the western served to guide the mariner past quite as treacherous
shallows, and a sandy bar which showed like the shining back of some
sea-monster at low-tide.

Within this natural harbor was the little fleet of sloops, smacks, and
schooners, getting up sail, and shipping some last half-forgotten
supplies, while numerous smaller craft were paddled or rowed about,
closer in shore.

The wide white beach, unbroken for a considerable sweep by even a
headland, was now alive with an excited crowd--talking, laughing,
weeping, and gesticulating, while back on the higher ground could be
seen the small, straggling village, of but little more than one street,
where nearly all the houses turned a gabled end to the highway, while a
well-trodden path led through a drooping gateway to a door somewhere at
the side or rear.

There were few trees to hide their unpainted homeliness; but some
windows showed house-plants and muslin curtains within, while the most
noticeable architectural features were the long, open sheds, used for
cleaning and packing fish, and a bald, bare meeting-house, set like
conscious virtue on a hill,--the only one to be seen, just back of the
village, and only worthy the name because there was nothing whatever to
dispute its claims in the way of highlands in that region.

As Sara stood half dreamily taking it all in, more by imagination than
eyesight, for it was still mistily gray, except off to the east beyond
the Cliff light, where the sky was brilliant with the first crimson
blush of the morning, a man approached her, a young fellow, still tall,
trig, and ship-shape in figure, as few seamen are apt to be after