Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds by Ferna Vale
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page 20 of 211 (09%)
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be seen from their little island, spouting off in the distance; and
their ships came proudly bearing down to the bar, laden heavily with the good sperm oil, and all hearts were made lighter and each purse heavier, with every new arrival of good fortune; as if they had been one great family, each one smiling on another's prosperity. "But now,"--and the face of the narrator is less joyous as he turns from _then_ to _now_,--"things are not what they were. Our island is becoming like what they tell me the world at large is." And the old man will re-light his pipe, and with a sad smile he will give you the names of his ancestors, from his great "Grand-'ther" down to more modern times, when his fifth cousin Obed was a large ship-owner. Ah! treat such of other days with kindness, for the style of that day will never come again; their great hearts of brotherly love are not of this generation, yet they have left an impress upon those well-loved shores that can never be entirely erased. Those foot-prints of long ago, combined with the peculiarities which will ever dwell with these children of the sea, are attractions which insure to the stranger on his first visit, visions of many a happy hour in the future; and he will long for the season to return which shall liberate so many of the city doomed artificials to a few weeks' intercourse with nature. Awakened at early dawn by the sailor's merry "yo, ho," coming up from the waters with the sun, you turn your eyes seaward, and what a glorious sight is before you! As far as the eye can reach, water, blue, rolling water, tinged with rising sunlight in its morning purity; the night-bird folds her wings, which she has laved in the white sea-foam, softening the sigh of the breakers to the ear of those who slumbered; the white sails bow their heads, while the old tars wonder what makes them so happy. With these pleasant sunrise impressions you go forth into the day with more lenient views towards the "land of whales," sniffing the salt |
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