The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-26

eVerlaStln IRE n you lie.
You be cursin' God, Ezekiel Sew
lori" 10 exclaimed. "Godll damn you.
| tbs marked down this minute-iss,
sure With Impotence, "Usll goa.
Cast off,
Ezekiel loosed the painter and
| sprang to the rowing seat and 10
bent his strength to the scull-oar and
| sent the punt clear of a jutting rock.
| Now in these parts the tide has q
clutch; the water gripped the boat and
drew her out-swift and sly as a
thief's hand. Soon the grip was fact;
had the young strength-that no"
spent itself in guiding, to escape
wreck on the Pancake-been turned
to fiat resistance, it would have vast
! ed itself in vain. But to the emil
dren's sight the sea was fair-so they
| were swept on, singing:
"Lookit!' Ezekiel exclaimed, point
| ing to the shore. He was scared to
| a whisper.
"'Tis Bob 10 said. "Hark!'
Bob, a frowsy old dog with the
name of a fish-thief, was in the
| shadow of a flake, bowling and madly
| paving the Single.
| Z" 'ris the sign o DEATH" 10 grip
ped the gunWale.
The dog howled for the third time,
then he sunk off down the road with
| his clog between his legs.
i Josiah Butts-'tis he, sure!" EZe-
| kiel exclaimed.
'Iss: tits Josiah. He've handy t
| five yards too much t. the spread o
his mains'l.''
"'Tis Uncle Job Luff. by" 10 said,
knowingly. Il heered un curse Cod
last even.
Ezekiel started. What did un
say, by?" he insinuated.
| Il heered un say" 10 came to a
| full stop. Hugh he went on, cum
ningly. Think O all the cursin' you
| ever heered."
.Noa!" Ezekiel said. quickly. Sure
it's a sin t. think O. cursin'."
10 grinned. Then, sadly, he said:
"'Tis Uncle Job-iss. sure. Poor
Aunt 'Mella Ami
Ezekiel unused. Il low It's Uncle
Job" he agreed at last. "He've a
rotten paddle to his punt"
10 spread the sail, stretched him.
i, self in the stern, with his feet on the
| gunwales and lazy hand on the scull
oar, and began to sing.
The sun was dropping swiftly. puff
fing himself up in his precipitate
descent to the ragged black clouds
| that were mounting the sky, taklng
on deepening, glowing crimson, the
/ color of flame in dense smoke. The
woolly clouds in the east were flushed
pink, notified like a salmon's belly
borrowe glory that, anon, fled,
| leading melancholy tint behind.
Soon the whole heaven, from the
crest of the black hills, far in the
unknown inland, to the black horizon
! in the mysterious expanse beyond the
Graphing Hook fishing grounds, was
aglow: splashes of pink and gray and
blue, thin streaks of pale green
| heaps of smoky black and of gold.
| glowing, of purple and violets ana
fiery red. The coast. high and rug
ged. with a low line of froothy white,
/ and crest Of stunted spruce Stop
| ing to the edge OF the precipice, was
changed from dull green and dullef
| gray to blood-red and purple and
| black: but this glorious mantle was
soon lifted. In the white line there
was one black space, the harbor
mouth, whence the tickle led TO TIE
basin; and that space was like a raj
/ hole. On either side, from the UP
of Mad Null to the limit of vision ~
the south. the coast rocks were Ike
a wall. sheer. massive. scowling, with
here and there. at the base, great
| shattered masses, over which the sea
| frothed. The boat was headed for
the sun. it was slipping over a geEtle
lop in light wind. "Rede me q
riddle" said Ezekiel.
The demand startled 10. The great
descending night oppressed him; and
he had been thinking of the toe, nov
cold frowning mystery. he easeu
me sheet and scanned the sea ahead
The sea was fiat; there was no NIL &c
be seen. He sighed and said in dis
tracted way
AS went up t. London Bridge
I met me brother Jan:
l cut off his head an sucked ms
blood.
An let his body stan.
"Jewberry," said Ezekiel with lack
of interest.
"Uh- huhn' said 10. Then, bethink-
ling himself: "Oh!'
AS went up t London Bridge
II I saw mighty wonder
Twenty pots a-bll1n',
An no fire under.
1t was new riddle in Ragged
Harbor! who guve it you, by!
Ezekiel cried. ar
: | 'Grdnny SeN1Or, Seilu i've A'''
. sure; when / took her some trout'
She do say she heered un when sh'
were a maid. 'Tis a brook bubblln
Ezekiel marveled.
Il From the body OF fog that lurke'
behind Mad Null, there damned II
, it's course from the north, timex
gray mass overflowed and settled T.
. the surface of the sea. A cloud, mgr
, lying, attenuatad, impenetrable, rouli
ded the point and crept seward VIII
, the deviated current OF the wind, II
outmost parts swerving to the south
advancing slowly, implacably.
"They be mar hill t the say, by,
T Ezekiel said. irnpatientily. He glance
apprehensivaly shoreward.
, 1t had come to 10 that the apoa
of the tide was hidden of design--a
+, infinite terrible mystery. In the con
) seriousness of presumption he quaked
but he gripped the scull oar tghte
. and held the boat on her course 10
| the sun.
"They be mar a hill tween here az
= The SUM- Ezekiel planted.
They were sailing over the Crap
|. pling Hook grounds; and. as lar a
sight carried, the grazing sea wa