell of the +fine qualities of the man whose dust it covers; but year by year the +raindrops with delicate touches wear away the deeply cut letters, for +the stone lies horizontal; even now they are scarcely legible, and soon +the words of praise and appreciation will exist only in the memory of +a few of the older inhabitants. + +At the time of Mr. Tucke’s death the prosperity of the Shoals was at +its height. But in less than thirty years after his death a most woful +condition of things was inaugurated. + +The settlement flourished till the breaking out of the war, when it +was found to be entirely at the mercy of the English, and obliged +to furnish them with recruits and supplies. The inhabitants were +therefore ordered by the government to quit the islands; and as their +trade was probably broken up and their property exposed, most of them +complied with the order, and settled in the neighboring seaport towns, +where their descendants may be found to this day. Some of the people +settled in Salem, and the Mr. White so mysteriously murdered there +many years ago was born at Appledore. Those who remained, with a few +exceptions, were among the most ignorant and degraded of the people, +and they went rapidly down into untold depths of misery. “They burned +the meeting-house, and gave themselves up to quarrelling, profanity, +and drunkenness, till they became almost barbarians”; or, as Mr. +Morse expresses it, “were given up to work all manner of wickedness +with greediness.” In no place of the size has there been a greater +absorption of “rum” since the world was made. Mr. Reuben Moody, a +theological student, lived at the Shoals for a few months in the year +1822, and his description of the condition of things at that time is +frightful. He had no place to open a school; one of the islanders +provided him with a room, fire, etc., giving as a reason for his +enthusiastic furtherance of Mr. Moody’s plans, that his children made +such a disturbance at home that he couldn’t sleep in the daytime. An +extract from Mr. Moody’s journal affords an idea of the morals of the +inhabitants at this period:-- + +“May 1^{st}. I yet continue to witness the Heaven-daring impieties +of this people. Yesterday my heart was shocked at seeing a man about +seventy years of age, as devoid of reason as a maniac, giving way to +his passions; striving to express himself in more blasphemous language +than he had the ability to utter; and, being unable to express the +malice of his heart in words, he would _run at_ every one he saw. All +was tumult and confusion,--men and women with tar-brushes, clenched +fists, and stones; one female who had an infant but eight days old, +with a stone in her hand and an oath on her tongue, threatened to dash +out the brains of her antagonists.... After I arrived among them some +of them dispersed, some led their wives into the house, others drove +them off, and a calm succeeded.” + +In another part of the journal is an account of an old man who lived +alone and drank forty gallons of rum in twelve months,--some horrible +old Caliban, no doubt. This hideous madness of drunkenness was the +great trouble at the Shoals; and though time has modified, it has +not eliminated the apparently hereditary bane whose antidote is not +yet discovered. The misuse of strong drink still proves a whirlpool +more awful than the worst terrors of the pitiless ocean that hems the +islanders in. + +As may be seen from Mr. Moody’s journal, the clergy had a hard time +of it among the heathen at the Isles of Shoals; but they persevered, +and many brave women at different times have gone among the people to +teach the school and reclaim the little children from wretchedness +and ignorance. Miss Peabody, of Newburyport, who came to live with +them in 1823, did wonders for them during the three years of her stay. +She taught the school, visited the families, and on Sundays read to +such audiences as she could collect, took seven of the poorer female +children to live with her at the parsonage, instructed all who would +learn in the arts of carding, spinning, weaving, knitting, sewing, +braiding mats, etc. Truly she remembered what “Satan finds for idle +hands to do,” and kept all her charges busy and consequently happy. +All honor to her memory! she was a wise and faithful servant. There is +still an affectionate remembrance of her among the present inhabitants, +whose mothers she helped out of their degradation into a better life. I +saw in one of the houses, not long ago, a sampler blackened by age, but +carefully preserved in a frame; and was told that the dead grandmother +of the family had made it when a little girl, under Miss Peabody’s +supervision. In 1835 the Rev. Origen Smith went to live at Star, and +remained perhaps ten years, doing much good among the people. He nearly +succeeded in banishing the great demoralizer, liquor, and restored law +and order. He is reverently remembered by the islanders. In 1855 an +excellent man by the name of Mason occupied the post of minister for +the islanders, and from his report to the “Society for Propagating the +Gospel among the Indians and Others in North America” I make a few +extracts. He says: “The kind of business which the people pursue, and +by which they subsist, affects unfavorably their habits, physical, +social, and religious. Family discipline is neglected, domestic +arrangements very imperfect, much time, apparently wasted, is spent +in watching for favorable indications to pursue their calling.... A +bad moral influence is excited by a portion of the transient visitors +to the Shoals during the summer months.” This is very true. He speaks +of the people’s appreciation of the efforts made in their behalf; and +says that they raised subscriptions among themselves for lighting the +parsonage, and for fuel for the singing-school (which, by the way, was +a most excellent institution), and mentions their surprising him by +putting into the back kitchen of the parsonage a barrel of fine flour, +a bucket of sugar, a leg of bacon, etc. “Their deep poverty abounded +unto the riches of their liberality,” he says; and this little act +shows that they were far from being indifferent or ungrateful. They +were really attached to Mr. Mason, and it is a pity he could not have +remained with them. + +Within the last few years they have been trying bravely to help +themselves, and they persevere with their annual fair to obtain +money to pay the teacher who saves their little children from utter +ignorance; and many of them show a growing ambition in fitting up +their houses and making their families more comfortable. Of late, the +fires before referred to, kindled in drunken madness by the islanders +themselves, or by the reckless few who have joined the settlement, +have swept away nearly all the old houses, which have been replaced by +smart new buildings, painted white, with green blinds, and with modern +improvements, so that yearly the village grows less picturesque,--which +is a charm one can afford to lose, when the external smartness is +indicative of better living among the people. Twenty years ago Star +Island Cove was charming, with its tumble-down fish-houses, and ancient +cottages with low, shelving roofs, and porches covered with the golden +lichen that so loves to embroider old weather-worn wood. Now there +is not a vestige of those dilapidated buildings to be seen; almost +everything is white and square and new; and they have even cleaned out +the cove, and removed the great accumulation of fish-bones which made +the beach so curious. + +The old town records are quaint and interesting, and the spelling and +modes of expression so peculiar that I have copied a few. Mr. John +Muchamore was the moderator of a meeting called “March ye 7th day, +1748. By a Legall town meeting of ye Free holders and Inhabitence of +gosport, dewly quallefide to vote for Tiding men Collers of fish, +Corders of wood. Addition to ye minister’s sallery Mr John Tucke, 100 +lbs old tenor.” + +In 1755, it was “Agred in town meating that if any person shall spelth +[split] any fish above hie water marck and leave their heads and son +bones [sound-bones] their, shall pay ten lbs new tenor to the town, and +any that is above now their, they that have them their, shall have them +below hie warter in fortinets time or pay the same.” In another place +“it is agreed at ton meating evry person that is are kow [has a cow] +shall carry them of at 15 day of may, keep them their til the 15 day of +October or pay 20 shillings lawful money.” And “if any person that have +any hogs, If they do any damg, hom [whom] they do the damg to shall +keep the hog for sattisfaxeon.” + +The cows seem to have given a great deal of trouble. Here is one more +extract on the subject:-- + +“This is a Leagel vot by the ton meeting, that if any presson or +pressons shall leave their Cowks out after the fifteenth day of May +and they do any Dameg, they shall be taken up and the owner of the kow +shall pay teen shillings old tenor to the kow constabel and one half he +shall have and the other shall give to the pour of the place. + + “MR DAINEL RANDEL + “_Kow Constabel_.” + +“On March 11^{th} 1762. A genarel free Voot past amongst the inhabents +that every fall of the year when Mr Rev^{d.} John Tucke has his wood to +Carry home evary men will not com that is abel to com shall pay forty +shillings ould tenor.” + +But the most delightfully preposterous entry is this:-- + +“March 12^{th} 1769. A genarel free voot past amongst the inhabents to +cus [cause] tow men to go to the Rev^d Mr John Tucke to hear wether he +was willing to take one Quental of fish each man, or to take the price +of Quental in ould tenor which he answered this that he thought it was +easer to pay the fish than the money which he consented to taik the +fish for the year insuing.” + +“On March ye 25 1771. ”then their was a meating called and it was +_gurned_ until the 23^{rd} day of apirel. + + “MR DEEKEN WILLAM MUCHMORE + “_Moderator_.” + +Among the “offorsers” of “Gospored” were, besides “Moderator” and “Town +Clarke,” “Seelekt meen,” “Counstauble,” “Tidon meen” (Tithing-men), +“Coulears of fish,”--“Coulear” meaning, I suppose, culler, or person +appointed to select fish,--and “Sealers of Whood,” oftener expressed +corders of wood. + +In 1845 we read that Asa Caswell was chosen highway “sovair.” + +Very ancient tradition says that the method of courtship at the Isles +of Shoals was after this fashion: If a youth fell in love with a maid, +he lay in wait till she passed by, and then pelted her with stones, +after the manner of our friends of Marblehead; so that if a fair +Shoaler found herself the centre of a volley of missiles, she might +be sure that an ardent admirer was expressing himself with decision +certainly, if not with tact! If she turned, and exhibited any curiosity +as to the point of the compass whence the bombardment proceeded, her +doubts were dispelled by another shower; but if she went on her way in +maiden meditation, then was her swain in despair, and life, as is usual +in such cases, became a burden to him. + +Within my remembrance an occasional cabbage-party made an agreeable +variety in the life of the villagers. I never saw one, but have heard +them described. Instead of regaling the guests with wine and ices, pork +and cabbage were the principal refreshments offered them; and if the +cabbage came out of the garden of a neighbor, the spice of wickedness +lent zest to the entertainment,--stolen fruit being always the sweetest. + +It would seem strange that, while they live in so healthy a place, +where the atmosphere is absolutely perfect in its purity, they should +have suffered so much from ill health, and that so many should have +died of consumption,--the very disease for the cure of which physicians +send invalids hither. The reasons are soon told. The first and most +important is this: that, as nearly as they could, they have in past +years hermetically sealed their houses, so that the air of heaven +should not penetrate within. An open window, especially at night, they +would have looked upon as madness,--a temptation of Providence; and +during the winter they have deliberately poisoned themselves with every +breath, like two thirds of the rest of the world. I have seen a little +room containing a whole family, fishing-boots and all, bed, furniture, +cooking-stove in full blast, and an oil lamp with a wick so high that +the deadly smoke rose steadily, filling the air with what Browning +might call “filthiest gloom,” and mingling with the incense of ancient +tobacco-pipes smoked by both sexes (for nearly all the old women used +to smoke); every crack and cranny was stopped; and if, by any chance, +the door opened for an instant, out rushed a fume in comparison with +which the gusts from the lake of Tartarus might be imagined sweet. Shut +in that deadly air, a part of the family slept, sometimes all. What +wonder that their chests were hollow, their faces haggard, and that +apathy settled upon them! Then their food was hardly selected with +reference to health, saleratus and pork forming two of the principal +ingredients in their daily fare. Within a few years past they have +probably improved in these respects. Fifteen years ago I was passing a +window one morning, at which a little child two years old was sitting, +tied into a high chair before a table drawn close to the window, eating +his breakfast alone in his glory. In his stout little fist he grasped +a large iron spoon, and fed himself from a plate of beans swimming in +fat, and with the pork cut up in squares for his better convenience. +By the side of the plate stood a tin mug of bitter-strong black coffee +sweetened with molasses. I spoke to his mother within; “Ar’n’t you +afraid such strong coffee will kill your baby?” “O no,” she answered, +and held it to his lips. “There, drink that,” she said, “that’ll make +you hold your head up!” The poor child died before he grew to be a man, +and all the family have fallen victims to consumption. + +Very few of the old people are left at the present time, and the +village is very like other fishing-villages along the coast. Most of +the peculiar characteristics of the race are lost in the present +generation of young women, who are addicted to the use of hoops and +water-falls, and young men, who condescend to spoil their good looks +by dyeing their handsome blond beards with the fashionable mixture +which inevitably produces a lustre like stove-blacking. But there are +sensible fellows among them, fine specimens of the hardy New England +fisherman, Saxon-bearded, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and bronzed +with shade on shade of ruddy brown. The neutral blues and grays of +the salt-water make perfect backgrounds for the pictures these men +are continually showing one in their life about the boats. Nothing +can be more satisfactory than the blendings and contrasts of color +and the picturesque effect of the general aspect of the natives in +their element. The eye is often struck with the richness of the color +of some rough hand, glowing with mingled red, brown, and orange, +against the gray-blue water, as it grasps an oar, perhaps, or pulls +in a rope. It is strange that the sun and wind, which give such fine +tints to the complexions of the lords of creation, should leave such +hideous traces on the faces of women. When they are exposed to the +same salt wind and clear sunshine they take the hue of dried fish, and +become objects for men and angels to weep over. To see a _bona fide_ +Shoaler “sail a boat” (when the craft is a real boat and no tub) is +an experience. The vessel obeys his hand at the rudder as a trained +horse a touch on the rein, and seems to bow at the flash of his eye, +turning on her heel and running up into the wind, “luffing” to lean +again on the other tack,--obedient, graceful, perfectly beautiful, +yielding to breeze and to billow, yet swayed throughout by a stronger +and more imperative law. The men become strongly attached to their +boats, which seem to have a sort of human interest for them,--and no +wonder. They lead a life of the greatest hardship and exposure, during +the winter especially, setting their trawls fifteen or twenty miles to +the eastward of the islands, drawing them next day if the stormy winds +and waves will permit, and taking the fish to Portsmouth to sell. It is +desperately hard work, trawling at this season, with the bitter wind +blowing in their teeth, and the flying spray freezing upon everything +it touches,--boats, masts, sails, decks, clothes completely cased in +ice, and fish frozen solid as soon as taken from the water. The inborn +politeness of these fishermen to stranger-women is something delightful +to witness. I remember once landing in Portsmouth, and being obliged to +cross three or four schooners just in (with their freight of frozen +fish lying open-mouthed in a solid mass on deck) to reach the wharf. No +courtly gentlemen could have displayed more beautiful behavior than did +these rough fellows, all pressing forward, with real grace,--because +the feeling which prompted them was a true and lofty feeling,--to help +me over the tangle of ropes and sails and anchors to a safe footing on +shore. There is a ledge forty-five miles east of the islands, called +Jeffrey’s Ledge, where the Shoalers go for spring fishing. During a +northeast storm in May, part of the little fleet came reeling in before +the gale; and, not daring to trust themselves to beat up into the +harbor (a poor shelter at best), round the rocky reefs and ledges, the +fishermen anchored under the lee of Appledore, and there rode out the +storm. They were in continual peril; for, had their cables chafed apart +with the shock and strain of the billows among which they plunged, or +had their anchors dragged (which might have been expected, the bottom +of the sea between the islands and the mainland being composed of mud, +while all outside is rough and rocky), they would have inevitably been +driven to their destruction on the opposite coast. It was not pleasant +to watch them as the early twilight shut down over the vast, weltering +desolation of the sea, to see the slender masts waving helplessly from +one side to another,--sometimes almost horizontal, as the hulls turned +heavily this way and that, and the long breakers rolled in endless +succession against them. They saw the lights in our windows a half-mile +away; and we, in the warm, bright, quiet room, sitting by a fire that +danced and shone, fed with bits of wreck such as they might scatter +on Rye Beach before morning, could hardly think of anything else than +the misery of those poor fellows, wet, cold, hungry, sleepless, full +of anxiety till the morning should break and the wind should lull. No +boat could reach them through the terrible commotion of waves. But they +rode through the night in safety, and the morning brought relief. One +brave little schooner “toughed it out” on the distant ledge, and her +captain told me that no one could stand on board of her; the pressure +of the wind down on her decks was so great that she shuddered from stem +to stern, and he feared she would shake to pieces, for she was old and +not very seaworthy. Some of the men had wives and children watching +them from lighted windows at Star. What a fearful night for them! They +could not tell from hour to hour, through the thick darkness, if yet +the cables held; they could not see till daybreak whether the sea had +swallowed up their treasures. I wonder the wives were not white-haired +when the sun rose, and showed them those little specks yet rolling in +the breakers! The women are excessively timid about the water, more so +than landswomen. Having the terror and might of the ocean continually +encircling them, they become more impressed with it and distrust it, +knowing it so well. Very few accidents happen, however: the islanders +are a cautious people. Years ago, when the white sails of their little +fleet of whale-boats used to flutter out of the sheltered bight and +stand out to the fishing-grounds in the bay, how many eyes followed +them in the early light, and watched them in the distance through +the day, till, toward sunset, they spread their wings to fly back +with the evening wind! How pathetic the gathering of women on the +headlands, when out of the sky swept the squall that sent the small +boats staggering before it, and blinded the eyes, already drowned in +tears, with sudden rain that hid sky and sea and boats from their eager +gaze! What wringing of hands, what despairing cries, which the wild +wind bore away while it caught and fluttered the homely draperies and +unfastened the locks of maid and mother, to blow them about their pale +faces and anxious eyes! Now no longer the little fleet goes forth; for +the greater part of the islanders have stout schooners, and go trawling +with profit, if not with pleasure. A few solitaries fish in small +dories and earn a slender livelihood thereby. + +The sea helps these poor people by bringing fuel to their very doors; +the waves continually deposit driftwood in every fissure of the rocks. +But sad, anxious lives they have led, especially the women, many of +whom have grown old before their time with hard work and bitter cares, +with hewing of wood and drawing of water, turning of fish on the flakes +to dry in the sun, endless household work, and the cares of maternity, +while their lords lounged about the rocks in their scarlet shirts in +the sun, or “held up the walls of the meeting-house,” as one expressed +it, with their brawny shoulders. I never saw such wrecks of humanity as +some of the old women of Star Island, who have long since gone to their +rest. In my childhood I caught glimpses of them occasionally, their +lean