The herald., 1915-01-14
She DARED THE SEA
BY JACK NORMAN.

| 10 Brittany, at tue WeSleTnLnOSt
part OF France, came in the tenth
| century many thousands of settlers
who had just left that part of England
now called Wales to avoid the rule Of
| the Norman.
! How strange and rude that Brittany!
How rough and picturesque her peo-
plel arid as Brittany" says
proverb; Stubborn as a Briton," re-
torts another. And there you have in
few words the most striking charac.
teristics of both.
Fancy a succession of bleak plateaus
spread over a hundred square miles Of
| land, showing to the sun nothing but
the baroness OF their myriads Of gran
tie rocks, and the vegetation that can
extract living in the interstices, I'M
der the action of frequent sprinkles
and vapor baths exhaled by the Gulf
stream, and blown over by the ocear
breezes. This is the country!
Imagine an individual of mean size,
but sturdy, muscular, vigorous, and
seeming to have inside the skull more
elements OF will, OF tenacity, of OBJ
stinacy than the rest Of the world.
That is the man!
The traveller in Brittany infallibly
hears the story of Marie Legoff, and,
told by her countrymen, it is worth the
trip, but we had better tell 1t and save
time.
Marie Legoff, then fourteen years
| old, was the housekeeper of her ia
ther, a fisherman OF Lannion, when
the turbulent waves of the British
channel crushed the old man and his
boat on the reefs. The fisherman who
found the wreckage on the sands went
to Marie Legion and told her about his
discovery.
Poor girl" he concluded, what are
you going to do now?" Then with
Briton brusqueness, You'd better go
to an orphan asylum. Do you want me
to do anything about it?"
The sight Of Marie Legoff was pitt
full one at first, but her blood did not
take long to reveal itself in pulses of
undauntedness, and presently, restrain
ing her tears, raising her bowed head,
her eyes flashing a fierce determine.
ton, she said:
Thank you just the same, John; but
the sea took my living, and the sea
shall give it back to me-or swallow
me altogether"
And two days after she went out tc
sea with an uncle.
The short trips of her uncle's boat
did not satisfy Marie Legoff, as she
longed for a time when she could, on
bigger boat, fight and wrestle with
that sea that had taken her father.
That time had come with her mar
riage. Husband and wife having some
money, put it together to buy a sloop
OF about fifty tons burden, and they
went to sea, doing coasting trade.
If the husband had the brevet, the
wife was the acting captain, and no
one on board would have CHANGED to
say word about it. People from diff
ferent ports of the coast have still
that vision of a sloop coming into
port crowded with sails, speeding in
solently amidst an anchorage full of
moored ships, and steered by a tall,
straight, energetic woman, a veritable
picture of determination and daring.
At the very moment when onlook-
ers. breathless, anticipated a crash
against pier or wharf, Marie Legoff
uttered a sharp order, staysails and
anchor dropped at the same time, and
the ship, veering sharply, came quick
ly stern to windward and rocked her
self on her cable.
After years of high-spirited life, the
end came. One day as the sloop, pur-
sued by maddened sea, was feeling
her way through a snowstorm and
trying to enter the river of Morlaix,
the boom broke, the spanking power
of the fore and aft mainsail slackened,
and she was driven helplessly against
the rocks.
Between the ship and the shore was
q rocky reef, veritable wall, over
which the sea broke, raging furiously.
Only one thing could save the crew
from certain death, and it had to be
done quickly. 1t was to swim ashore
with line.
Who would dare to attempt the
perilous undertaking? The sailors
shook their heads and muttered:
THAT is a sure death"
Without word Marie Legoff seized
the end Of rope and began to fasten
1t about her waist, when her husband
sprang to her and shouted:
what are you doing, Marie? There
Is just blanket of foam on the rocks;
you can't get across"
But the acting captain had not yet
given up her command. She stopped
him with her intrepid look and said:
"Who told you that there was no
more than a blanket Of foam on the
rocks? Not I! only say that l will
carry the rope!"
Without listening to further pro.