The Irish standard., 1897-11-27

echoes Gathering. and one more round
shot wh;stled through the air. 1t was
the last of the cannonade.
l lay for some time, watching the
hustle which succeeded the attack.
Men were ae1nolishing something with
nxcs on the beach near the stockade;
the poor jolly-boat, l afterward dis
covered. Away, near the mouth of the
river, great fire was glowing among
the trees. and between that point and
the ship one of the gigs kept coming
and going, the men, whom had seen
so gloomy, shouting at the oars like
children. But there was sound in
their voices which suggested rum.
At length I thought might return
toward the stockade. was pretty far
down on the low, sandy spit that in
closes the anchorage to the east, and is
Joined at half-water to Skeleton island;
aud now. as rose to my feet. l saw,
some distance further down the spit.
and rising from among low bushes, an
isolated rock pretty high, and peculiar
ly white in color. IT occurred to me
that this might be the white rock of
which Ben Gum had spoken, and that
some day or other boat might be
wanted, and I should know where to
look for one.
Then I skirted among the woods until
had regnined the rear, OF shoreward
side, OF the stockade. and was soon
warmly welcomed by the faithful
party.
had soon told my story, and began
to look about me. The Lighthouse was
made of unsquared trunks OF pine
roof. walls and floor. The latter stood
in several places as much as foot or u
foot and half above the surface of the
sand. There was u porch at the door,
and under this porch the little spring
welled up into an artificial basin of
rather odd kind-no other than great
ships kettle of iron. with the bottom
knocked out, and sunk ITO her bear
ings," as the captain said, among the
sand.
Little had been left beside the Frame
work of the house; but in one corner
there was a stone slab laid down by
way of hearth, and an old rusty iron
basket to contain the fire.
The slopes of the knoll and all the
inside of the stockade had been cleared
of timber to build the house, and we
could see by the stumps what fine
and lofty grove had been destroyed.
Most of the soil had been washed
away or buried in drift after the re-
moval of the trees; only where the
strelmlct ran down from the kettle n
thick bed Of moss and some ferns and
little creeping bushes were still green
among the sand. Very close around tho
stoclcade-too close for defense, they
said-the wood still tlourishcd high and
dense, nll Of fir on the land side, but
toward the sea with large ndmixture
of live oaks.
The cold evening breeze. of which I
have spoken, whistlcd through every
chinle of the r4de building, and
Eprinliled the floor with n continual
rain of fine sand. There was sand in
our eyes, sand in our teeth, sand in our
suppers, sand dnrcing in the spring at
the bottom Of the kettle, for oil tho
world like porridge beginning to boil.
Our chimney was a square hole in the
roof: it was but little part of the
smoke that found its way out, and the
rest eddied about the house, and kept
lis coughing and piping the eye.
Add to this that Gray, the new man,
had his face tied up in bundage for
cut he had got 10 breaking away from
the mutlneers; and that poor old Tom
Redruth, still u,buried, lay along the
wall, stiff and stark, under the Union
Jnck.
If we had been allowed to sit idle,
we should NIL have fallen in the blues,
but Capt. smollott was never the man
for that. All haads were called up be-
fore him, and he divided us into
watches. The doctor. and Gray, and I.
Tor one; the squire. Hunter. and Joyoe