brown shapes crouching over the fire, with black pipes in their +sunken mouths, and hollow eyes, “of no use now but to gather brine,” +and rough, gray, straggling locks: despoiled and hopeless visions, it +seemed as if youth and joy would never have been theirs. + + + A WOMAN OF STAR ISLAND. + + ISLES OF SHOALS, 1844. + + Over the embers she sits, + Close at the edge of the grave, + With her hollow eyes like pits, + And her mouth like a sunken cave. + + Her short black pipe held tight + Her withered lips between, + She rocks in the flickering light + Her figure bent and lean. + + She turns the fish no more + That dry on the flakes in the sun; + No wood she drags to the door, + Nor water,--her labor is done. + + She cares not for oath or blow, + She is past all hope or fear; + There is nothing she cares to know, + There is nothing hateful or dear. + + Deep wrong have the bitter years + Wrought her, both body and soul. + Life has been seasoned with tears; + But saw not God the whole? + + O wreck in woman’s shape! + Were you ever gracious and sweet? + Did youth’s enchantment drape + This horror, from head to feet? + + Have dewy eyes looked out + From these hollow pits forlorn? + Played smiles the mouth about + Of shy, still rapture born? + + Yea, once. But long ago + Has evil ground away + All beauty. The salt winds blow + On no sorrier sight to-day. + + Trodden utterly out + Is every spark of hope. + There is only left her, a doubt, + A gesture, half-conscious, a grope + + In the awful dark for a Touch + That never yet failed a soul. + Is not God tender to such? + Hath he not seen the whole? + +The local pronunciation of the Shoalers is very peculiar, and a shrewd +sense of humor is one of their leading characteristics. Could De +Quincey have lived among them, I think he might have been tempted to +write an essay on swearing as a fine art, for it has reached a pitch +hardly short of sublimity in this favored spot. They seemed to have a +genius for it, and some of them really devoted their best powers to its +cultivation. The language was taxed to furnish them with prodigious +forms of speech wherewith to express the slightest emotion of pain, +anger, or amusement; and though the blood of the listener was sometimes +chilled in his veins, overhearing their unhesitating profanity, the +prevailing sentiment was likely to be one of amazement mingled with +intense amusement,--the whole thing was so grotesque and monstrous, +and their choice of words so comical, and generally so very much to the +point. + +The real Shoals phraseology existing in past years was something not +to be described; it is impossible by any process known to science to +convey an idea of the intonations of their speech, quite different from +Yankee drawl or sailor-talk, and perfectly unique in itself. Why they +should have called a swallow a “swallick” and a sparrow a “sparrick” +I never could understand; or what they mean by calling a great gale +or tempest a “Tan toaster.” Anything that ends in _y_ or _e_ they +still pronounce _ay_ with great breadth; for instance, “Benny” is +Bennaye; “Billy” Billay, and so on. A man by the name of Beebe, the +modern “missionary,” was always spoken of as Beebay, when he was not +called by a less respectful title. Their sense of fun showed itself +in the nicknames with which they designated any person possessing the +slightest peculiarity. For instance, twenty years ago a minister of the +Methodist persuasion came to live among them; his wife was unreasonably +tall and thin. With the utmost promptitude and decision the irreverent +christened her “Legs,” and never spoke of her by any other name. +“Laigs has gone to Portsmouth,” or “Laigs has got a new gown,” etc. +A spinster of very dark complexion was called “Scip,” an abbreviation +of Scipio, a name supposed to appertain particularly to the colored +race. Another was called “Squint,” because of a defect in the power of +vision; and not only were they spoken of by these names, but called +so to their faces habitually. One man earned for himself the title of +“Brag,” so that no one ever thought of calling him by his real name; +his wife was Mrs. Brag; and constant use so robbed these names of their +offensiveness that the bearers not only heard them with equanimity, +but would hardly have known themselves by their true ones. A most +worthy Norwegian took up his abode for a brief space among them a few +years ago. His name was Ingebertsen. Now, to expect any Shoaler would +trouble himself to utter such a name as that was beyond all reason. At +once they called him “Carpenter,” apropos of nothing at all, for he +never had been a carpenter. But the name was the first that occurred to +them, and sufficiently easy of utterance. It was “Carpenter,” and “Mis’ +Carpenter,” and “them Carpenter children,” and the name still clings +to fine old Ingebertsen and his family. Grandparents are addressed as +Grans and Gwammaye, Grans being an abbreviation of grandsire. “Tell +yer grans his dinner’s ready,” calls some woman from a cottage door. +One old man, too lazy almost to live, was called “Hing”; one of two +brothers “Bunker,” the other “Shothead”; an ancient scold was called +“Zeke,” another “Sir Polly,” and so on indefinitely. In pleasant +weather sometimes the younger women would paddle from one island to +another “making calls.” If any old “Grans” perceived them, loafing at +his door in the sun, “It’s going to storm! the women begin to flit!” he +would cry, as if they were a flock of coots. A woman, describing how +slightly her house was put together, said, “Lor’, ’twan’t never built, +’twas only hove together.” “I don’ know whe’r or no it’s best or no to +go fishin’ whiles mornin’,” says some rough fellow, meditating upon +the state of winds and waters. Of his boat another says with pride, +“_She’s_ a pretty piece of wood!” and another, “She strikes a sea and +comes down like a pillow,” describing her smooth sailing. Some one, +relating the way the civil authorities used to take political matters +into their own hands, said that “if a man didn’t vote as they wanted +him to, they took him and hove him up agin the meetin’ us,” by way of +bringing him to his senses. Two boys in bitter contention have been +heard calling each other “nasty-faced chowderheads,” as if the force of +language could no further go. “I’m dryer than a graven image,” a man +says when he is thirsty. But it is impossible to give an idea of their +common speech leaving out the profanity which makes it so startling. + +Some comical stories are told of the behavior of officers of the law +in certain emergencies. On one occasion two men attacked each other in +the cove which served as the Plaza, the grand square of the village, +the general lounging-place. A comrade in a state of excitement ran +to inform the one policeman, who straightway repaired to the scene +of battle. There were the combatants raging like wild beasts, while +the whole community looked on aghast. What was to be done? Evidently +something, and at once. The policeman looked about him, considering. As +for interfering with that fearful twain, it was out of the question. +His eye fell upon a poor old man who leaned against a fish-house +enjoying the scene. A happy thought struck him! He dashed down upon the +ancient and unoffending spectator, and hurled him to the ground with +such force that he broke his collar-bone. Then, I suppose, he retired, +serene in the proud consciousness of having done his duty, and of +having been fully equal to the occasion. + +Two of the chief magistrates of the place had a deadly feud, entirely +personal, which had smouldered between them for years. One day the +stronger of the two quietly “arrested” the weaker, tied him hand and +foot with ropes, “hove” him into his whale-boat, and sailed off with +him in triumph to the land. Arrived at the city of Portsmouth, he +conducted him to jail, delivered him over to the jailer with much +satisfaction, crying, “There! There he is! Take him and lock him up! +He’s a poor pris’ner. Don’t you give him nothin’ t’ eat!” and returned +rejoicing to the bosom of his family. It being Thanksgiving Day, the +jailer is said to have taken the prisoner at once into his house, and, +instead of locking him up, gave him, according to his own account, “one +of the best Thanksgiving dinners he ever ate.” + +Nearly all the Shoalers have a singular gait, contracted from the +effort to keep their equilibrium while standing in boats, and from +the unavoidable gymnastics which any attempt at locomotion among the +rocks renders necessary. Some stiff-jointed old men have been known to +leap wildly from broad stone to stone on the smooth, flat pavements +of Portsmouth town, finding it out of the question to walk evenly and +decorously along the straight and easy way. This is no fable. Such is +the force of habit. Most of the men are more or less round-shouldered, +and seldom row upright, with head erect and shoulders thrown back. +They stoop so much over the fish-tables--cleaning, splitting, salting, +packing--that they acquire a permanent habit of stooping. + +Twenty years ago, an old man by the name of Peter was alive on Star +Island. He was said to be a hundred years old; and anything more +grisly, in the shape of humanity, it has never been my lot to behold; +so lean and brown and ancient, he might have been Methuselah, for no +one knew how long he had lived on this rolling planet. Years before he +died he used to paddle across to our lighthouse, in placid summer days, +and, scanning him with a child’s curiosity, I wondered how he kept +alive. A few white hairs clung to his yellow crown, and his pale eyes, +“where the very blue had turned to white,” looked vacantly and wearily +out, as if trying faintly to see the end of the things of this world. +Somebody, probably old Nabbaye, in whose cottage he lived, always +scoured him with soft soap before he started on his voyage, and in +consequence a most preternatural shine overspread his blank forehead. +His under jaw had a disagreeably suggestive habit of dropping, he was +so feeble and so old, poor wretch! Yet would he brighten with a faint +attempt at a smile when bread and meat were put into his hands, and +say, over and over again, “Ye’re a Christian, ma’am; thank ye, ma’am, +thank ye,” thrust all that was given him, no matter what, between his +one upper garment--a checked shirt--and his bare skin, and then, by way +of expressing his gratitude, would strike up a dolorous quaver of-- + + “Over the water and over the lea + And over the water to Charlie,” + +in a voice as querulous as a Scotch bagpipe. + +Old Nabbaye, and Bennaye, her husband, with whom Peter lived, were a +queer old couple. Nabbaye had a stubbly and unequal growth of sparse +gray hair upon her chin, which gave her a most grim and terrible +aspect, as I remember her, with the grizzled locks standing out about +her head like one of the Furies. Yet she was a good enough old woman, +kind to Peter and Bennaye, and kept her bit of a cottage tidy as might +be. I well remember the grit of the shining sand on her scoured floor +beneath my childish footsteps. The family climbed at night by a ladder +up into a loft, which their little flock of fowls shared with them, +to sleep. Going by the house one evening, some one heard Nabbaye call +aloud to Bennaye up aloft, “Come, Bennaye, fetch me down them heens’ +aigs!” To which Bennaye made answer, “I can’t find no aigs! I’ve looked +een the bed and een under the bed, and I can’t find no aigs!” + +Till Bennaye grew very feeble, every summer night he paddled abroad +in his dory to fish for hake, and lonely he looked, tossing among +the waves, when our boat bore down and passed him with a hail which +he faintly returned, as we plunged lightly through the track of the +moonlight, young and happy, rejoicing in the beauty of the night, while +poor Bennaye only counted his gains in the grisly hake he caught, nor +considered the rubies the lighthouse scattered on the waves, or how the +moon sprinkled down silver before him. He did not mind the touch of +the balmy wind that blew across his weather-beaten face with the same +sweet greeting that so gladdened us, but fished and fished, watching +his line through the short summer night, and, when a blush of dawn +stole up in the east among the stars, wound up his tackle, took his +oars, and paddled home to Nabbaye with his booty,--his “fare of fish” +as the natives have it. Hake-fishing after this picturesque and tedious +fashion is done away with now; the islands are girdled with trawls, +which catch more fish in one night than could be obtained in a week’s +hard labor by hand. + +When the dust of Bennaye and Nabbaye was mingled in the thin earth that +scarce can cover the multitude of the dead on Star Island, a youthful +couple, in whom I took great interest, occupied their little house. The +woman was remarkably handsome, with a beautiful head and masses of rich +black hair, a face regular as the face of a Greek statue, with eyes +that sparkled and cheeks that glowed,--a beauty she soon exchanged for +haggard and hollow looks. As their children were born they asked my +advice on the christening of each, and, being youthful and romantic, I +suggested Frederick as a sounding title for the first-born boy. Taylor +being the reigning President, his name was instantly added, and the +child was always addressed by his whole name. Going by the house one +day, my ears were assailed by a sharp outcry: “Frederick Taylor, if you +don’t come into the house this minute, I’ll slat your head off!” The +tender mother borrowed her expression from the fishermen, who disengage +mackerel and other delicate-gilled fish by “slatting” them off the hook. + +All this family have gone, and the house in which they lived has fallen +to ruin; only the cellar remains, just such a rude hollow as those +scattered over Appledore. + +The people along the coast rather look down upon the Shoalers as being +beyond the bounds of civilization. A young islander was expressing +his opinion on some matter to a native of Rye, who answered him with +great scorn: “You don’t know nothin’ about it! What do _you_ know? +_You_ never see an apple-tree all blowed out.” A Shoaler, walking with +some friends along a road in Rye, excited inextinguishable laughter by +clutching his companion’s sleeve as a toad hopped innocently across the +way, and crying: “Mr. Berraye, what kind of a bug do you call that? +D--d if I ever see such a bug as that, Mr. Berraye!” in a comical +terror. There are neither frogs nor toads at the Shoals. “Set right +down and help yourselves,” said an old fellow at whose door some guests +from the Shoals appeared at dinner-time. “Eat all you can. I ain’t got +no manners; the girl’s got the manners, and she ain’t to hum.” + +One old Shoaler, long since gone to another world, was a laughable and +curious character. A man more wonderfully fulfilling the word “homely” +in the Yankee sense, I never saw. He had the largest, most misshapen +cheek-bones ever constructed, an illimitable upper lip, teeth that +should not be mentioned, and small, watery eyes. Skin and hair and eyes +and mouth were of the same pasty yellow, and that grotesque head was +set on a little, thin, and shambling body. He used to be head singer +at the church, and “pitched the tune” by whistling when the parson +had read the hymn. Then all who could joined in the singing, which +must have been remarkable, to say the least. So great a power of brag +is seldom found in one human being as that which permeated him from +top to toe, and found vent in stories of personal prowess and bravery +unexampled in history. He used to tell a story of his encounter with +thirteen “Spanish grandeers” in New Orleans, he having been a sailor +a great part of his life. He was innocently peering into a theatre, +when the “grandeers” fell upon him out of the exceeding pride of their +hearts. “Wall, sir, I turned, and I laid six o’ them grandeers to the +right and seven to the left, and then I put her for the old brig, and I +heerd no more on ’em!” + +He considered himself unequalled as a musician, and would sing you +ballad after ballad, sitting bent forward with his arms on his knees, +and his wrinkled eyelids screwed tight together, grinding out the tune +with a quiet steadiness of purpose that seemed to betoken no end to his +capacities. Ballads of love and of war he sang,--the exploits of “Brave +Wolf,” or, as he pronounced it, “Brahn Wolf,” and one famous song of a +naval battle, of which only two lines remain in my memory;-- + + “With sixteen brass nineteens the Lion did growl, + With nineteen brass twenties the Tiger did howl.” + +At the close of each verse he invariably dropped his voice, and said, +instead of sung, the last word, which had a most abrupt and surprising +effect, to which a listener never could become accustomed. The immortal +ballad of Lord Bateman he had remodelled with beautiful variations +of his own. The name of the coy maiden, the Turk’s only daughter, +Sophia, was Susan Fryan, according to his version, and Lord Bateman +was metamorphosed into Lord Bakum. When Susan Fryan crosses the sea to +Lord Bakum’s castle and knocks so loud that the gates do ring, he makes +the bold young porter, who was so ready for to let her in, go to his +master, who sits feasting with a new bride, and say:-- + + “Seven long years have I tended your gate, sir, + Seven long years out of twenty-three, + But so fair a creetur as now stands waitin’ + Never before with my eyes did see. + + “O, she has rings on every finger, + And round her middle if she’s one she has three; + O, I’m sure she’s got more good gold about her + Than would buy your bride and her companie!” + +The enjoyment with which he gave this song was delightful to witness. +Of the many he used to sing, one was a doleful story of how a youth of +high degree fell in love with his mother’s fair waiting-woman, Betsy, +who was in consequence immediately transported to foreign lands. But +alas for her lover!-- + + “Then he fell sick and like to have died; + His mother round his sick-bed cried, + But all her crying it was in vain, + For Betsy was a-ploughing the raging main!” + +The word “main” was brought out with startling effect. Another song +about a miller and his sons I only half remember:-- + + “The miller he called his oldest son, + Saying, ‘Now my glass it is almost run, + If I to you the mill relate, + What toll do you _re_sign to take?’ + + “The son replied: ‘My name is Jack, + And out of a bushel I’ll take a peck.’ + ‘Go, go, you fool!’ the old man cried, + And called the next to his bedside. + + “The second said: ‘My name is Ralph, + And out of a bushel I’ll take a half.’ + ‘Go, go, you fool!’ the old man cried, + And called the next to his bedside. + + “The youngest said: ‘My name is Paul, + And out of a bushel I’ll take it all!’ + ‘You are my son!’ the old man cried, + And _shot_ up his eyes and died in peace.” + +The manner in which this last verse was delivered was inimitable, the +“died in peace” being spoken with great satisfaction. The singer had an +ancient violin, which he used to hug under his wizened chin, and from +which he drew such dismal tones as never before were heard on sea or +land. He had no more idea of playing than one of the codfish he daily +split and salted, yet he christened with pride all the shrieks and +wails he drew out of the wretched instrument with various high-sounding +titles. After he had entertained his audience for a while with these +aimless sounds, he was wont to say, “Wall, now I’ll give yer Prince +Esterhazy’s March,” and forthwith began again precisely the same +intolerable squeak. + +After he died, other stars in the musical world appeared in the +horizon, but none equalled him. They all seemed to think it necessary +to shut their eyes and squirm like nothing human during the process +of singing a song, and they “pitched the tune” so high that no human +voice ever could hope to reach it in safety. “Tew high, Bill, tew +high,” one would say to the singer, with slow solemnity; so Bill tried +again. “Tew high again, Bill, tew high.” “Wull, _you_ strike it, Obed,” +Bill would say in despair; and Obed would “strike,” and hit exactly +the same impossible altitude, whereat Bill would slap his knee, and +cry in glad surprise, “D--d if he ain’t got it!” and forth, with catch +Obed and launch on his perilous flight, and grow red in the face with +the mighty effort of getting up there, and remaining there through the +intricacies and variations of the melody. One could but wonder whence +these queer tunes came,--how they were created; some of them reminded +one of the creaking and groaning of windlasses and masts, the rattling +of rowlocks, the whistling of winds among cordage, yet with less of +music in them than these natural sounds. The songs of the sailors +heaving up the anchor are really beautiful often, the wild chant that +rises sometimes into a grand chorus, all the strong voices borne out on +the wind in the cry of + + “Yo ho, the roaring river!” + +But these Shoals performances are lacking in any charm, except that of +the broadest fun. + +The process of dunning, which made the Shoals fish so famous a century +ago, is almost a lost art, though the chief fisherman at Star still +“duns” a few yearly. A real dunfish is handsome, cut in transparent +strips, the color of brown sherry wine. The process is a tedious +one: the fish are piled in the storehouse and undergo a period of +“sweating” after the first drying, then are carried out into sun and +wind, dried again slightly, and again piled in the warehouse, and so on +till the process is complete. Drying fish in the common fashion is more +difficult than might be imagined: it is necessary to watch and tend +them continually as they lie on the picturesque “flakes,” and if they +are exposed at too early a stage to a sun too hot they burn as surely +as a loaf of bread in an intemperate oven, only the burning does not +crisp, but liquefies their substance. + +For the last ten years fish have been caught about the Shoals by +trawl and seine in such quantities that they are thinning fast, and +the trade bids fair to be much less lucrative before many years have +elapsed. The process of drawing the trawl is very picturesque and +interesting, watched from the rocks or from the boat itself. The buoy +being drawn in, then follow the baited hooks one after another. First, +perhaps, a rockling shows his bright head above water; a pull, and in +he comes flapping, with brilliant red fins distended, gaping mouth, +indigo-colored eyes, and richly mottled skin: a few futile somersets, +and he subsides into slimy dejection. Next, perhaps, a big whelk is +tossed into the boat; then a leaden-gray haddock, with its dark stripe +of color on each side; then, perhaps, follow a few bare hooks; then +a hake, with horrid, cavernous mouth; then a large purple star-fish, +or a clattering crab; then a ling,--a yellow-brown, wide-mouthed piece +of ugliness never eaten here, but highly esteemed on the coast of +Scotland; then more cod or haddock, or perhaps a lobster, bristling +with indignation at the novel situation in which he finds himself; +then a cusk, long, smooth, compact, and dark; then a catfish. Of all +fiends commend me to the catfish as the most fiendish! Black as night, +with thick and hideous skin, which looks a dull, mouldy green beneath +the water, a head shaped as much like a cat’s as a fish’s head can +be, in which the devil’s own eyes seem to glow with a dull, malicious +gleam,--and such a mouth! What terrible expressions these cold +creatures carry to and fro in the vast, dim spaces of the sea! All fish +have a more or less imbecile and wobegone aspect; but this one looks +absolutely evil, and Schiller might well say of him that he “grins +through the grate of his spiky teeth,” and sharp and deadly are they; +every man looks out for his boots when a catfish comes tumbling in, for +they bite through leather, flesh, and bones. They seize a ballast-stone +between their jaws, and their teeth snap and fly in all directions. I +have seen them bite the long blade of a sharp knife so fiercely, that, +when it was lifted and held aloft, they kept their furious gripe, and +dangled, flapping all their clumsy weight, hanging by their teeth to +the blade. Sculpins abound, and are a nuisance on the trawls. Ugly and +grotesque as are the full-grown fish, there is nothing among the finny +tribe more dainty, more quaint and delicate, than the baby sculpin. +Sometimes in a pool of crystal water one comes upon him unawares,--a +fairy creature, the color of a blush-rose, striped and freaked and +pied with silver and gleaming green, hanging in the almost invisible +water as a bird in air, with broad, transparent fins suffused with a +faint pink color, stretched wide like wings to upbear the supple form. +The curious head is only strange, not hideous as yet, and one gazes +marvelling at all the beauty lavished on a thing of so little worth. + +Wolf-fish, first cousins to the catfish, are found also on the trawls; +and dog-fish, with pointed snouts and sand-paper skins, abound to +such an extent as to drive away everything else sometimes. Sand-dabs, +a kind of flounder, fasten their sluggish bodies to the hooks, and a +few beautiful red fish, called bream, are occasionally found; also a +few blue-fish and sharks; frequently halibut,--though these latter +are generally caught on trawls which are made especially for them. +Sometimes is caught on a trawl a monstrous creature of horrible aspect, +called the nurse-fish,--an immense fish weighing twelve hundred pounds, +with a skin like a nutmeg-grater, and no teeth,--a kind of sucker, +hence its name. I asked a Shoaler what the nurse-fish looked like, and +he answered promptly, “Like the Devil!” One weighing twelve hundred +pounds has “two barrels of liver,” as the natives phrase it, which is +very valuable for the oil it contains. One of the fishermen described a +creature which they call mud-eel,--a foot and a half long, with a mouth +like a rat, and two teeth. The bite of this water-snake is poisonous, +the islanders aver, and tell a story of a man bitten by one at Mount +Desert last year, “who did not live long enough to get to the doctor.” +They bite at the hooks on the trawl, and are drawn up in a lump of mud, +and the men cut the ropes and mangle their lines to get rid of them. +Huge sunfish are sometimes harpooned, lying on the top of the water,--a +lump of flesh like cocoanut meat encased in a skin like rubber cloth, +with a most dim and abject hint of a face, absurdly disproportionate +to the size of the body, roughly outlined on the edge. Sword-fish are +also harpooned, weighing eight hundred pounds and upward; they are very +delicate food. A sword-fish swimming leaves a wake a mile long on a +calm day, and bewilders the imagination into a belief in sea-serpents. +There’s a legend that a torpedo was caught here once upon a time; and +the thrasher, fox-shark, or sea-fox occasionally alarms the fisherman +with his tremendous flexible tail, that reaches “from the gunnel to +the mainmast-top” when the creature comes to the surface. Also they +tell of skip-jacks that sprang on board their boats at night when +they were hake-fishing,--“little things about as large as mice, long +and slender, with beaks like birds.” Sometimes a huge horse-mackerel +flounders in and drives ashore on a ledge, for the gulls to scream +over for weeks. Mackerel, herring, porgies, and shiners used to abound +before the seines so thinned them. Bonito and blue-fish and dog-fish +help drive away the more valuable varieties. It is a lovely sight +to see a herring-net drawn in, especially by moonlight, when every +fish hangs like a long silver drop from the close-set meshes. Perch +are found in inexhaustible quantities about the rocks, and lump or +butter fish are sometimes caught; pollock are very plentiful,--smooth, +graceful, slender creatures! It is fascinating to watch them turning +somersets in the water close to the shore in full tides, or following a +boat at sunset, and breaking the molten gold of the sea’s surface with +silver-sparkling fin and tail. The rudder-fish is sometimes found, and +alewives and menhaden. Whales are more or less plentiful in summer, +“spouting their foam-fountains in the sea.” Beautiful is the sparkling +column of water rising suddenly afar off and falling noiselessly back +again. Not long ago a whale twisted his tail in the cable of the +schooner Vesper, lying to the eastward of the Shoals, and towed the +vessel several miles, at the rate of twenty knots an hour, with the +water boiling all over her from stem to stern! + +Last winter some of the Shoalers were drawing a trawl between the +Shoals and Boone Island, fifteen miles to the eastward. As they drew in +the line and relieved each hook of its burden, lo! a horror was lifted +half above the surface,--part of a human body, which dropped off the +hooks and was gone, while they shuddered, and stared at each other, +aghast at the hideous sight. + +Porpoises are seen at all seasons. I never saw one near enough to +gain a knowledge of its expression, but it always seemed to me that +these fish led a more hilarious life than the greater part of their +race, and I think they must carry less dejected countenances than +most of the inhabitants of the sea. They frisk so delightfully on +the surface, and ponderously plunge over and over with such apparent +gayety and satisfaction! I remember being out one moonless summer +night beyond the lighthouse island, in a little boat filled with gay +young people. The sea was like oil, the air was thick and warm, no +star broke the upper darkness, only now and then the lighthouse threw +its jewelled track along the water, and through the dense air its long +rays stretched above, turning solemnly, like the luminous spokes of a +gigantic wheel, as the lamps slowly revolved. There had been much talk +and song and laughter, much playing with the warm waves (or rather +smooth undulations of the sea, for there wasn’t a breath of wind to +make a ripple), which broke at a touch into pale-green, phosphorescent +fire. Beautiful arms, made bare to the shoulder, thrust down into +the liquid darkness, shone flaming silver and gold; from the fingers +playing beneath, fire seemed to stream; emerald sparks clung to the +damp draperies; and a splashing oar-blade half revealed sweet faces and +bright young eyes. Suddenly a pause came in talk and song and laughter, +and in the unaccustomed silence we seemed to be waiting for something. +At once out of the darkness came a slow, tremendous sigh that made +us shiver in the soft air, as if all the woe and terror of the sea +were condensed in that immense and awful breath; and we took our oars +and pulled homeward, with the weird fires flashing from our bows and +oar-blades. “Only a porpoise blowing,” said the initiated, when we told +our tale. It may have been “only a porpoise blowing”; but the leviathan +himself could hardly have made a more prodigious sound. + + * * * * * + +Within the lovely limits of summer it is beautiful to live almost +anywhere; most beautiful where the ocean meets the land; and here +particularly, where all the varying splendor of the sea encompasses +the place, and the ceaseless changing of the tides brings continual +refreshment into the life of every day. But summer is late and slow to +come; and long after the mainland has begun to bloom and smile beneath +the influence of spring, the bitter northwest winds still sweep the +cold, green water about these rocks, and tear its surface into long +and glittering waves from morning till night, and from night till +morning, through many weeks. No leaf breaks the frozen soil, and no +bud swells on the shaggy bushes that clothe the slopes. But if summer +is a laggard in her coming, she makes up for it by the loveliness of +her lingering into autumn; for when the pride of trees and flowers is +despoiled by frost on shore, the little gardens here are glowing at +their brightest, and day after day of mellow splendor drops like a +benediction from the hand of God. In the early mornings in September +the mists draw away from the depths of inland valleys, and rise into +the lucid western sky,--tall columns and towers of cloud, solid, +compact, superb; their pure, white, shining heads uplifted into the +ether, solemn, stately, and still, till some wandering breeze disturbs +their perfect outline, and they melt about the heavens in scattered +fragments as the day goes on. Then there are mornings when “all in +the blue, unclouded weather” the coast-line comes out so distinctly +that houses, trees, bits of white beach, are clearly visible, and with +a glass, moving forms of carriages and cattle are distinguishable +nine miles away. In the transparent air the peaks of Mounts Madison, +Washington, and Jefferson are seen distinctly at a distance of one +hundred miles. In the early light even the green color of the trees +is perceptible on the Rye shore. All through these quiet days the air +is full of wandering thistle-down, the inland golden-rod waves its +plumes, and close by the water’s edge, in rocky clefts, its seaside +sister blossoms in gorgeous color; the rose-haws redden, the iris +unlocks its shining caskets, and casts its closely packed seeds about, +gray berries cluster on the bayberry-bushes, the sweet life-everlasting +sends out its wonderful, delicious fragrance, and the pale asters +spread their flowers in many-tinted sprays. Through October and into +November the fair, mild weather lasts. At the first breath of October, +the hillside at Appledore fires up with the living crimson of the +huckleberry-bushes, as if a blazing torch had been applied to it; the +slanting light at sunrise and sunset makes a wonderful glory across +it. The sky deepens its blue; beneath it the brilliant sea glows into +violet, and flashes into splendid purple where the “tide-rip,” or +eddying winds, make long streaks across its surface (poets are not +wrong who talk of “purple seas,”) the air is clear and sparkling, +the lovely summer haze withdraws, all things take a crisp and tender +outline, and the cry of the curlew and the plover is doubly sweet +through the pure, cool air. Then sunsets burn in clear and tranquil +skies, or flame in piled magnificence of clouds. Some night a long +bar lies, like a smouldering brand, along the horizon, deep carmine +where the sun has touched it; and out of that bar breaks a sudden +gale before morning, and a fine fury and tumult begins to rage. Then +comes the fitful weather,--wild winds and hurrying waves, low, scudding +clouds, tremendous rains that shut out everything; and the rocks lie +weltering between the sea and sky, with the brief fire of the leaves +quenched and swept away on the hillside,--only rushing wind and +streaming water everywhere, as if a second deluge were flooding the +world. + +After such a rain comes a gale from the southeast to sweep the sky +clear,--a gale so furious that it blows the sails straight out of the +bolt-ropes, if any vessel is so unfortunate as to be caught in it with +a rag of canvas aloft; and the coast is strewn with the wrecks of such +craft as happen to be caught on the lee shore, for + + “Anchors drag, and topmasts lap,” + +and nothing can hold against this terrible, blind fury. It is appalling +to listen to the shriek of such a wind, even though one is safe upon a +rock that cannot move; and more dreadful is it to see the destruction +one cannot lift a finger to avert. + +As the air grows colder, curious atmospheric effects become visible. At +the first biting cold the distant mainland has the appearance of being +taken off its feet, as it were,--the line shrunken and distorted, +detached from the water at both ends: it is as if one looked under it +and saw the sky beyond. Then, on bright mornings with a brisk wind, +little wafts of mist rise between the quick, short waves, and melt away +before noon. At some periods of intense cold these mists, which are +never in banks like fog, rise in irregular, whirling columns reaching +to the clouds,--shadowy phantoms, torn and wild, that stalk past +like Ossian’s ghosts, solemnly and noiselessly throughout the bitter +day. When the sun drops down behind these weird processions, with a +dark-red, lurid light, it is like a vast conflagration, wonderful and +terrible to see. The columns, that strike and fall athwart the island, +sweep against the windows with a sound like sand, and lie on the ground +in ridges, like fine, sharp hail; yet the heavens are clear, the +heavily rolling sea dark-green and white, and, between the breaking +crests, the misty columns stream toward the sky. + +Sometimes a totally different vapor, like cold, black smoke, rolls +out from the land, and flows over the sea to an unknown distance, +swallowing up the islands on its way. Its approach is hideous to +witness. “It’s all thick o’ black vapor,” some islander announces, +coming in from out of doors; just as they say, “It’s all thick o’ white +foam,” when the sudden squall tears the sea into fringes of spray. + +In December the colors seem to fade out of the world, and utter +ungraciousness prevails. The great, cool, whispering, delicious sea, +that encircled us with a thousand caresses the beautiful summer +through, turns slowly our sullen and inveterate enemy; leaden it lies +beneath a sky like tin, and rolls its “white, cold, heavy-plunging +foam” against a shore of iron. Each island wears its chalk-white +girdle of ice between the rising and falling tides (edged with black +at low-water, where the lowest-growing seaweed is exposed), making the +stern bare rocks above more forbidding by their contrast with its stark +whiteness,--and the whiteness of salt-water ice is ghastly. Nothing +stirs abroad, except perhaps + + “A lonely sea-bird crosses, + With one waft of wing,” + +your view, as you gaze from some spray-incrusted window; or you behold +the weather-beaten schooners creeping along the blurred coast-line from +Cape Elizabeth and the northern ports of Maine towards Cape Ann, laden +with lumber or lime, and sometimes, rarely, with hay or provisions. + +After winter has fairly set in, the lonely dwellers at the Isles of +Shoals find life quite as much as they can manage, being so entirely +thrown upon their own resources that it requires all the philosophy +at their disposal to answer the demand. In the village, where several +families make a little community, there should be various human +interests outside each separate fireside; but of their mode of life +I know little. Upon three of the islands live isolated families, cut +off by the “always wind-obeying deep” from each other and from the +mainland, sometimes for weeks together, when the gales are fiercest, +with no letters nor intercourse with any living thing. Some sullen day +in December the snow begins to fall, and the last touch of desolation +is laid upon the scene; there is nothing any more but white snow +and dark water, hemmed in by a murky horizon; and nothing moves or +sounds within its circle but the sea harshly assailing the shore, and +the chill wind that sweeps across. Toward night the wind begins to +rise, the snow whirls and drifts, and clings wherever it can find a +resting-place; and though so much is blown away, yet there is enough +left to smother up the rock and make it almost impossible to move about +on it. The drifts sometimes are very deep in the hollows; one winter, +sixteen sheep were buried in a drift, in which they remained a week, +and, strange to say, only one was dead when they were discovered. One +goes to sleep in the muffled roar of the storm, and wakes to find +it still raging with senseless fury; all day it continues; towards +night the curtain of falling flakes withdraws, a faint light shows +westward; slowly the clouds roll together, the lift grows bright with +pale, clear blue over the land, the wind has hauled to the northwest, +and the storm is at an end. When the clouds are swept away by the +besom of the pitiless northwest, how the stars glitter in the frosty +sky! What wondrous streamers of northern lights flare through the +winter darkness! I have seen the sky at midnight crimson and emerald +and orange and blue in palpitating sheets along the whole northern +half of the heavens, or rosy to the zenith, or belted with a bar of +solid yellow light from east to west, as if the world were a basket, +and it the golden handle thereto. The weather becomes of the first +importance to the dwellers on the rock; the changes of the sky and sea, +the flitting of the coasters to and fro, the visits of the sea-fowl, +sunrise and sunset, the changing moon, the northern lights, the +constellations that wheel in splendor through the winter night,--all +are noted with a love and careful scrutiny that is seldom given by +people living in populous places. One grows accustomed to the aspect +of the constellations, and they seem like the faces of old friends +looking down out of the awful blackness; and when in summer the great +Orion disappears, how it is missed out of the sky! I remember the +delight with which we caught a glimpse of the planet Mercury, in March, +1868, following close at the heels of the sinking sun, redly shining in +the reddened horizon,--a stranger mysterious and utterly unknown before. + +For these things make our world: there are no lectures, operas, +concerts, theatres, no music of any kind, except what the waves may +whisper in rarely gentle moods; no galleries of wonders like the +Natural History rooms, in which it is so fascinating to wander; no +streets, shops, carriages, no postman, no neighbors, not a door-bell +within the compass of the place! Never was life so exempt from +interruptions. The eight or ten small schooners that carry on winter +fishing, flying to and fro through foam and squall to set and haul +in their trawls, at rare intervals bring a mail,--an accumulation of +letters, magazines, and newspapers that it requires a long time to plod +through. This is the greatest excitement of the long winters; and no +one can truly appreciate the delight of letters till he has lived where +he can hear from his friends only once in a month. + +But the best balanced human mind is prone to lose its elasticity, and +stagnate, in this isolation. One learns immediately the value of work +to keep one’s wits clear, cheerful, and steady; just as much real work +of the body as it can bear without weariness being always beneficent, +but here indispensable. And in this matter women have the advantage of +men, who are condemned to fold their hands when their tasks are done. +No woman need ever have a vacant minute,--there are so many pleasant, +useful things which she may, and had better do. Blessed be the man +who invented knitting! (I never heard that a woman invented this or +any other art.) It is the most charming and picturesque of quiet +occupations, leaving the knitter free to read aloud, or talk, or think, +while steadily and surely beneath the flying fingers the comfortable +stocking grows. + +No one can dream what a charm there is in taking care of pets, +singing-birds, plants, etc., with such advantages of solitude; how +every leaf and bud and flower is pored over, and admired, and loved! A +whole conservatory, flushed with azaleas, and brilliant with forests +of camellias and every precious exotic that blooms, could not impart +so much delight as I have known a single rose to give, unfolding in +the bleak bitterness of a day in February, when this side of the +planet seemed to have arrived at its culmination of