CHAPTER XXVI.

THE STORM.

Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the northeast;
The snow fell hissing in the brine;
And the billows foamed like yeast.

Down came the storm and smote amain,
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused like a frightened steed,
Then leaped her cable's length.

And fast through the midnight, dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost the vessel swept,
Toward the reef of Norman's Woe.
--_Wreck of the "Hesperus_."



Ishmael remained upon the quarterdeck, gazing out upon the stormy
glory of the sea and sky until he was interrupted by the most
prosaic, though the most welcome of sounds--that of the dinner-bell.

Then he went below.