Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-07-04
THE RIBS OF DEATH.
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Three months before wss born my
fsther,s beat went down in . suddet
souali within sight Of bone and OF my
mother, who, with the rest OF the fish
eymen's wives, awaited the landing o
the little feet.
Perhaps this was the reason l had
such an instructive horror and dread o
the sea, even while II fascinated and
drew me TO 1t in its stormiest moods
Il was queer feeling that possessed me
When away from the sight and sound
of the breakers was restless and
unquiet, near them l was awed and
melancholy but some craving Of my
nature was satisfied. and was
comparatively calm. | believe many
Of our people, who are intensely super
stitious, looked upon me as doomed IN
consequence Of this. I" The sea always
swallows what it gets hold Of" they
said among themselves with sorrowial
fatalism. We can hardly help being
superstifious and gloomy--we who are
born and reared in Callermouth. Ma
ture Is so stern in he2 moods and so
cruel In her way Of expressing them.
Miss Ashford, our wears daughter,
is very cross with me for saying things
like this, but ! cannot help thinking
that even she feels them TO be true
sometimes during the long and stormy
winters on this northeast coast OF ours.
She Is very kind and good, and. as she
Is always busy working among us, per-
haps that helps her through. 1t was
she who taught me how to write and
put sentences together so as to make
this story ineligible, and it was she
who wished me to write it. Why, 1
do not know. When ! told it to her
first / hardly expected her to believe
Il. but she did, and helped me through
the bad time which 1 had after-but
that must bide until come to it.
Callcrmouth is only cluster OF cot
tases around little harbor, with apier
and life-boat house below. About q
mile to the north is the ugly, sharp
ridge of rocks which bears the signid-
cant name of the Cribs o. Death"
MANY A fine vessel has struck and
ground her timbers to matchwood, many
q poor, clinging life has been washed
off those fatal ribs. They do say that
in the old times many q ship was
lured there to its destruction too; but
/ can scarce believe the grandfathers Of
our brave fellows, who lived by and on
the waters Just as now, could be
inhuman enough to trade upon the
danger and deaths of fellow-mariners.
Only must say that even yet, while
any one of our men would risk his life
without thinking twice about it to save
another, be wouldn't have any very
definite ideas on the laws Of salvage.
/ was not q comedy lass in the esti-
nation of the village critics. In fact,
when i saw my little, white face, with
its big, dark eyes, in the dim old look
iDg.glass which hung over the mantel-
piece in our front room, and compared
1t with that of Belle Carr, our biggest
and best.looking girl, | used to feel very
small and insignificant. She was true
fisher lass, tall and strongly made,
with swinging walk and saucy smile,
and q ready word for every one, gentle
or simple. The artists who came here
sometimes to paint US in our charac-
teristic blue flannsls always selected
her, and passed me over. | was not a
"type," and she was, they said.
Well, was glad of it, for Willie
wouldn't have liked me to act as
model
Spite of my want of beauty, had
two lads come counting me, and Willie
Lisle was the one | favored. Edam
tAdam) Carr was too much Of my own
temper for me-too gloomy; l was
afraid Of him; had the same sort o.
mistrust Of him that | had of the sea,
and perhaps little Of the same idea Of
his possible power over me.
But Willie, with his bonny yellow
curls and his blue eyes and his sunny
smile, what girl could have resisted
him. He brought his brightness into
my life, and it seemed to 60 out like
the sun beneath cloud on the day he
sailed in the Rowena, bound for China
and the East Indies. from the Tyne.
All our most energetic and enter
prising young men become sailors, if
they do not feel satisfied to be fisher
men as their fathers before them. Ii
never seems to enter into any of their
heads that there are other means OF
livelihood than these two csllings.
They cannot tear themselves away
from the sea altogether, however they
may abuse it. They inhsle its sal
breeze with their earliest breaths
its foam and spray beat or
them, until it becomes part o
them, as it were, and they are
as much creatures Of the waves as the
fishes that swim beneath or the gull:
that float that above. So it was tha
when Willie grew disconnected with hi.
earnings as fisherman be went'to sea
to make more money, in the hope o
wedding me the sooner.
81 was not strong enough for dsh
uman's wife," he said, land he hopeC
to be be able to keep me like lady =
Just as il ] cared.
Though l was small | was not deli
cate, and could, and indeed did, carr.
the creel as we'll as the best OF them
For nv mother married again, an
when she died there were more ltd
mouths TO fll, and no ore but me t
do IL; for their father was a lazy
drunken good-for-nothing, who fell owe
the cliff one night when he was roll
ing home from the ''0ld Ship Inn,
and did no good after. Lucky for theI
and for me, though it sounds queer {
say it, he did not live long to be bur
den; but we had some hard times no'
and then, when the weather was roug
and there was no fish to sell. 0nly fo
tho BARNS | would have been house
maid at the yicarage, for which Mis
Ashford had had nae trained befor
mother died, but l could earn moi
money doing as the rest did, and loo
after the little ones at the same time.
The men favored me in the matter
fish, because they thought ! had ST
fish hill 10 climb, and | will say th
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