hopelessness, with +the Isles of Shoals the most hopeless speck upon its surface. One +gets close to the heart of these things; they are almost as precious +as Picciola to the prisoner, and yield a fresh and constant joy, +such as the pleasure-seeking inhabitants of cities could not find in +their whole round of shifting diversions. With a bright and cheerful +interior, open fires, books, and pictures, windows full of thrifty +blossoming plants and climbing vines, a family of singing-birds, plenty +of work, and a clear head and quiet conscience, it would go hard if +one could not be happy even in such loneliness. Books, of course, are +inestimable. Nowhere does one follow a play of Shakespeare’s with +greater zest, for it brings the whole world, which you need, about +you; doubly precious the deep thoughts wise men have given to help +us,--doubly sweet the songs of all the poets; for nothing comes between +to distract you. + +One realizes how hard it was for Robinson Crusoe to keep the record of +his lonely days; for even in a family of eight or nine the succession +is kept with difficulty. I recollect that, after an unusually busy +Saturday, when household work was done, and lessons said, and the +family were looking forward to Sunday and merited leisure, at sunset +came a young Star-Islander on some errand to our door. One said to him, +“Well, Jud, how many fish have they caught to-day at Star?” Jud looked +askance and answered, like one who did not wish to be trifled with, “We +don’t go a-fishing Sundays!” So we had lost our Sunday, thinking it +was Saturday; and next day began the usual business, with no break of +refreshing rest between. + +Though the thermometer says that here it is twelve degrees warmer in +winter than on the mainland, the difference is hardly perceptible,--the +situation is so bleak, while the winds of the north and west bite like +demons, with all the bitter breath of the snowy continent condensed in +their deadly chill. Easterly and southerly gales are milder; we have +no east winds such as sadden humanity on shore; they are tempered to +gentleness by some mysterious means. Sometimes there are periods of +cold which, though not intense (the mercury seldom falling lower than +11° above zero), are of such long duration that the fish are killed in +the sea. This happens frequently with perch, the dead bodies of which +strew the shores and float on the water in masses. Sometimes ice forms +in the mouth of the Piscataqua River, which, continually broken into +unequal blocks by the rushing tide and the immense pressure of the +outer ocean, fills the space between the islands and the shore, so that +it is very difficult to force a boat through. The few schooners moored +about the islands become so loaded with ice that sometimes they sink; +every plunge into the assailing waves adds a fresh crust, infinitely +thin; but in twenty-four hours enough accumulates to sink the vessel; +and it is part of the day’s work in the coldest weather to beat off the +ice,--and hard work it is. Every time the bowsprit dips under, the man +who sits astride it is immersed to his waist in the freezing water, +as he beats at the bow to free the laboring craft. I cannot imagine a +harder life than the sailors lead in winter in the coasting-vessels +that stream in endless processions to and fro along the shore; and +they seem to be the hardest set of people under the sun,--so rough and +reckless that they are not pleasant even at a distance. Sometimes they +land here. A crew of thirteen or fourteen came on shore last winter; +they might have been the ghosts of the men who manned the picaroons +that used to swarm in these seas. A more piratical-looking set could +not well be imagined. They roamed about, and glared in at the windows +with weather-beaten, brutal faces, and eyes that showed traces of +whiskey, ugly and unmistakable. + +No other visitors break the solitude of Appledore, except neighbors +from Star once in a while; if any one is sick, they send, perhaps, for +medicine or milk; or they bring some rare fish; or if any one dies, +and they cannot reach the mainland, they come to get a coffin made. I +never shall forget one long, dreary, drizzly northeast storm, when two +men rowed across from Star to Appledore on this errand. A little child +had died, and they could not sail to the mainland, and had no means +to construct a coffin among themselves. All day I watched the making +of that little chrysalis; and at night the last nail was driven in, +and it lay across a bench in the midst of the litter of the workshop, +and a curious stillness seemed to emanate from the senseless boards. +I went back to the house and gathered a handful of scarlet geranium, +and returned with it through the rain. The brilliant blossoms were +sprinkled with glittering drops. I laid them in the little coffin, +while the wind wailed so sorrowfully outside, and the rain poured +against the windows. Two men came through the mist and storm, and one +swung the light little shell to his shoulder, and they carried it away, +and the gathering darkness shut down and hid them as they tossed +among the waves. I never saw the little girl, but where they buried +her I know: the lighthouse shines close by, and every night the quiet, +constant ray steals to her grave and softly touches it, as if to say, +with a caress, “Sleep well! Be thankful you are spared so much that I +see humanity endure, fixed here forever where I stand!” + +It is exhilarating, spite of the intense cold, to wake to the +brightness the northwest gale always brings, after the hopeless smother +of a prolonged snow-storm. The sea is deep indigo, whitened with +flashing waves all over the surface; the sky is speckless; no cloud +passes across it the whole day long; and the sun sets red and clear, +without any abatement of the wind. The spray flying on the western +shore for a moment is rosy as the sinking sun shines through, but for +a moment only,--and again there is nothing but the ghastly whiteness +of the salt-water ice, the cold, gray rock, the sullen, foaming brine, +the unrelenting heavens, and the sharp wind cutting like a knife. All +night long it roars beneath the hollow sky,--roars still at sunrise. +Again the day passes precisely like the one gone before; the sun lies +in a glare of quicksilver on the western water, sinks again in the +red west to rise on just such another day; and thus goes on, for +weeks sometimes, with an exasperating pertinacity that would try the +most philosophical patience. There comes a time when just that glare +of quicksilver on the water is not to be endured a minute longer. +During this period no boat goes to or comes from the mainland, and the +prisoners on the rock are cut off from all intercourse with their kind. +Abroad, only the cattle move, crowding into the sunniest corners, and +stupidly chewing the cud; and the hens and ducks, that chatter and +cackle and cheerfully crow in spite of fate and the northwest gale. +The dauntless and graceful gulls soar on their strong pinions over the +drift cast up about the coves. Sometimes flocks of snow-buntings wheel +about the house and pierce the loud breathing of the wind with sweet, +wild cries. And often the spectral arctic owl may be seen on a height, +sitting upright, like a column of snow, its large, round head slowly +turning from left to right, ever on the alert, watching for the rats +that plague the settlement almost as grievously as they did Hamelin +town, in Brunswick, five hundred years ago. + +How the rats came here first is not known; probably some old ship +imported them. They live partly on mussels, the shells of which lie in +heaps about their holes, as the violet-lined fresh-water shells lie +about the nests of the muskrats on the mainland. They burrow among the +rocks close to the shore, in favorable spots, and, somewhat like the +moles, make subterranean galleries, whence they issue at low tide, and, +stealing to the crevices of seaweed-curtained rocks, they fall upon +and dislodge any unfortunate crabs they may find, and kill and devour +them. Many a rat has caught a Tartar in this perilous kind of hunting, +has been dragged into the sea and killed,--drowned in the clutches of +the crab he sought to devour; for the strength of these shell-fish is +something astonishing. + +Several snowy owls haunt the islands the whole winter long. I have +never heard them cry like other owls; when disturbed or angry, they +make a sound like a watchman’s rattle, very loud and harsh, or they +whistle with intense shrillness, like a human being. Their habitual +silence adds to their ghostliness; and when at noonday they sit, high +up, snow-white above the snow-drifts, blinking their pale yellow eyes +in the sun, they are weird indeed. One night in March I saw one perched +upon a rock between me and the “last remains of sunset dimly burning” +in the west, his curious outline drawn black against the redness of the +sky, his large head bent forward, and the whole aspect meditative and +most human in its expression. I longed to go out and sit beside him and +talk to him in the twilight, to ask of him the story of his life, or, +if he would have permitted it, to watch him without a word. The plumage +of this creature is wonderfully beautiful,--white, with scattered spots +like little flecks of tawny cloud,--and his black beak and talons are +powerful and sharp as iron; he might literally grapple his friend, or +his enemy, with hooks of steel. As he is clothed in a mass of down, +his outlines are so soft that he is like an enormous snowflake while +flying; and he is a sight worth seeing when he stretches wide his broad +wings, and sweeps down on his prey, silent and swift, with an unerring +aim, and bears it off to the highest rock he can find, to devour it. In +the summer one finds frequently upon the heights a little, solid ball +of silvery fur and pure white bones, washed and bleached by the rain +and sun; it is the rat’s skin and skeleton in a compact bundle, which +the owl rejects after having swallowed it. + +Some quieter day, on the edge of a southerly wind, perhaps, boats go +out over the gray, sad water after sea-fowl,--the murres that swim +in little companies, keeping just out of reach of shot, and are so +spiteful that they beat the boat with their beaks, when wounded, in +impotent rage, till they are despatched with an oar or another shot; or +kittiwakes,--exquisite creatures like living forms of snow and cloud +in color, with beaks and feet of dull gold,--that come when you wave a +white handkerchief, and flutter almost within reach of your hand; or +oldwives, called by the natives _scoldenores_, with clean white caps; +or clumsy eider-ducks, or coots, or mergansers, or whatever they may +find. Black ducks, of course, are often shot. Their jet-black, shining +plumage is splendidly handsome, set off with the broad, flame-colored +beak. Little auks, stormy-petrels, loons, grebes, lords-and-ladies, +sea-pigeons, sea-parrots, various guillemots, and all sorts of gulls +abound. Sometimes an eagle sweeps over; gannets pay occasional visits; +the great blue heron is often seen in autumn and spring. One of the +most striking birds is the cormorant, called here “shag”; from it +the rock at Duck Island takes its name. It used to be an object of +almost awful interest to me when I beheld it perched upon White Island +Head,--a solemn figure, high and dark against the clouds. Once, while +living on that island, in the thickest of a great storm in autumn, when +we seemed to be set between two contending armies, deafened by the +continuous cannonading of breakers, and lashed and beaten by winds +and waters till it was almost impossible to hear ourselves speak, we +became aware of another sound, which pierced to our ears, bringing a +sudden terror lest it should be the voices of human beings. Opening the +window a little, what a wild combination of sounds came shrieking in! +A large flock of wild geese had settled for safety upon the rock, and +completely surrounded us,--agitated, clamorous, weary. We might have +secured any number of them, but it would have been a shameful thing. +We were glad, indeed, that they should share our little foothold in +that chaos, and they flew away unhurt when the tempest lulled. I was a +very young child when this happened, but I never can forget that autumn +night,--it seemed so wonderful and pitiful that those storm-beaten +birds should have come crying to our rock; and the strange, wild +chorus that swept in when the window was pried open a little took so +strong a hold upon my imagination that I shall hear it as long as I +live. The lighthouse, so beneficent to mankind, is the destroyer of +birds,--of land birds particularly, though in thick weather sea-birds +are occasionally bewildered into breaking their heads against the +glass, plunging forward headlong towards the light, just as the frail +moth of summer evenings madly seeks its death in the candle’s blaze. +Sometimes in autumn, always in spring, when birds are migrating, they +are destroyed in such quantities by this means that it is painful to +reflect upon. The keeper living at the island three years ago told me +that he picked up three hundred and seventy-five in one morning at the +foot of the lighthouse, all dead. They fly with such force against the +glass that their beaks are often splintered. The keeper said he found +the destruction greatest in hazy weather, and he thought “they struck a +ray at a great distance and followed it up.” Many a May morning have I +wandered about the rock at the foot of the tower mourning over a little +apron brimful of sparrows, swallows, thrushes, robins, fire-winged +blackbirds, many-colored warblers and fly-catchers, beautifully clothed +yellow-birds, nuthatches, catbirds, even the purple finch and scarlet +tanager and golden oriole, and many more beside,--enough to break the +heart of a small child to think of! Once a great eagle flew against +the lantern and shivered the glass. That was before I lived there; but +after we came, two gulls cracked one of the large, clear panes, one +stormy night. + +The sea-birds are comparatively few and shy at this time; but I +remember when they were plentiful enough, when on Duck Island in +summer the “medrakes,” or tern, made rude nests on the beach, and the +little yellow gulls, just out of the eggs, ran tumbling about among +the stones, hiding their foolish heads in every crack and cranny, and, +like the ostrich, imagining themselves safe so long as they could not +see the danger. And even now the sandpipers build in numbers on the +islands, and the young birds, which look like tiny tufts of fog, run +about among the bayberry-bushes, with sweet, scared piping. They are +exquisitely beautiful and delicate, covered with a down just like +gray mist, with brilliant black eyes, and slender, graceful legs +that make one think of grass-stems. And here the loons congregate in +spring and autumn. These birds seem to me the most human and at the +same time the most demoniac of their kind. I learned to imitate their +different cries; they are wonderful! At one time the loon language was +so familiar that I could almost always summon a considerable flock by +going down to the water and assuming the neighborly and conversational +tone which they generally use: after calling a few minutes, first a +far-off voice responded, then other voices answered him, and when this +was kept up a while, half a dozen birds would come sailing in. It was +the most delightful little party imaginable; so comical were they, so +entertaining, that it was impossible not to laugh aloud,--and they +could laugh too, in a way which chilled the marrow of one’s bones. +They always laugh, when shot at, if they are missed; as the Shoalers +say, “They laugh like a warrior.” But their long, wild, melancholy cry +before a storm is the most awful note I ever heard from a bird. It is +so sad, so hopeless,--a clear, high shriek, shaken, as it drops into +silence, into broken notes that make you think of the fluttering of a +pennon in the wind,--a shudder of sound. They invariably utter this cry +before a storm. + +Between the gales from all points of the compass, that + + “’twixt the green sea and the azured vault + Set roaring war,” + +some day there falls a dead calm; the whole expanse of the ocean is +like a mirror; there’s not a whisper of a wave, not a sigh from any +wind about the world,--an awful, breathless pause prevails. Then if +a loon swims into the motionless little bights about the island, and +raises his weird cry, the silent rocks re-echo the unearthly tone, and +it seems as if the creature were in league with the mysterious forces +that are so soon to turn this deathly stillness into confusion and +dismay. All through the day the ominous quiet lasts; in the afternoon, +while yet the sea is glassy, a curious undertone of mournful sound can +be perceived,--not fitful,--a steady moan such as the wind makes over +the mouth of an empty jar. Then the islanders say, “Do you hear Hog +Island crying? Now look out for a storm!” No one knows how that low +moaning is produced, or why Appledore, of all the islands, should alone +lament before the tempest. Through its gorges, perhaps, some current +of wind sighs with that hollow cry. Yet the sea could hardly keep its +unruffled surface were a wind abroad sufficient to draw out the boding +sound. Such a calm preceded the storm which destroyed the Minot’s Ledge +Lighthouse in 1849. I never knew such silence. Though the sun blazed +without a cloud, the sky and sea were utterly wan and colorless, and +before sunset the mysterious tone began to vibrate in the breezeless +air. “Hog Island’s crying!” said the islanders. One could but think +of the Ancient Mariner, as the angry sun went down in a brassy glare, +and still no ripple broke the calm. But with the twilight gathered the +waiting wind, slowly and steadily; and before morning the shock of the +breakers was like the incessant thundering of heavy guns; the solid +rock perceptibly trembled; windows shook, and glass and china rattled +in the house. It is impossible to describe the confusion, the tumult, +the rush and roar and thunder of waves and wind overwhelming those +rocks,--the whole Atlantic rushing headlong to cast itself upon them. +It was very exciting: the most timid among us lost all sense of fear. +Before the next night the sea had made a breach through the valley on +Appledore, in which the houses stand,--a thing that never had happened +within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. The waves piled in from +the eastward (where Old Harry was tossing the breakers sky-high),--a +maddened troop of giants, sweeping everything before them,--and +followed one another, white as milk, through the valley from east to +west, strewing the space with boulders from a solid wall six feet high +and as many thick, which ran across the top of the beach, and which +one tremendous wave toppled over like a child’s fence of blocks. Kelp +and sea-weed were piled in banks high up along the shore, and strewed +the doorsteps; and thousands of the hideous creatures known among the +Shoalers as sea-mice, a holothurian (a livid, shapeless mass of torpid +life), were scattered in all directions. While the storm was at its +height, it was impossible to do anything but watch it through windows +beaten by the blinding spray which burst in flying clouds all over +the island, drenching every inch of the soil in foaming brine. In the +coves the “yeasty surges” were churned into yellow masses of foam, that +blew across in trembling flakes, and clung wherever they lit, leaving +a hoary scum of salt when dry, which remained till sweet, fair water +dropped out of the clouds to wash it all away. It was long before the +sea went down; and, days after the sun began to shine, the fringe of +spray still leaped skyward from the eastern shore, and Shag and Mingo +Rocks at Duck Island tossed their distant clouds of snow against the +blue. + +After the wind subsided, it was curious to examine the effects of the +breakers on the eastern shore, where huge masses of rock were struck +off from the cliffs, and flung among the wild heaps of scattered +boulders, to add to the already hopeless confusion of the gorges. The +eastern aspects of the islands change somewhat every year or two from +this cause; and, indeed, over all their surfaces continual change +goes on from the action of the weather. Under the hammer and chisel +of frost and heat, masses of stone are detached and fall from the +edges of cliffs, whole ledges become disintegrated, the rock cracks +in smooth, thin sheets, and, once loosened, the whole mass can be +pulled out, sheet by sheet. Twenty years ago those subtle, irresistible +tools of the weather had cracked off a large mass of rock from a ledge +on the slope of a gentle declivity. I could just lay my hand in the +space then: now three men can walk abreast between the ledge and the +detached mass; and nothing has touched it save heat and cold. The whole +aspect of the rocks is infinitely aged. I never can see the beautiful +salutation of sunrise upon their hoary fronts, without thinking how +many millions of times they have answered to that delicate touch. +On Boone Island,--a low, dangerous rock fifteen miles east of the +Shoals,--the sea has even greater opportunities of destruction, the +island is so low. Once, after a stormy night, the lighthouse-keeper +told me the family found a great stone, weighing half a ton, in the +back entry, which Father Neptune had deposited there,--his card, with +his compliments! + +Often tremendous breakers encompass the islands when the surface of the +sea is perfectly calm and the weather serene and still,--the results +of great storms far out at sea. A “long swell” swings