The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-02-14

| were 1ull 10 the ROOF with salt cod. In
the happiness of this dream they smiled
again, and turned their eyes to the hills
from which the glory of purple and vel,
low was departing to make way for the
misty dusk.
Skipper Luke Dart says t. me- said
Solomon, that tbs the Injuries that
keeps folks poor
| Priscilla said nothing at all.
"They be nine dollars agin me in sever
years for crane O. tartar said Solomon
Think O. that"
| My" said she, ''but It's lot! Put We
be used to un now, Solomon, an we can't
get along without un''
Sure said he. g it's good we're not
poor like some folk
In thirty years after that time Solomon
Stride put to sea ten thousand times.
| Ten thousand times he passed through
the tickle rocks to the free heaving deep
for salmon and cod, thereto compelled by
the inland water which contributes
nothing to the sustenance Of the men of
that coast Hunger, lurking in the
shadows of days to come incxorahly
drove him into the chances OF the conflict
Perforce he matched himself ten thousand
times against the restless might of the
sea, Unreasonable and unrestrained. sur.
yiying the gamut of its moods because ne
was great in strength. fearlessness and
| cunning. He weathered four hundred
gales, from the gay gusts which come
down between Quid Nunc and the Man-o'-
War, leaping upon the fleet, to me sum-
mer tempests, swift and black and the
| first billiards. of winter. He was wrecked
off the Null, off the Three Poor Sisters,
Oh the Pancake Rock, and again off the
Null. Seven times he was swept to sea
| By the off-shore wind. Eighteen times he
was frozen to the seat of his punt; and
| OF these, eight times his feet were frozen.
and thrice his festered right hand All
this he suffered, and more, Of which 7
nay set down six separate periods OF star
walton, in which thirty-eight men. women
and children died-all this. with all the
| toll, cold, despair, loneliness, hunger,
peril and disappointment therein contain
| ed
| And so he came down to old age-with
| a bent back, shrunken arms and filmy
eyes-old Solomon's Stride now prey for
the young sea. But, OF an evening liz
spring, he sat with Priscilla on the
sunken bench at the door, and talked
! hopefully of the fish he would catch from
this punt.
Priscilla, dear" said he. rubbing lis
hand over his weakened thigh, II De think
in us punt fishermenll have a."
i Priscilla was not attending; ehe was
looking into the shadows above the har-
Dor water dreaming deeply of a mystery
OF the Book, which had long puzzled her,
so, in silence, Solomon, too, watched the
shadows rise and sullenly hang between
the great rocks.
| Solomon, by" she whispered, 81 VICE.
der what the seven thunders uttered
\ '''Tis quare that-what the seven thun-
ders uttered" said Solomon. my, wo-
man, but 'tis!"
can he set his right foot upon the
sea-" she repeated, staring over the
craving water to the clouds which famed
gloriously at the edge of the world a,'
his left foot on the earth
AN cried with loud voice. said
he, whispering in awe, as when a lion
roareth an when he had cried, seven
thunders uttered their Voices"
Seven thunders uttered tEei1
voices" said she; 60 an when the seven
thunders had uttered their voices, was
about to write, an / heard q voice from
heaven sayin' unto me, Seal up those
things which the seven thunders uttered,
an write them not.
The wind from the wilderness, cold and
black covered the hills with mist; the
dusk fell, and the glory faded from the
heights.
"Oh, Solomon she said, clasping her
hands, II wonder what the seven thun-
ders uttered! Think you, by twas the
kind O. sins that can't be forgiven?"
'Sh-h-h. DEAR he said, patting her gray
49, IL:
an you don't look out"
can seven thunders uttered their
voices,'" she said dreamiy.
"Sh-h-h, dear!' said he. Leave us goa
| in"
| Twenty-one years longer old Solomon
Stride fished out of Ragged Harbor. He
put to sea five thousand times more,
weathered two hundred more gales, sur
vlved five more famines-all in the toll
tor salmon and cod. He was punt
fisherman again, was old Solomon; for the
nets of the trap had rotted, had been re-
newed six times, strand by strand, and
had rotted at last beyond repair What
with the weather he dared not pit his
failing strength against the return of 'ish
to Luke Dart fell off from year 20 year;
but, as Solomon said to Luke, "livin' ex-
pehoce hep up Wondeflui, notWltEtanu-
ing.
i be so used t. luxuries,'' he went on,
running his hand through mis- long gray
hair, that twould be hard t. come down
t common Twin. Sure, It's sugar l wants
t me tea-not black-strap. IT'S what
rarned,' he added proudly, when were
a trap fisherman"
tbs all right. Solomon" said Luke.
s'Manys the quintal O. fish YOU traded
with me-.
Sure Solomon chuckled; "'twould
take a year t count un."
In course of time it came to the end OF
Solomon's last season-those days of il
when, as the folk of the coast say. the
sea is hungry for lives-and the man was
81 years old. and the debt to Luke Dart
had crep up to $eso,S0. The offshore wind
rising suddenly, with blizzard in Its
train, caught him alone on the Graphing
Hook grounds. He was old, very uld-old
and feeble and dull; the cold numbed him;
the snow blinded him; the wind made
sport of the strength of his arras. He
| was carried cut to sea, rowing doggediy