The Saint Paul globe., 1904-06-26

at low" Ezekiel said with some defer
ence, "he'ye hoaIe t goa to-
''Noa, bsy!'' 10 exclaimed, fretfully.
II low he do Ezekiel persisted with
deepening politeness.
"Huh!' said 10. What 'ud come O. the
fires o. help"
..Iss, sure. by Ezekiel said in awe.
.The tide 'ud put un cut.
Put un out" 10 echoed, Sagely.
The fog thickened. Night came on, an
untimely dusk. Fog and night, coalescing,
reduced the circumference of things ma
teriaI to a yet narrowing circle of black
water. The feel of the fog was like the
touch of cold, wet hand in the dark.
The night was heavy; it was, to the con-
fusion of sense, falling; it seemed to have
been strangely vested with the properties
of density and weight; it was, in truth,
like great pail descending; depressing,
sitting. Ezekiel covering in the bow,
searched the mist for ghOstly dangers
for one, a gigantic lobster, with claws
long as schooner's spars and eyes like
the Shag Rock light. But 10 had no time
for terror; he was fighting a fight that
was already old, of which the history was
written on the hand of the steering oar
a hand too small to span the butt, but
misshapen black to the knuckles, calloused
in the palms, with the blood of cod con-
gealed under the nails, and fostering salt
water sores on the wrist. Time for visions
of frothing Holsters? 10 had none. He
was true son of that shore, and he had the
oar and the sheet in his hands.
'Thick's bags 10 remarked. alluding
to the fog.
Ezekiel was silent
10 was steering by the wind; but the
wind veered, scarce perceptible, and the
boy did not perceive the change at all.
A crafty enemyl Thus was his childish
l,s,.
laid his course -cunningly for the harbor
before GuIrs Nest Point had been wiped
out; the course was now to the north by
half a mile With the deviation and
drift he would meet the coast at the
Rocks of the Three Poor Sisters, where
his father had struck in a blizzard years
ago.-Fhe boy planned to take the punt
within sound of the surf, then to ship the
sail and creep along shore to the harbor.
That was the one way; but it was a
peTilous way, for the surf being hidden,
and sounding near at hand, had no loca-
ton Its noise rises and subsidies through
long distances; its strength is here,
there, elsewhere, everywhere; nowhere;
! it is elusive, confusing as great noise.
The surf also has clutch; a foot be-
yond its grasp and it is to be laughed
at; an inch within it's eager fingers and
1t Is Irresistible. The breakers of the
Rocks of the Three Poor Sisters are like
long arms-their reach is great; their
strength and depth and leap are great.
There was no peril in the choppy sea
over which the boat was now pushing;
the peril was. in the breakers. Watch
fulness could evade it, but with every
boats length of progress 10 was plunged
in deeper wonder. He was evolving a new
theory of the tide, which was a subtle
distraction Was the spell of this mystery
to undo him? Thus 10; as for Ezekiel.
he was afraid of the monsters he had
conjured up in the mist, so-as his peo-
pie invariably do in dread and danger
he turned to his religion for consolation.
. He thought deeply Of hell.
rs you been good the day, b'y2'
Ezekiel asked, dreamily.
'tNoa,''t 10 answered, indifferently. II
low 1 hasn't spread me caplin quite
quite straight
The wind was stirring itself in the