indolently, and +the ponderous waves roll in as if tired and half asleep, to burst +into clouds of splendor against the cliffs. Very different is their +hurried, eager breaking when the shoulder of a gale compels them. There +is no sound more gentle, more slumberous, than the distant roll of +these billows,-- + + “The rolling sea resounding soft,” + +as Spenser has it. The rush of a fully alive and closely pursued +breaker is, at a distance, precisely like that which a rocket makes, +sweeping headlong upward through the air; but the other is a long and +peaceful sigh, a dreamy, lulling, beautiful sound, which produces a +Lethean forgetfulness of care and pain, makes all earthly ill seem +unreal, and it is as if one wandered + + “In dreamful wastes, where footless fancies dwell.” + +It requires a strong effort to emerge from this lotus-eating state of +mind. O, lovely it is, on sunny afternoons to sit high up in a crevice +of the rock and look down on the living magnificence of breakers such +as made music about us after the Minot’s Ledge storm,--to watch them +gather, one after another, + + “Cliffs of emerald topped with snow, + That lift and lift, and then let go + A great white avalanche of thunder,” + +which makes the solid earth tremble, and you, clinging to the moist +rock, feel like a little cockle-shell! If you are out of the reach of +the heavy fall of spray, the fine salt mist will still stream about +you, and salute your cheek with the healthful freshness of the brine, +make your hair damp, and encrust your eyebrows with salt. While you +sit watching the shifting splendor, uprises at once a higher cloud +than usual; and across it springs a sudden rainbow, like a beautiful +thought beyond the reach of human expression. High over your head the +white gulls soar, gathering the sunshine in the snowy hollows of their +wings. As you look up to them floating in the fathomless blue, there +is something awful in the purity of that arch beneath their wings, in +light or shade, as the broad pinions move with stately grace. There +is no bird so white,--nor swan, nor dove, nor mystic ibis: about the +ocean-marges there is no dust to soil their perfect snow, and no stormy +wind can ruffle their delicate plumes,--the beautiful, happy creatures! +One never tires of watching them. Again and again appears the rainbow +with lovely colors melting into each other and vanishing, to appear +again at the next upspringing of the spray. On the horizon the white +sails shine; and far and wide spreads the blue of the sea, with nothing +between you and the eastern continent across its vast, calm plain. + +[Illustration: WHITE ISLAND.] + +I well remember my first sight of White Island, where we took up our +abode on leaving the mainland. I was scarcely five years old; but from +the upper windows of our dwelling in Portsmouth, I had been shown the +clustered masts of ships lying at the wharves along the Piscataqua +River, faintly outlined against the sky, and, baby as I was, even then +I was drawn, with a vague longing, seaward. How delightful was that +long, first sail to the Isles of Shoals! How pleasant the unaccustomed +sound of the incessant ripple against the boat-side, the sight of the +wide water and limitless sky, the warmth of the broad sunshine that +made us blink like young sandpipers as we sat in triumph, perched +among the household goods with which the little craft was laden! It +was at sunset in autumn that we were set ashore on that loneliest, +lovely rock, where the lighthouse looked down on us like some tall, +black-capped giant, and filled me with awe and wonder. At its base a +few goats were grouped on the rock, standing out dark against the red +sky as I looked up at them. The stars were beginning to twinkle; the +wind blew cold, charged with the sea’s sweetness; the sound of many +waters half bewildered me. Some one began to light the lamps in the +tower. Rich red and golden, they swung round in mid-air; everything was +strange and fascinating and new. We entered the quaint little old +stone cottage that was for six years our home. How curious it seemed, +with its low, whitewashed ceiling and deep window-seats, showing the +great thickness of the walls made to withstand the breakers, with +whose force we soon grew acquainted! A blissful home the little house +became to the children who entered it that quiet evening and slept +for the first time lulled by the murmur of the encircling sea. I do +not think a happier triad ever existed than we were, living in that +profound isolation. It takes so little to make a healthy child happy; +and we never wearied of our few resources. True, the winters seemed +as long as a whole year to our little minds, but they were pleasant, +nevertheless. Into the deep window-seats we climbed, and with pennies +(for which we had no other use) made round holes in the thick frost, +breathing on them till they were warm, and peeped out at the bright, +fierce, windy weather, watching the vessels scudding over the intensely +dark blue sea, all “feather-white” where the short waves broke hissing +in the cold, and the sea-fowl soaring aloft or tossing on the water; +or, in calmer days, we saw how the stealthy Star-Islander paddled among +the ledges, or lay for hours stretched on the wet sea-weed, with his +gun, watching for wild-fowl. Sometimes the round head of a seal moved +about among the kelp-covered rocks. A few are seen every winter, and +are occasionally shot; but they are shyer and more alert even than the +birds. + +We were forced to lay in stores of all sorts in the autumn, as if we +were fitting out a ship for an Arctic expedition. The lower story of +the lighthouse was hung with mutton and beef, and the store-room packed +with provisions. + +In the long, covered walk that bridged the gorge between the lighthouse +and the house, we played in stormy days; and every evening it was a +fresh excitement to watch the lighting of the lamps, and think how far +the lighthouse sent its rays, and how many hearts it gladdened with +assurance of safety. As I grew older I was allowed to kindle the lamps +sometimes myself. That was indeed a pleasure. So little a creature as +I might do that much for the great world! But by the fireside our best +pleasure lay,--with plants and singing birds and books and playthings +and loving care and kindness the cold and stormy season wore itself at +last away, and died into the summer calm. We hardly saw a human face +beside our own all winter; but with the spring came manifold life to +our lonely dwelling,--human life among other forms. Our neighbors +from Star rowed across; the pilot-boat from Portsmouth steered over, +and brought us letters, newspapers, magazines, and told us the news +of months. The faint echoes from the far-off world hardly touched us +little ones. We listened to the talk of our elders. “Winfield Scott and +Santa Anna!” “The war in Mexico!” “The famine in Ireland!” It all meant +nothing to us. We heard the reading aloud of details of the famine, +and saw tears in the eyes of the reader, and were vaguely sorry; but +the fate of Red Riding-Hood was much more near and dreadful to us. We +waited for the spring with an eager longing; the advent of the growing +grass, the birds and flowers and insect life, the soft skies and softer +winds, the everlasting beauty of the thousand tender tints that clothed +the world,--these things brought us unspeakable bliss. To the heart of +Nature one must needs be drawn in such a life; and very soon I learned +how richly she repays in deep refreshment the reverent love of her +worshipper. With the first warm days we built our little mountains of +wet gravel on the beach, and danced after the sandpipers at the edge +of the foam, shouted to the gossiping kittiwakes that fluttered above, +or watched the pranks of the burgomaster gull, or cried to the crying +loons. The gannet’s long, white wings stretched overhead, perhaps, or +the dusky shag made a sudden shadow in mid-air, or we startled on some +lonely ledge the great blue heron that flew off, trailing legs and +wings, stork-like, against the clouds. Or, in the sunshine on the bare +rocks, we cut from the broad, brown leaves of the slippery, varnished +kelps, grotesque shapes of man and bird and beast that withered in the +wind and blew away; or we fashioned rude boats from bits of driftwood, +manned them with a weird crew of kelpies, and set them adrift on the +great deep, to float we cared not whither. + +We played with the empty limpet-shells; they were mottled gray and +brown, like the song-sparrow’s breast. We launched fleets of purple +mussel-shells on the still pools in the rocks, left by the tide,--pools +that were like bits of fallen rainbow with the wealth of the sea, with +tints of delicate sea-weeds, crimson and green and ruddy brown and +violet; where wandered the pearly eolis with rosy spines and fairy +horns; and the large, round sea-urchins, like a boss upon a shield, +were fastened here and there on the rock at the bottom, putting out +from their green, prickly spikes transparent tentacles to seek their +invisible food. Rosy and lilac star-fish clung to the sides; in some +dark nook, perhaps, a holothure unfolded its perfect ferns, a lovely, +warm buff color, delicate as frost-work; little forests of coralline +moss grew up in stillness, gold-colored shells crept about, and now +and then flashed the silver-darting fins of slender minnows. The +dimmest recesses were haunts of sea-anemones that opened wide their +starry flowers to the flowing tide, or drew themselves together, and +hung in large, half-transparent drops, like clusters of some strange, +amber-colored fruit, along the crevices as the water ebbed away. +Sometimes we were cruel enough to capture a female lobster hiding in +a deep cleft, with her millions of mottled eggs; or we laughed to see +the hermit-crabs challenge each other, and come out and fight a deadly +battle till the stronger overcame, and, turning the weaker topsy-turvy, +possessed himself of his ampler cockle-shell, and scuttled off with it +triumphant. Or, pulling all together, we dragged up the long kelps, or +devil’s-aprons; their roots were almost always fastened about large, +living mussels; these we unclasped, carrying the mussels home to be +cooked; fried in crumbs or batter, they were as good as oysters. We +picked out from the kelp-roots a kind of star-fish which we called +sea-spider; the moment we touched it an extraordinary process began. +One by one it disjointed all its sections,--whether from fear or anger +we knew not; but it threw itself away, bit by bit, until nothing was +left of it save the little, round body whence the legs had sprung! + +With crab and limpet, with grasshopper and cricket, we were friends +and neighbors, and we were never tired of watching the land-spiders +that possessed the place. Their webs covered every window-pane to +the lighthouse top, and they rebuilt them as fast as they were swept +down. One variety lived among the round gray stones on the beach, +just above high-water mark, and spun no webs at all. Large and black, +they speckled the light stones, swarming in the hot sun; at the first +footfall they vanished beneath the pebbles. + +All the cracks in the rocks were draped with swinging veils like the +window-panes. How often have we marvelled at them, after a fog or a +heavy fall of dew, in the early morning, when every slender thread was +strung with glittering drops,--the whole symmetrical web a wonder of +shining jewels trembling in the breeze! Tennyson’s lines, + + “The cobweb woven across the cannon’s throat + Shall shake its threaded tears in the wind no more,” + +always bring back to my mind the memory of those delicate, spangled +draperies, more beautiful than any mortal loom could weave, that +curtained the rocks at White Island and “shook their threaded tears” in +every wind. + +Sometimes we saw the bats wheel through the summer dusk, and in +profoundly silent evenings heard, from the lighthouse top, their +shrill, small cries, their voices sharper and finer than needle-points. +One day I found one clinging to the under side of a shutter,--a soft, +dun-colored, downy lump. I took it in my hand, and in an instant it +changed to a hideous little demon, and its fierce white teeth met +in the palm of my hand. So much fury in so small a beast I never +encountered, and I was glad enough to give him his liberty without more +ado. + +A kind of sandhopper about an inch long, that infested the beach, was +a great source of amusement. Lifting the stranded sea-weed that marked +the high-water line, we always startled a gray and brown cloud of them +from beneath it, leaping away, like tiny kangaroos, out of sight. In +storms these were driven into the house, forcing their way through +every crack and cranny till they strewed the floors,--the sea so +encircled us! Dying immediately upon leaving the water from which they +fled, they turned from a clear brown, or what Mr. Kingsley would call +a “pellucid gray,” to bright brick-color, like a boiled lobster, and +many a time I have swept them up in ruddy heaps; they looked like bits +of coral. + +I remember in the spring kneeling on the ground to seek the first +blades of grass that pricked through the soil, and bringing them into +the house to study and wonder over. Better than a shop full of toys +they were to me! Whence came their color? How did they draw their +sweet, refreshing tint from the brown earth, or the limpid air, or +the white light? Chemistry was not at hand to answer me, and all her +wisdom would not have dispelled the wonder. Later the little scarlet +pimpernel charmed me. It seemed more than a flower; it was like a human +thing. I knew it by its homely name of poor-man’s weather-glass. It +was so much wiser than I, for, when the sky was yet without a cloud, +softly it clasped its small red petals together, folding its golden +heart in safety from the shower that was sure to come! How could it +know so much? Here is a question science cannot answer. The pimpernel +grows everywhere about the islands, in every cleft and cranny where +a suspicion of sustenance for its slender root can lodge; and it is +one of the most exquisite of flowers, so rich in color, so quaint +and dainty in its method of growth. I never knew its silent warning +fail. I wondered much how every flower knew what to do and to be; +why the morning-glory didn’t forget sometimes, and bear a cluster of +elder-bloom, or the elder hang out pennons of gold and purple like the +iris, or the golden-rod suddenly blaze out a scarlet plume, the color +of the pimpernel, was a mystery to my childish thought. And why did the +sweet wild primrose wait till after sunset to unclose its pale yellow +buds; why did it unlock its treasure of rich perfume to the night +alone? Few flowers bloomed for me upon the lonesome rock; but I made +the most of all I had, and neither knew of nor desired more. Ah, how +beautiful they were! Tiny stars of crimson sorrel threaded on their +long brown stems; the blackberry blossoms in bridal white; the surprise +of the blue-eyed grass; the crowfoot flowers, like drops of yellow +gold spilt about among the short grass and over the moss; the rich, +blue-purple beach-pea, the sweet, spiked germander, and the homely, +delightful yarrow that grows thickly on all the islands. Sometimes its +broad clusters of dull white bloom are stained a lovely reddish-purple, +as if with the light of sunset. I never saw it colored so elsewhere. +Quantities of slender, wide-spreading mustard-bushes grew about +the house; their delicate flowers were like fragrant golden clouds. +Dandelions, buttercups, and clover were not denied to us; though we +had no daisies nor violets nor wild roses, no asters, but gorgeous +spikes of golden-rod, and wonderful wild morning-glories, whose long, +pale, ivory buds I used to find in the twilight, glimmering among the +dark leaves, waiting for the touch of dawn to unfold and become each +an exquisite incarnate blush,--the perfect color of a South Sea shell. +They ran wild, knotting and twisting about the rocks, and smothering +the loose boulders in the gorges with lush green leaves and pink +blossoms. + +Many a summer morning have I crept out of the still house before any +one was awake, and, wrapping myself closely from the chill wind of +dawn, climbed to the top of the high cliff called the Head to watch +the sunrise. Pale grew the lighthouse flame before the broadening day +as, nestled in a crevice at the cliff’s edge, I watched the shadows +draw away and morning break. Facing the east and south, with all the +Atlantic before me, what happiness was mine as the deepening rose-color +flushed the delicate cloudflocks that dappled the sky, where the gulls +soared, rosy too, while the calm sea blushed beneath. Or perhaps it +was a cloudless sunrise with a sky of orange-red, and the sea-line +silver-blue against it, peaceful as heaven. Infinite variety of beauty +always awaited me, and filled me with an absorbing, unreasoning joy +such as makes the song-sparrow sing,--a sense of perfect bliss. Coming +back in the sunshine, the morning-glories would lift up their faces, +all awake, to my adoring gaze. Like countless rosy trumpets sometimes +I thought they were, tossed everywhere about the rocks, turned up to +the sky, or drooping toward the ground, or looking east, west, north, +south, in silent loveliness. It seemed as if they had gathered the +peace of the golden morning in their still depths even as my heart had +gathered it. + +In some of those matchless summer mornings when I went out to milk the +little dun cow, it was hardly possible to go farther than the doorstep, +for pure wonder, as I looked abroad at the sea lying still, like a +vast, round mirror, the tide drawn away from the rich brown rocks, a +sail or two asleep in the calm, not a sound abroad except a few bird +voices; dew lying like jewel-dust sifted over everything,--diamond +and ruby, sapphire, topaz, and amethyst, flashing out of the emerald +deeps of the tufted grass or from the bending tops. Looking over to +the mainland, I could dimly discern in the level sunshine the depths +of glowing green woods faintly revealed in the distance, fold beyond +fold of hill and valley thickly clothed with the summer’s splendor. +But my handful of grass was more precious to me than miles of green +fields, and I was led to consider every blade where there were so few. +Not long ago I had watched them piercing the ground toward the light; +now, how strong in their slender grace were these stems, how perfect +the poise of the heavy heads that waved with such harmony of movement +in the faintest breeze! And I noticed at mid-day when the dew was dry, +where the tall, blossoming spears stood in graceful companies that, +before they grew purple, brown, and ripe, when they began to blossom, +they put out first a downy ring of pollen in tiny, yellow rays, held by +an almost invisible thread, which stood out like an aureole from each +slow-waving head,--a fairy-like effect. On Seavey’s Island (united to +ours by a narrow beach covered at high tide with contending waves) grew +one single root of fern, the only one within the circle of my little +world. It was safe in a deep cleft, but I was in perpetual anxiety lest +my little cow, going there daily to pasture, should leave her cropping +of the grass and eat it up some day. Poor little cow! One night she did +not come home to be milked as usual, and on going to seek her we found +she had caught one foot in a crevice and twisted her hoof entirely off! +That was a calamity; for we were forced to summon our neighbors and +have her killed on the spot. + +I had a scrap of garden, literally not more than a yard square, wherein +grew only African marigolds, rich in color as barbaric gold. I knew +nothing of John Keats at that time,--poor Keats, “who told Severn that +he thought his intensest pleasure in life had been to watch the growth +of flowers,”--but I am sure he never felt their beauty more devoutly +than the little, half-savage being who knelt, like a fire-worshipper, +to watch the unfolding of those golden disks. When, later, the “brave +new world” of poets was opened to me, with what power those glowing +lines of his went straight to my heart, + + “Open afresh your rounds of starry folds, + Ye ardent marigolds!” + +All flowers had for me such human interest, they were so dear and +precious, I hardly liked to gather them, and when they were withered, +I carried them all to one place and laid them tenderly together, and +never liked to pass the spot where they were hidden. + +Once or twice every year came the black, lumbering old “oil-schooner” +that brought supplies for the lighthouse, and the inspector, who +gravely examined everything, to see if all was in order. He left stacks +of clear red and white glass chimneys for the lamps, and several +doe-skins for polishing the great, silver-lined copper reflectors, +large bundles of wicks, and various pairs of scissors for trimming +them, heavy black casks of ill-perfumed whale-oil, and other things, +which were all stowed in the round, dimly-lighted rooms of the tower. +Very awe-struck, we children always crept into corners, and whispered +and watched the intruders till they embarked in their ancient, clumsy +vessel, and, hoisting their dark, weather-stained sails, bore slowly +away again. About ten years ago that old white lighthouse was taken +away, and a new, perpendicular brick tower built in its place. The +lantern, with its fifteen lamps, ten golden and five red, gave place +to Fresnel’s powerful single burner, or, rather, three burners in one, +enclosed in its case of prisms. The old lighthouse was by far the most +picturesque; but perhaps the new one is more effective, the light +being, undoubtedly, more powerful. + +Often, in pleasant days, the head of the family sailed away to visit +the other islands, sometimes taking the children with him, oftener +going alone, frequently not returning till after dark. The landing +at White Island is so dangerous that the greatest care is requisite, +if there is any sea running, to get ashore in safety. Two long and +very solid timbers about three feet apart are laid from the boat-house +to low-water mark, and between those timbers the boat’s bow must be +accurately steered; if she goes to the right or the left, woe to her +crew unless the sea is calm! Safely lodged in the slip, as it is +called, she is drawn up into the boat-house by a capstan, and fastened +securely. The lighthouse gave no ray to the dark rock below it; +sending its beams far out to sea, it left us at its foot in greater +darkness for its lofty light. So when the boat was out late, in soft, +moonless summer nights, I used to light a lantern, and, going down to +the water’s edge, take my station between the timbers of the slip, +and, with the lantern at my feet, sit waiting in the darkness, quite +content, knowing my little star was watched for, and that the safety of +the boat depended in a great measure upon it. How sweet the summer wind +blew, how softly plashed the water round me, how refreshing was the +odor of the sparkling brine! High above, the lighthouse rays streamed +out into the humid dark, and the cottage windows were ruddy from the +glow within. I felt so much a part of the Lord’s universe, I was no +more afraid of the dark than the waves or winds; but I was glad to +hear at last the creaking of the mast and the rattling of the rowlocks +as the boat approached; and, while yet she was far off, the lighthouse +touched her one large sail into sight, so that I knew she was nearing +me, and shouted, listening for the reply that came so blithely back to +me over the water. + +Unafraid, too, we watched the summer tempests, and listened to the +deep, melodious thunder rolling away over the rain-calmed ocean. The +lightning played over the iron rods that ran from the lighthouse-top +down into the sea. Where it lay on the sharp ridgepole of the long, +covered walk that spanned the gorge, the strange fire ran up the spikes +that were set at equal distances, and burnt like pale flame from their +tips. It was fine indeed from the lighthouse itself to watch the storm +come rushing over the sea and ingulf us in our helplessness. How the +rain weltered down over the great panes of plate glass,--floods of +sweet, fresh water that poured off the rocks and mingled with the +bitter brine. I wondered why the fresh floods never made the salt +sea any sweeter. Those pale flames that we beheld burning from the +spikes of the lightning-rod, I suppose were identical with the St. +Elmo’s fire that I have since seen described as haunting the spars of +ships in thunder-storms. And here I am reminded of a story told by +some gentlemen visiting Appledore sixteen or eighteen years ago. They +started from Portsmouth for the Shoals in a whaleboat, one evening in +summer, with a native Star-Islander, Richard Randall by name, to manage +the boat. They had sailed about half the distance, when they were +surprised at seeing a large ball of fire, like a rising moon, rolling +toward them over the sea from the south. They watched it eagerly as it +bore down upon them, and, veering off, went east of them at some little +distance, and then passed astern, and there, of course, they expected +to lose sight of it; but while they were marvelling and speculating, +it altered its course, and suddenly began to near them, coming back +upon its track against the wind and steadily following in their wake. +This was too much for the native Shoaler. He took off his jacket and +turned it inside out to exorcise the fiend, and lo, the apparition most +certainly disappeared! We heard the excited account of the strange +gentlemen and witnessed the holy horror of the boatman on the occasion; +but no one could imagine what had set the globe of fire rolling +across the sea. Some one suggested that it might be an exhalation, a +phosphorescent light, from the decaying body of some dead fish; but in +that case it must have been taken in tow by some living finny creature, +else how could it have sailed straight “into the teeth of the wind”? It +was never satisfactorily accounted for, and must remain a mystery. + +One autumn at White Island our little boat had been to Portsmouth for +provisions, etc. With the spy-glass we watched her returning, beating +against the head wind. The day was bright, but there had been a storm +at sea, and the breakers rolled and roared about us. The process of +“beating” is so tedious that, though the boat had started in the +morning, the sun was sending long yellow light from the west before it +reached the island. There was no cessation in those resistless billows +that rolled from the Devil’s Rock upon the slip; but still the little +craft sailed on, striving to reach the landing. The hand at the tiller +was firm, but a huge wave swept suddenly in, swerving the boat to the +left of the slip, and in a moment she was overturned and flung upon +the rocks, and her only occupant tossed high upon the beach, safe +except for a few bruises; but what a moment of terror it was for us +all, who saw and could not save! All the freight was lost except a roll +of iron wire and a barrel of walnuts. These were spread on the floor +of an unoccupied eastern chamber in the cottage to dry. And they did +dry; but before they were gathered up came a terrible storm from the +southeast. It raved and tore at lighthouse and cottage; the sea broke +into the windows of that eastern chamber where the walnuts lay, and +washed them out till they came dancing down the stairs in briny foam! +The sea broke the windows of the house several times during our stay +at the lighthouse. Everything shook so violently from the concussion +of the breakers, that dishes on the closet shelves fell to the floor, +and one member of the family was at first always made sea-sick in +storms, by the tremor and deafening confusion. One night when, from +the southeast, the very soul of chaos seemed to have been let loose +upon the world, the whole ponderous “walk” (the covered bridge that +connected the house and lighthouse) was carried thundering down the +gorge and dragged out into the raging sea. + +It was a distressing situation for us,--cut off from the precious light +that must be kept alive; for the breakers were tearing through the +gorge so that no living thing could climb across. But the tide could +not resist the mighty impulse that drew it down; it was forced to obey +the still voice that bade it ebb; all swollen and raging and towering +as it was, slowly and surely, at the appointed time, it sank away from +our rock, so that, between the billows that still strove to clutch +at the white, silent, golden-crowned tower, one could creep across, +and scale the height, and wind up the machinery that kept the great +clustered light revolving till the gray daylight broke to extinguish it. + +I often wondered how it was possible for the sea-birds to live through +such storms as these. But, when one could see at all, the gulls were +always soaring, in the wildest tumult, and the stormy petrels half +flying, half swimming in the hollows of the waves. + +Would it were possible to describe the beauty of the calm that followed +such tempests! The long lines of silver foam that streaked the tranquil +blue, the “tender-curving lines of creamy spray” along the shore, +the clear-washed sky, the peaceful yellow light, the mellow breakers +murmuring slumberously! + +Of all the storms our childish eyes watched with delighted awe, one +thunder-storm remains fixed in my memory. Late in an August afternoon +it rolled its awful clouds to the zenith, and, after the tumult had +subsided, spread its lightened vapors in an under-roof of gray over +all the sky. Presently this solemn gray lid was lifted at its western +edge, and an insufferable splendor streamed across the world from +the sinking sun. The whole heaven was in a blaze of scarlet, across +which sprang a rainbow unbroken to the topmost clouds, “with its seven +perfect colors chorded in a triumph” against the flaming background; +the sea answered the sky’s rich blush, and the gray rocks lay drowned +in melancholy purple. I hid my face from the glory,--it was too much to +bear. Ever I longed to _speak_ these things that made life so sweet, +to speak the wind, the cloud, the bird’s flight, the sea’s murmur. A +vain longing! I might as well have sighed for the mighty pencil of +Michael Angelo to wield in my impotent child’s hand. Better to “hush +and bless one’s self with silence”; but ever the wish grew. Facing the +July sunsets, deep red and golden through and through, or watching the +summer northern lights,--battalions of brilliant streamers advancing +and retreating, shooting upward to the zenith, and glowing like fiery +veils before the stars; or when the fog-bow spanned the silver mist of +morning, or the earth and sea lay shimmering in a golden haze of noon; +in storm or calm, by day or night, the manifold aspects of Nature held +me and swayed all my thoughts until it was impossible to be silent any +longer, and I was fain to mingle my voice with her myriad voices, only +aspiring to be in accord with the Infinite harmony, however feeble and +broken the notes might be. + + * * * * * + +It has been my good fortune to witness but few wrecks at the Shoals. +The disasters of which we hear faintly from the past were many and +dreadful; but since the building of the lighthouse on White Island, +and also on Boone Island (which seems like a neighbor, though fifteen +miles distant), the danger of the place is much lessened. A resident +of Star Island told me of a wreck which took place forty-seven years +ago, during a heavy storm from the eastward. It blew so that all the +doors in the house opened as fast as they shut them, and in the night +a vessel drove against “Hog Island Head,” which fronts the village +on Star. She went to pieces utterly. In the morning the islanders +perceived the beach at Londoners heaped with some kind of drift; they +could not make out what it was, but, as soon as the sea subsided, went +to examine and found a mass of oranges and picture-frames, with which +the vessel had been freighted. Not a soul was saved. “She struck with +such force that she drove a large spike out of her forefoot” into a +crevice in the rock, which was plainly to be seen till a few years +ago. My informant also told me that she remembered the wreck of the +Sagunto, in 1813; that the beaches were strewn with “almond-nuts” +long after; and that she picked up curiously embroidered vests and +“work-bags” in all directions along the shores. + +During a storm in 1839, while living at White Island, we were startled +by the heavy booming of guns through the roar of the tempest,--a sound +that drew nearer and nearer, till at last, through a sudden break in +the mist and spray, we saw the heavily rolling hull of a large vessel +driving by, to her sure destruction, toward the coast. It was as if the +wind had torn the vapor apart on purpose to show us this piteous sight; +and I well remember the hand on my shoulder which held me firmly, +shuddering child that I was, and forced me to look in spite of myself. +What a day of pain it was! how dreadful the sound of those signal-guns, +and how much more dreadful the certainty, when they ceased, that +all was over! We learned afterward that it was the brig Pocahontas, +homeward bound from Spain, and that the vessel and all her crew were +lost. In later years a few coasters and fishermen have gone ashore at +the islands, generally upon the hidden ledges at Duck. Many of these +have been loaded with lime,--a most perilous freight; for as soon as +the water touches it there is a double danger; and between fire and +water there is little chance of escape. + +I wish I could recall the graphic language of a Star Islander who +described to me a wreck of this kind. The islanders saw at sunrise, one +bitter winter day, a schooner ashore among the dreadful ledges at Duck +Island, and, though the wind blew half a gale, they took their boats +and ran down toward her before the northwester. Smoke and steam and +spray and flame were rising from her and about her when they reached +the spot. Only one man was found alive. From the davits, hanging head +downward, was the lifeless body of a fair-haired boy of sixteen or +thereabouts. The breakers swept him to and fro, and, drawing away, +left his long yellow hair dripping with the freezing brine. The mate’s +story was that he had gone to unfasten the boat which hung at the +stern, that a sea had struck him, and he had fallen headforemost with +his feet entangled in the ropes of the davits. He was the only son of +his mother, who was a widow. They carried his body home to that most +unhappy mother. The vessel was a total loss, with all on board, except +the mate. + +One winter night at Appledore when it was blowing very hard northwest, +with a clear sky, we were wakened by a violent knocking at the door. +So unaccustomed a sound, at that time of night too, was enough to +startle us all, and very much amazed we were. The door was opened to +admit four or five shipwrecked men, whose hands, feet, and ears were +all frozen stiff,--pitiable objects they were indeed. Their vessel had +struck full on York Ledge, a rock lying off the coast of Maine far east +of us, and they had taken to the boat and strove to make a landing on +the coast; but the wind blew off shore so fiercely they failed in their +attempt, their hands became useless from the cold, they dropped their +oars, and, half steering with one of the seats of the boat, managed +to reach Appledore, more dead than alive. They were obliged to remain +there several days before finding an opportunity of going on shore, the +gale was so furious. Next morning, in the glare of the winter sunshine, +we saw their vessel, still with all sail set, standing upright upon +the ledge,--a white column looming far away. One of the most hideous +experiences I have heard befell a young Norwegian now living at the +Shoals. He and a young companion came out from Portsmouth to set their +trawl, in the winter fishing, two years ago. Before they reached the +island, came a sudden squall of wind and snow, chilling and blinding. +In a few moments they knew not where they were, and the wind continued +to sweep them away. Presently they found themselves under the lee of +White Island Head; they threw out the road-lines of their trawl, in +desperate hope that they might hold the boat till the squall abated. +The keepers at the lighthouse saw the poor fellows, but were powerless +to help them. Alas! the road-lines soon broke, and the little boat was +swept off again, they knew not whither. Night came down upon them, +tossed on that terrible black sea; the snow ceased, the clouds flew +before the deadly cold northwest wind, the thermometer sank below zero. +One of the men died before morning; the other, alone with the dead man, +was still driven on and on before the pitiless gale. He had no cap nor +mittens; had lost both. He bailed the boat incessantly, for the sea +broke over him the livelong time. He told me the story himself. He +looked down at the awful face of his dead friend and thought “how soon +he should be like him”; but still he never ceased bailing,--it was all +he could do. Before night he passed Cape Cod and knew it as he rushed +by. Another unspeakably awful night, and the gale abated no whit. Next +morning he was almost gone from cold, fatigue, and hunger. His eyes +were so swollen he could hardly see; but afar off, shining whiter than +silver in the sun, the sails of a large schooner appeared at the edge +of the fearful wilderness. He managed to hoist a bit of old canvas on +an oar. He was then not far from Holmes’ Hole, nearly two hundred miles +from the Shoals! The schooner saw it and bore down for him, but the +sea was running so high that he expected to be swamped every instant. +As she swept past, they threw from the deck a rope with a loop at the +end, tied with a bow-line knot that would not slip. It caught him over +the head, and clutching it at his throat with both hands, in an instant +he found himself in the sea among the ice-cold, furious waves, drawn +toward the vessel with all the strength of her crew. Just before he +emerged, he heard the captain shout, “We’ve lost him!” Ah the bitter +moment! For a horrible fear struck through him that they might lose +their hold an instant on the rope, and then he knew it would be all +over. But they saved him. The boat with the dead man in it, all alone, +went tossing, heaven knows where. + +The great equinoctial gale of September 8, 1869, was very severe at the +islands. One schooner went ashore on Cannon Point at Appledore, and +was a complete wreck, though no lives were lost. She was lying in “The +Roads,” between Star and Appledore, safely moored, her crew supposed; +but she dragged moorings, anchors, everything with which they strove +to save her, and crashed on the rocks, breaking up like an eggshell. +Various buildings were blown down; windows at Appledore were blown in, +in some cases sash and all, in others the glass was smashed as if the +wind had thrust an arm through. + +At about seven o’clock in the evening a great copper-colored arch +spanned the black sky from west to east. The gale was then at its +height. After that lurid bow dissolved, flying northward in wild, +scattered fragments, the wind abated, and we began to take breath +again. A man at Star, on the edge of the storm, rowed out in his dory +to make more secure a larger boat moored at a little distance. Down +came the hurricane and caught him, and whirled him away like a dead +leaf on the surface of the sea. He gave himself up for lost, of course; +so did his friends. But he fastened himself with ropes to the inside of +the boat, and, tossing from billow to billow, bailed for dear life the +whole night long. Toward morning, the wind lulling very considerably, +he was carried along the coast of Maine, and landed in York, a short +distance from his father’s home, and quietly walked into the house and +joined the family at breakfast; then took the cars for Portsmouth, and +astounded the whole Shoals settlement by appearing in the steamer +Appledore in time for dinner. Everybody supposed him, without a shadow +of doubt, to be at the bottom of the sea. + +Boone Island is the forlornest place that can be imagined. The Isles of +Shoals, barren as they are, seem like Gardens of Eden in comparison. I +chanced to hear last summer of a person who had been born and brought +up there; he described the loneliness as something absolutely fearful, +and declared it had pursued him all through his life. He lived there +till fourteen or fifteen years old, when his family moved to York. +While living on the island he discovered some human remains which +had lain there thirty years. A carpenter and his assistants, having +finished some building, were capsized in getting off, and all were +drowned, except the master. One body floated to Plum Island at the +mouth of the Merrimack; the others the master secured, made a box for +them,--all alone the while,--and buried them in a cleft and covered +them with stones. These stones the sea washed away, and, thirty years +after they were buried, the boy found the bones, which were removed +to York and there buried again. It was on board a steamer bound to +Bangor, that the man told his story. Boone Island Light was shining +in the distance. He spoke with bitterness of his life in that terrible +solitude, and of “the loneliness which had pursued him ever since.” +All his relatives were dead, he said, and he had no human tie in the +wide world except his wife. He ended by anathematizing all islands, +and, vanishing into the darkness, was not to be found again; nor did +his name or any trace of him transpire, though he was sought for in the +morning all about the vessel. + +One of the most shocking stories of shipwreck I remember to have heard +is that of the Nottingham Galley, wrecked on this island in the year +1710. There is a narrative of this shipwreck existing, written by +“John Deane, then commander of said Galley, but for many years after +his Majesty’s consul for the ports of Flanders, residing at Ostend,” +printed in 1762. The ship, of one hundred and twenty tons, carrying +ten guns, with a crew of fourteen men, loaded partly in England and +partly in Ireland, and sailed for Boston on the 25th of September, +1710. She made land on the 11th of December, and was wrecked on that +fatal rock. At first the unhappy crew “treated each other with kindness +and condolence, and prayed to God for relief.” The only things saved +from the wreck were a bit of canvas and half a cheese. The men made +a triangular tent of the bit of canvas, and all lay close together +beneath it, sideways; none could turn without the general concurrence: +they turned once in two hours upon public notice. They had no fire, +and lived upon kelp and rockweed, and mussels, three a day to a man. +Starvation and suffering soon produced a curious loss of memory. The +fourth day the cook died. When they had been there upwards of a week, +they saw three sails in the southwest, but no boat came near them. +They built a rude boat of such materials as they could gather from +the wreck, but she was lost in launching. One of the men, a Swede, is +particularly mentioned; he seems to have been full of energy; with +help from the others he built a raft; in launching this they overset +it. Again they saw a sail, this time coming out from the Piscataqua +River; it was soon out of sight. The Swede was determined to make +an effort to reach the shore, and persuaded another man to make the +attempt with him. At sunset they were seen half-way to the land; the +raft was found on shore with the body of one man; the Swede was never +seen more. A hide was thrown on the rocks at Boone Island by the sea; +this the poor sailors ate raw, minced. About the end of December the +carpenter died, and, driven to madness by hunger, they devoured the +flesh of their dead comrade. The captain, being the strongest of the +party, dragged the body away and hid it, and dealt small portions of it +daily to the men. Immediately their dispositions underwent a horrible +change. They became fierce and reckless, and were the most pitiable +objects of despair, when, on January 4th, 1711, they were discovered +and taken off. It was evening when they entered the Piscataqua River, +and eight o’clock when they landed. Discovering a house through the +darkness, the master rushed into it, frightening the gentlewoman and +children desperately, and, making his way to the kitchen, snatched +the pot wherein some food was cooking off the fire, and began to eat +voraciously. This old record mentions John Plaisted and John Wentworth +as being most “forward in benevolence” to these poor fellows. + +When visiting the island for the first time, a few years ago, I was +shown the shallow gorge where the unfortunates tried to shelter +themselves. It was the serenest of summer days; everything smiled and +shone as I stood looking down into that rocky hollow. Near by the +lighthouse sprang--a splendid piece of masonry--over a hundred feet +into the air, to hold its warning aloft. About its base some gentle +thought had caused morning-glories to climb and unfold their violet, +white, and rosy bells against the smooth, dark stone. I thought I had +never seen flowers so beautiful. There was hardly a handful of grass +on the island, hardly soil enough to hold a root; therefore it seemed +the more wonderful to behold this lovely apparition. With my mind full +of the story of the Nottingham Galley, I looked at the delicate bells, +the cool green leaves, the whole airy grace of the wandering vines, and +it was as if a hand were stretched out to pluck me away from the awful +questions never to be answered this side the grave, that pressed so +heavily while I thought how poor humanity had here suffered the utmost +misery that it is possible to endure. + +The aspect of this island from the Shoals is very striking, so lonely +it lies on the eastern horizon, its tall lighthouse like a slender +column against the sky. It is easily mistaken for the smokestack of a +steamer by unaccustomed eyes, and sometimes the watcher most familiar +with its appearance can hardly distinguish it from the distant white +sails that steal by it, to and fro. Sometimes it looms colossal in the +mirage of summer; in winter it lies blurred and ghostly at the edge of +chilly sea and pallid sky. In the sad, strange light of winter sunsets, +its faithful star blazes suddenly from the darkening east, and sends a +friendly ray across to its neighbor at the Shoals, waiting as it also +waits, ice-bound, storm-swept, and solitary, for gentler days to come. +And “winter’s rains and ruins” have an end at last. + +In the latter part of February, after ten days perhaps of the +northwester, bringing across to the islands all the chill of the +snow-covered hills of the continent, some happy evening it dies into +a reasonable breeze, and, while the sun sets, you climb the snowy +height, and sweep with your eyes the whole circle of the horizon, with +nothing to impede the view. Ah! how sad it looks in the dying light! +Star Island close by with its silent little village and the sails of +belated fishing-boats hurrying in over the dark water to the moorings; +White Island afar off “kindling its great red star”; on every side the +long, bleached points of granite stretching out into the sea, so cold +and bleak; the line of coast, sad purple; and the few schooners leaden +and gray in the distance. Yet there is a hopeful glow where the sun +went down, suggestive of the spring; and before the ruddy sweetness +of the western sky the melancholy east is flushed with violet, and up +into the delicious color rolls a gradual moon, mellow and golden as in +harvest-time, while high above her the great star Jupiter begins to +glitter clear. On such an evening some subtle influence of the coming +spring steals to the heart, and eyes that have watched the winter skies +so patiently grow wistful with the thought of summer days to come. +On shore in these last weeks of winter one becomes aware, by various +delicate tokens, of the beautiful change at hand,--by the deepening +of the golden willow wands into a more living color, and by their +silvery buds, which in favored spots burst the brown sheaths; by the +reddening of bare maple-trees, as if with promise of future crimson +flowers; by the sweet cry of the returning bluebird; by the alders at +the river’s edge. If the season is mild, the catkins begin to unwind +their tawny tresses in the first weeks of March. But here are no trees, +and no bluebirds come till April. Perhaps some day the delightful +clangor of the wild geese is heard, and looking upward, lo! the long, +floating ribbon streaming northward across the sky. What joy they bring +to hearts so weary with waiting! Truly a wondrous content is shaken +down with their wild clamors out of the cloudy heights, and a courage +and vigor lurk in these strong voices that touch the listener with +something better than gladness, while he traces eagerly the wavering +lines that seek the north with steady, measured flight. + +Gradually the bitter winds abate; early in March the first flocks of +crows arrive, and they soar finely above the coves, and perch on the +flukes of stranded anchors or the tops of kellock-sticks that lie +about the water’s edge. They are most welcome, for they are never +seen in winter; and pleasant it is to watch them beating their black, +ragged pinions in the blue, while the gulls swim on beyond them +serenely, shining still whiter for their sable color. No other birds +come till about the 27th of March, and then all at once the islands +are alive with song-sparrows, and these sing from morning till night +so beautifully that dull and weary indeed must be the mortal who can +resist the charm of their fresh music. There is a matchless sweetness +and good cheer in this brave bird. The nightingale singing with its +breast against a thorn may be divine; yet would I turn away from its +tender melody to listen to the fresh, cheerful, healthy song of this +dauntless and happy little creature. They come in flocks to be fed +every morning the whole summer long, tame and charming, with their +warm brown and gray feathers, striped and freaked with wood-color, +and little brown knots at each pretty throat! They build their nests, +and remain till the snow falls; frequently they remain all winter; +sometimes they come into the house for shelter; once one fluttered in +and entered the canaries’ cage voluntarily, and stayed there singing +like a voice from heaven all winter. Robins and blackbirds appear with +the sparrows; a few blackbirds build and remain; the robins, finding +no trees, flit across to the mainland. Yellow-birds and kingbirds +occasionally build here, but very rarely. By the first of April the +snow is gone, and our bit of earth is free from that dead white mask. +How lovely then the gentle neutral tints of tawny intervals of dead +grass and brown bushes and varying stone appear, set in the living sea! +There is hardly a square foot of the bare rock that isn’t precious for +its soft coloring; and freshly beautiful are the uncovered lichens that +with patient fingering have ornamented the rough surfaces with their +wonderful embroideries. They flourish with the greatest vigor by the +sea; whole houses at Star used to be covered with the orange-colored +variety, and I have noticed the same thing in the pretty fishing +village of Newcastle and on some of the old buildings by the river-side +in sleepy Portsmouth city. Through April the weather softens daily, +and by the 20th come gray, quiet days with mild northeast wind; in the +hollows the grass has greened, and now the gentle color seems to brim +over and spread out upon the ground in faint and fainter gradations. +A refreshing odor springs from the moist earth, from the short, sweet +turf which the cattle crop so gladly,--a musky fragrance unlike that +of inland pastures; and with this is mingled the pure sea-breeze,--a +most reviving combination. The turfy gorges, boulder-strewn and still, +remind one of Alexander Smith’s descriptions of his summer in Skye, of +those quiet, lonely glens,--just such a grassy carpet was spread in +their hollows. By the 23d of April come the first swallow and flocks of +martins, golden-winged and downy woodpeckers, the tiny, ruby-crowned +wren, and troops of many other kinds of birds; kingfishers that perch +on stranded kellocks, little nuthatches that peck among the shingles +for hidden spiders, and gladden the morning with sweet, quaint cries, +so busy and bright and friendly! All these tarry only awhile in their +passage to the mainland. + +But though the birds come and the sky has relented and grown tender +with its melting clouds, the weather in New England has a fashion of +leaping back into midwinter in the space of an hour, and all at once +comes half a hurricane from the northwest, charged with the breath of +all the remaining snow-heaps on the far mountain ranges,--a “white-sea +roarin’ wind” that takes you back to January. In the afternoon, +through the cold, transparent heaven, a pale half-moon glides slowly +over; there is a splendor of wild clouds at sunset, dusk heaps with +scarlet fringes, scattered flecks of flame in a clear crimson air above +the fallen sun; then cold moonlight over the black sea, with the flash +and gleam of white waves the whole night long. + +But the potent spirit of the spring triumphs at last. When the sun in +its journey north passes a certain group of lofty pine-trees standing +out distinctly against the sky on Breakfast Hill in Greenland, New +Hampshire, which lies midway in the coast line, then the Shoalers are +happy in the conviction that there will be “settled weather”; and they +put no trust in any relenting of the elements before that time. After +this there soon come days when to be alive is quite enough joy,--days +when it is bliss only to watch and feel how + + “God renews + His ancient rapture,”-- + +days when the sea lies, colored like a turquoise, blue and still, and +from the south a band of warm, gray-purple haze steals down on the +horizon like an encircling arm about the happy world. The lightest +film encroaches upon the sea, only made perceptible by the shimmering +of far-off sails. A kind of bloom, inexpressibly lovely, softens over +the white canvas of nearer vessels, like a delicate veil. There is a +fascination in the motion of these slender schooners, a wondrous grace, +as they glide before a gentle wind, slowly bowing, bending, turning, +with curving canvas just filled with the breeze, and shadows falling +soft from sail to sail. They are all so picturesque, so suggestive, +from the small, tanned spritsail some young islander spreads to flit +to and fro among the rocks and ledges, to the stately column of canvas +that bears the great ship round the world. The variety of their +aspects is endless and ever beautiful, whether you watch them from the +lighthouse-top, dreaming afar on the horizon, or at the water’s edge; +whether they are drowned in the flood of sunshine on the waves, or +glide darkly through the track of the moonlight, or fly toward you full +of promise, wing and wing, like some magnificent bird, or steal away +reddening in the sunset as if to + + “Sink with all you love below the verge.” + +I know nothing sadder than their aspect in the light of the winter +sunsets, as they vanish in the cold east, blushing for a fleeting +moment, sweetly, faintly, under the last touch of the dropping day. +To a child’s imagination they are all full of charm and of mystery, +freighted with heavenly dreams. “The thoughts of youth are long, long +thoughts,” and the watching of the sails filled the lonely, lovely +summer days of one young Shoaler with joy enough and to spare. How +many pictures linger in my mind,--splendid, stately apparitions of +full-rigged, slender schooners, passing very near early in the breezy +mornings of spring, every inch of canvas in a blaze of white light, +and the whole vessel alive from keel to topmast. And well I remember +on soft May evenings how they came dropping down from Cape Ann, while +the sunset, streaming through low bars of cloud, just touched them with +pale gold, and made them half luminous and altogether lovely; and how +the fog clung in silver strips to the dark, wet sails of vessels lying +becalmed when all the air about was clear and free from mist; how the +mackerel fleet surrounded the islands, five hundred craft sometimes +between the islands and the coast, so that one might almost walk on +shore from deck to deck. It was wonderful to wake on some midsummer +morning and find the sea gray-green, like translucent chrysoprase, and +the somewhat stormy sunrise painting the sails bright flame-color as +they flew before the warm, wild wind that blew strongly from the south. +At night, sometimes, in a glory of moonlight, a vessel passed close +in with all sail set, and only just air enough to fill the canvas, +enough murmur from the full tide to drown the sound of her movement,--a +beautiful ghost stealing softly by, and passing in mysterious light +beyond the glimmering headland out of sight. Here was suggestion enough +for a night full of visions! Then the scudding of sails before a +storm,--how they came rushing in from the far, dim sea-line, racing by +to Portsmouth Harbor, close-reefed, or under darkened mainsail and jib +only, leaping over the long swell, and plunging their sharp bowsprits +into a cloud of snowy spray at every leap! Then when the storm had +spent itself, how beautiful to see them stealing tranquilly forth +from the river’s mouth, flocking seaward again, shining white in the +peaceful morning sunshine! Watching them in all their endless variety, +coming and going, dreaming, drifting, or flying, many a time these +quaint old rhymes occurred to me:-- + + “Ships, ships, I will descrie you + Amidst the main, + I will come and try you + What you are protecting, + And projecting, + What’s your end and aim? + Some go abroad for merchandise and trading, + Another stays to keep his country from invading, + A third is coming home with rich and wealthy lading. + Halloo! my fancie, whither wilt thou go?” + +As the winter is doubly hard, so are the gentler seasons doubly sweet +and delightful, when one is shut out with them, as it were, and forced +to observe all their changes and peculiarities, with so few human +interests to interrupt one’s intercourse with nature. The rainy days +in May at the Isles of Shoals have seemed to me more lovely than the +sunshine in Paradise could be, so charming it was to walk in the warm +showers over our island, and note all the mosses and lichens drenched +and bright with the moisture, thick, sweet buds on the bayberry bushes, +rich green leaves unfolding here and there among the tangled vines, +and bright anemones growing up between. The lovely eyebright glimmers +everywhere. The rain, if it continues for several days, bleaches the +sea-weed about the shores to a lighter and more golden brown, the sea +is gray, and the sky lowers; but all these neutral tints are gentle +and refreshing. The coasters rock lazily on the long swell toward Cape +Ann, dim through low-hanging clouds; clearly the sandpipers call, and +always the song-sparrows freshly surprise you with their outburst +of cheerful music. In the last weeks of May comes a period of balmy +days, with a gentle, incessant southwest wind, the sea a wonderful +gray-blue, with the faint, impalpable haze lying over sails, islands, +sea, and coast. A brooding warmth is everywhere. The sky is cloudless, +but opaque,--a kind of milky effect in the atmosphere, through which +the sun is seen as through smoked glass, and long before it sets one +can bear to look at the crimson ball slow sinking in the rich, red +west; and the moon is like copper, throwing no light on the water. The +islanders call this a “smoky sou’wester.” Now come delicious twilights, +with silence broken only by mysterious murmurs from the waves, and +sweet, full cries from the sandpipers fluttering about their nests +on the margin of the beaches,--tender, happy notes that thrill the +balmy air, and echo softly about the silent, moonlit coves. Sails in +this twilight atmosphere gather the dusk within their folds; if the +warm wind is blowing softly, there is enchantment in the sound of the +lazily-flapping canvas and in the long creak of the mast. A human voice +borne through this breathing wind comes like a waft of music faintly +heard across the water. The mornings now are exquisite, the delicate +flush of the sunrise through this beautiful haze is indescribable. The +island is indeed like + + “A precious stone set in the silver sea,” + +so freshly green, so flower-strewn and fragrant, so musical with +birds, and with the continual caressing of summer waves. Now and then +a bobolink pays us a flying visit, and, tilting on a blackberry spray, +pours out his intoxicating song; some morning is heard the fairy +bugling of an oriole; a scarlet tanager honors the place with half a +day’s sojourn, to be the wonder of all eyes; but commonly the swallows +hold it in undisputed possession. The air is woven through and through +with the gleam of their burnished wings and their clear, happy cries. +They are so tame, knowing how well they are beloved, that they gather +on the window-sills, twittering and fluttering, gay and graceful, +turning their heads this way and that, eying you askance without a +trace of fear. All day they build their nests about the eaves, nor heed +how loving eyes do watch their charming toil. Walking abroad in these +pleasant evenings, many a little sparrow’s nest one finds low down in +the bayberry-bushes,--smooth, brown cups of woven grass, wherein lie +the five speckled eggs, each full of silent music, each dumb miracle +waiting for the finger of God to wake, to be alive, to drink the +sunshine and the breeze, to fill the air with blissful sound. At the +water’s edge one finds the long ledges covered with barnacles, and from +each rough shell a tiny, brown, filmy hand is thrust out, opening and +shutting in gladness beneath the coming tide, feeling the freshness +of the flowing water. The shore teems with life in manifold forms. As +the darkness gathers, the ripples begin to break in pale flame against +the rocks; if the tide is low enough, it is charming to steal down in +the shadow, and, drawing aside the curtain of coarse sea-weed that +drapes the face of some smooth rock, to write on the surface beneath: +the strange fire follows your finger; and there is your name in weird +flame, all alive, quivering and trembling, and finally fading and +disappearing. In a still pool you drop a stone or touch the water +with your hand: instantly a thousand stars break out and burn and +vanish in a moment! It used to be a pleasant thing to bring a piece of +drift-wood, water-soaked, and shaggy with fine seaweed, up from the +shore, and from some dark corner suddenly sweep my hand across it: a +sheet of white flame followed, startling the beholder. + +June is of course the most delightful month here, everything is yet +so fresh; later the hot sun dries and scorches the thin soil, and +partially destroys the little vegetation which finds room upon the +island. But through this month the ground is beautiful with starry, +purple stonewort; like little suns the blossoms of the lion’s-foot +shine in the thinnest of the soil; herb-robert blossoms; the slender +arenaria steals up among the bushes, lifting a little white flower +to the sun; here and there the sorrel lies in crimson stains; in wet +places sturdy clumps of fern unroll their golden green with splendid +vigor of growth; sundew and partridge-berry creep at their feet; +and from the swamp the rushes rise in ranks, like a faint, green +vapor, slowly, day by day. The few wild-cherry bushes have each its +inevitable caterpillars’ nest; one can but wonder how caterpillars and +canker-worms find their way across the water. The presence of green +snakes on these rocks may be explained by their having been found +coiled on a piece of drift-wood many miles out at sea. Bees find their +way out from the land in companies, seeking the white clover-blossoms +that rise in cool, creamy, fragrant globes through the dark leaves +and grass. The clover here is peculiarly rich. Many varieties of +butterflies abound, the handsome moth of the American silkworm among +them. One night in June, at sunset, we were kindling the lamps in the +lighthouse, and because it was so mild and still outside, the little +iron door of the lantern was left open. No breeze came in to stir +the flame that quivered in the centre of each shining reflector, but +presently glided through the door the pale-green, exquisite Luna moth, +with its wonderful crescents, its lines of velvet brown, and long under +wings drawn out like the tail of a swallow. It sailed slowly round and +round the dome above the lamps at first, but soon became agitated, and +would have dashed itself against the flames but that I caught it. What +a marvel it was! I never dreamed of the existence of so beautiful a +creature. Titania herself could not have been more interesting to me. + +In the quiet little coves troops of butterflies are often seen, +anchored for the night, clinging to the thistle-blossoms to be safe +from assailing winds. Crickets are never heard here till after the 1st +of August. On the mainland they begin, about the 28th of May, a sad +and gentle autumnal undertone, which from that time accompanies the +jubilant chorus of summer in a gradual _crescendo_, till finally the +days pass on to no other music save their sweet, melancholy chirrup. +In August comes the ruby-throated humming-bird, and several pairs +flutter about the little gardens for weeks. By the 1st of July the wild +roses blossom, and every bit of swampy ground is alive with the waving +flags of the iris, each flower of which is full of exquisite variety +of tint and shade of gold and violet. All over the island patches of +it diversify the surface, set like amethysts in the rich greens and +browns of turf and mossy spaces. Through the tangle of leaves and +grasses the spikes of golden-rod make their way upward slowly day by +day, to be ready at the first beckoning of Autumn’s finger to light +their torches and join the fair procession; the green hollows are +filled with blossoming elder, white as a lake of milk; the pimpernel is +awake; and the heavy, stout stalks of the mulleins uprear their woolly +buds, that soon will break into squares of pallid gold. The world is at +high tide of delight. Along the coast-line the mirage races in flowing +undulations of heat, changing the hill ranges into a solid wall, to +dissolve them, and again reunite them into clusters of gigantic towers +and battlements; trees, spires, chimneys, lighthouses become roofs and +minarets and domes of some stately city of the clouds, and these melt +in their turn, and the whole coast shrinks away to the merest line +on the horizon immeasurably removed. Each of these changes, and the +various aspects of their little world, are of inestimable value to the +lonely children living always in that solitude. Nothing is too slight +to be precious: the flashing of an oar-blade in the morning light; +the twinkling of a gull’s wings afar off, like a star in the yellow +sunshine of the drowsy summer afternoon; the water-spout waltzing +away before the wild wind that cleaves the sea from the advancing +thunder-cloud; the distant showers that march about the horizon, +trailing their dusky fringes of falling rain over sea and land; every +phase of the great thunder-storms that make glorious the weeks of +July and August, from the first floating film of cloud that rises in +the sky till the scattered fragments of the storm stream eastward to +form a background for the rainbow,--all these things are of the utmost +importance to dwellers at the Isles of Shoals. There is something +especially delightful in the perfumes which stream across the sea after +showers, like a heavenly greeting from the land: scents of hay and of +clover, spice of pine woods, balm of flowers come floating over the +cool waves on the wings of the west wind, and touch one like a breath +from Paradise. Few sounds from the shore reach the islands; the booming +of guns is audible, and sometimes, when the wind is west, the air is +pierced with distant car-whistles, so very remote, however, that they +are hardly to be recognized except by a practised ear. + + * * * * * + +There is a superstition among the islanders that Philip Babb, or +some evil-minded descendant of his, still haunts Appledore; and no +consideration would induce the more timid to walk alone after dark +over a certain shingly beach on that island, at the top of a cove +bearing Babb’s name,--for there the uneasy spirit is oftenest seen. He +is supposed to have been so desperately wicked when alive that there is +no rest for him in his grave. His dress is a coarse, striped butcher’s +frock, with a leather belt, to which is attached a sheath containing +a ghostly knife, sharp and glittering, which it is his delight to +brandish in the face of terrified humanity. One of the Shoalers is +perfectly certain that he and Babb have met, and he shudders with real +horror, recalling the meeting. This is his story. It was after sunset +(of course), and he was coming round the corner of a work-shop, when +he saw a wild and dreadful figure advancing toward him; his first +thought was that some one wished to make him the victim of a practical +joke, and he called out something to the effect that he “wasn’t +afraid”; but the thing came near with ghastly face and hollow eyes, +and, assuming a fiendish expression, took out the knife from its belt +and flourished it in the face of the Shoaler, who fled to the house +and entered breathless, calling for the person who he supposed had +tried to frighten him. That person was quietly eating his supper; and +when the poor fellow saw him he was so much agitated that he nearly +fainted, and his belief in Babb was fixed more firmly than ever. One +spring night some one was sitting on the broad piazza at sunset; it +was calm and mild; the sea murmured a little; birds twittered softly; +there was hardly a waft of wind in the still atmosphere. Glancing +toward Babb’s Cove, he saw a figure slowly crossing the shingle to +the path which led to the house. After watching it a moment he called +to it, but there was no reply; again he called, still no answer; but +the dark figure came slowly on; and then he reflected that he had +heard no step on the loose shingle that was wont to give back every +footfall, and, somewhat puzzled, he slowly descended the steps of the +piazza and went to meet it. It was not so dark but that he could see +the face and recognize the butcher’s frock and leather belt of Babb, +but he was not prepared for the devilish expression of malice in that +hollow face, and, spite of his prosaic turn of mind, he was chilled to +the marrow at the sight. The white stripes in the frock gleamed like +phosphorescent light, so did the awful eyes. Again he called aloud, +“Who are you? What do you want?” and still advanced, when suddenly the +shape grew indistinct, first thick and cloudy, then thin, dissolving +quite away, and, much amazed, he turned and went back to the house, +perplexed and thoroughly dissatisfied. These tales I tell as they were +told to me. I never saw Babb, nor ever could, I think. The whole Babb +family are buried in the valley of Appledore where the houses stand, +and till this year a bowling-alley stood upon the spot, and all the +balls rolled over the bones of all the Babbs; that may have been one +reason why the head of the family was so restless; since the last +equinoctial gale blew the building down, perhaps he may rest more +peacefully. Babb’s is, I believe, the only real ghost that haunts the +islands; though in the loft at the parsonage on Star (a mere creep-hole +under the eaves, unattainable by any steps or ladder) there is, in +windy weather, the most extraordinary combination of sounds, as if +two bluff old fellows were swearing at each other, gruffly, harshly, +continually, with a perseverance worthy of a better cause. Really, it +is a most disagreeable racket! A lean, brown, hollow-eyed old woman +from Star used to tell how her daughter-in-law died, in a way that took +the color out of childish cheeks to hear; for the dying woman thought +the ghosts were scratching for her outside, against the house. “‘Ma’y +Hahner’” (Mary Hannah), “she said to me, a whisperin’, says she, ‘Who’s +that scratching, tearing the house down underneath the window?’ ‘No, +it ain’t nothin’,’ says I; ‘Ma’y Hahner, there ain’t nobody a tearin’ +the house down underneath the winder.’ ‘Yes, yes, there is,’ says she, +‘there is! I hear ’em scratching, scratching, tearing the house down +underneath the winder!’ And then I know’d Ma’y Hahner was goin’ to die, +and so she did afore mornin’.” + +There is a superstition here and along the coast to this effect. A +man gathering drift-wood or whatever it may be, sees a spade stuck +in the ground as if inviting him to dig. He isn’t quite ready, goes +and empties his basket first, then comes back to investigate, and lo! +there’s nothing there, and he is tormented the rest of his life with +the thought that probably untold wealth lay beneath that spade, which +he might have possessed had he only been wise enough to seize the +treasure when it offered itself. A certain man named William Mace, +living at Star, long, long ago, swore that he had had this experience; +and there’s a dim tradition that another person, seeing the spade, +passed by about his business, but hastening back, arrived just in time +to see the last of the sinking tool, and to perceive also a golden +flat-iron disappearing into the earth. This he seized, but no human +power could extricate it from the ground, and he was forced to let go +his hold and see it sink out of his longing ken. + +Some young people, camping on the south side of Appledore, one summer, +among the ancient graves, dug up a skeleton; the bones crumbled to +dust, but the skull remained intact, and I kept it for a long time. +The Shoalers shook their heads. “Hog Island would have no ‘luck’ while +that skull remained above ground.” It had lain so long in the earth +that it was no more repulsive than a bit of stone, yet a nameless dread +invested it. At last I took it in my hands and pored over it till the +shudder passed away forever, and then I was never weary of studying +it. Sitting by the driftwood blaze late into the still autumn nights +alone at my desk, it kept me company,--a vase of brilliant flowers on +one side, the skull on the other, and the shaded lamp between, equally +lighting both. A curious head it was, thick as an Ethiop’s, with no +space above the eyes, high above the ears, and heavy behind them. But +O, those hollows where the eyes once looked out, beholding the same sea +and sky we see to-day! Those great, melancholy, empty hollows,--what +sort of creature gazed from them? Cunning and malice, anger and hate, +may have burned within them in sullen flame; who shall say if any +beauty ever illumined them? If hate smouldered here, did love ever look +out and transfigure the poor, dull face? did any spark from the far +heaven even brighten it? any touch of lofty thought or aspiration turn +the clay to fire? And when, so many years ago, this being glided away +from behind these awful windows and left them empty for ever and ever, +did he find what in his life here he could not have possessed, with +this head, which he did not make, and therefore was not responsible +for? Many and many a question I put silently to the silent casket which +had held a human soul; there was no sound to answer me save only the +great, gentle whisper of the sea without the windows, and now and then +a sigh from the autumn wind. There came to me a sense of the pathos of +the infinite patience of humanity, waiting so helplessly and blindly +for the unravelling of the riddle that has troubled every thoughtful +soul since the beginning of time. Little roots of plants were clasped +about the temples. Behind the right ear were three indentations, as if +made by some sharp instrument, suggesting foul play. An Indian tomahawk +might have made those marks, or a pirate’s cutlass: who can say? What +matter is it now? I kept the relic for months, till it crumbled so fast +when I daily dusted it that I feared it would disappear entirely; so I +carried it quietly back and laid it in the grave from which it had been +taken, wondering, as I drew the shallow earth over it, who had stood +round about when it was buried for the first time, centuries ago; what +manner of people, and were they afraid or sorry. But there was no voice +to answer me. + +I have before me a weird, romantic legend of these islands, in a +time-stained, battered newspaper of forty years ago. I regret that it +is too long to be given entire, for the unknown writer tells his story +well. He came to the Shoals for the benefit of his failing health, and +remained there late into the autumn of 1826, “in the family of a worthy +fisherman.” He dilates upon the pleasure he found in the loneliness +of the place, “the vast solitude of the sea; no one who has not known +it can imbibe the faintest idea of it.” “From the hour I learned +the truth,” he says, “that all which lives must die, the thought of +dissolution has haunted me;--the falling of a leaf, a gray hair, or a +faded cheek, has power to chill me. But here in the recesses of these +eternal rocks, with only a cloudless sky above and an ocean before me, +for the first time in my life have I shaken off the fear of death and +believed myself immortal.” + +He tells his strange story in this way: “It was one of those awfully +still mornings which cloud-gazeers will remember as characterizing +the autumn months. There was not a single vapor-wreath to dim the +intense blue of the sky, or a breath to ruffle the almost motionless +repose of the great deep; even the sunlight fell seemingly with +stiller brightness on the surface of it.” He stood on a low, long +point fronting the east, with the cliffs behind him, gazing out upon +the calm, when suddenly he became aware of a figure standing near him. +It was a woman wrapped closely in a dark sea-cloak, with a profusion +of light hair flowing loosely over her shoulders. Fair as a lily and +as still, she stood with her eyes fixed on the far distance, without +a motion, without a sound. “Thinking her one of the inhabitants of a +neighboring island who was watching for the return of a fishing-boat, +or perhaps a lover, I did not immediately address her; but seeing +no appearance of any vessel, at length accosted her with, ‘Well, my +pretty maiden, do you see anything of him?’ She turned instantly, and +fixing on me the largest and most melancholy blue eyes I ever beheld, +said quietly, ‘He _will_ come again.’” Then she disappeared round a +jutting rock and left him marvelling, and though he had come to the +island (which was evidently Appledore) for a forenoon’s stroll, he was +desirous to get back again to Star and his own quarters after this +interruption. Fairly at home again, he was inclined to look upon his +adventure as a dream, a mere delusion arising from his illness, but +concluded to seek in his surroundings something to substantiate, or +remove the idea. Finding nothing,--no woman on the island resembling +the one he had met,--and “hearing of no circumstance which might +corroborate the unaccountable impression,” he resolved to go again to +the same spot. This time it blew half a gale; the fishermen in vain +endeavored to dissuade him. He was so intensely anxious to be assured +of the truth or fiction of the impression of the day before, that he +could not refrain, and launched his boat, “which sprang strongly upon +the whitened waters,” and, unfurling his one sail, he rounded a point +and was soon safely sheltered in a small cove on the leeward side of +the island, probably Babb’s Cove. + +Then he leaped the chasms and made his way to the scene of his +bewilderment. The sea was rolling over the low point; the spot where +he had stood the day before, “was a chaos of tumult, yet even then I +could have sworn that I heard with the same deep distinctness, the +quiet words of the maiden, ‘He _will_ come again,’ and then a low, +remotely-ringing laughter. All the latent superstition of my nature +rose up over me, overwhelming as the waves upon the rocks.” After that, +day after day, when the weather would permit, he visited the desolate +place, to find the golden-haired ghost, and often she stood beside him, +“silent as when I first saw her, except to say, as then, ‘He _will_ +come again,’ and these words came upon the mind rather than upon the +ear. I was conscious of them rather then heard them,--it was all like a +dream, a mysterious intuition. I observed that the shells never crashed +beneath her footsteps, nor did her garments rustle. In the bright, +awful calm of noon and in the rush of the storm there was the same +heavy stillness over her. When the winds were so furious that I could +scarcely stand in their sweep, the light hair lay upon the forehead +of the maiden without lifting a fibre. Her great blue eyeballs never +moved in their sockets, and always shone with the same fixed, unearthly +gleam. The motion of her person was imperceptible; I knew that she was +here, and that she was gone.” + +[Illustration: VIEW FROM THE SOUTHEASTERN POINT OF APPLEDORE.] + +So sweet a ghost was hardly a salutary influence in the life of our +invalid. She “held him with her glittering eye” till he grew quite +beside himself. This is so good a description I cannot choose but quote +it: “The last time I stood with her, was just at the evening of a +tranquil day. It was a lovely sunset. A few gold-edged clouds crowned +the hills of the distant continent, and the sun had gone down behind +them. The ocean lay blushing beneath the blushes of the sky, and even +the ancient rocks seemed smiling in the glance of the departing day. +Peace, deep peace was the pervading power. The waters, lapsing among +the caverns, spoke of it, and it was visible in the silent motion of +the small boats, which, loosening their white sails in the cove of +Star Island, passed slowly out, one by one, to the night-fishing.” In +the glow of sunset he fancied the ghost grew rosy and human. In the +mellow light her cold eyes seemed to soften. But he became suddenly so +overpowered with terror that “kneeling in shuddering fearfulness, he +swore never more to look upon that spot, and never did again.” + +Going back to Star he met his old fisherman, who without noticing his +agitation, told him quietly that he knew where he had been and what +he had seen; that he himself had seen her, and proceeded to furnish +him with the following facts. At the time of the first settlement, +the islands were infested by pirates,--the bold Captain Teach, called +Blackbeard, being one of the most notorious. One of Teach’s comrades, +a Captain Scot, brought this lovely lady hither. They buried immense +treasure on the islands; that of Scot was buried on an island apart +from the rest. Before they departed on a voyage, “to plunder, slash, +and slay,” (in which, by the way, they were involved in one awful doom +by the blowing up of a powder magazine), the maiden was carried to the +island where her pirate lover’s treasure was hidden, and made to swear +with horrible rites that until his return, if it were not till the day +of judgment, she would guard it from the search of all mortals. So +there she paces still, according to our story-teller. Would I had met +this lily-fair ghost! Is it she, I wonder, who laments like a Banshee +before the tempests, wailing through the gorges at Appledore, “He will +_not_ come again”? Perhaps it was she who frightened a merry party of +people at Duck Island, whither they had betaken themselves for a day’s +pleasure a few summers ago. In the centre of the low island stood a +deserted shanty which some strange fishermen had built there several +years before, and left empty, tenanted only by the mournful winds. It +was blown down the September following. It was a rude hut with two +rough rooms and one square window, or rather opening for a window, for +sash or glass there was none. One of our party proposed going to look +after the boats, as the breeze freshened and blew directly upon the +cove where we had landed. We were gathered on the eastern end of the +island when he returned, and, kneeling on the withered grass where we +were grouped, he said suddenly, “Do you know what I have seen? Coming +back from the boats, I faced the fish-house, and as I neared it I saw +some one watching me from the window. Of course I thought it was one +of you, but when I was near enough to have recognized it, I perceived +it to be the strange countenance of a woman, wan as death; a face +young, yet with a look in it of infinite age. Old! it was older than +the Sphinx in the desert! It looked as if it had been watching and +waiting for me since the beginning of time. I walked straight into the +hut. There wasn’t a vestige of a human being there; it was absolutely +empty.” All the warmth and brightness of the summer day could hardly +prevent a chill from creeping into our veins as we listened to this +calmly delivered statement, and we actually sent a boat back to +Appledore for a large yacht to take us home, for the wind rose fast and +“gurly grew the sea,” and we half expected the wan woman would come and +carry our companion off bodily before our eyes. + +Since writing these imperfect sketches of the Shoals it has become +an historical fact for the records of the State of New Hampshire that +the town of Gosport has disappeared, is obliterated from the face of +the earth, nearly all the inhabitants having been bought out, that the +place might be converted into a summer resort. Upon Appledore a large +house of entertainment has been extending its capabilities for many +years, and the future of the Shoals as a famous watering-place may be +considered certain. + +The slight sprinkling of inhabitants yet remaining on Smutty-nose and +elsewhere, who seem inclined to make of the place a permanent home, are +principally Swedes and Norwegians; and a fine, self-respecting race +they are, so thrifty, cleanly, well-mannered, and generally excellent +that one can hardly say enough in their praise. It is to be hoped that +a little rill from the tide of emigration which yearly sets from those +countries toward America may finally people the unoccupied portions of +the Shoals with a colony that will be a credit to New England. + +[Illustration] + + + + + =Transcriber’s Notes= + + Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected. + + Inconsistencies in hyphenation and compound words have been maintained + as printed. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77366 *** |