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 THE MAID OF SKER
 
 REPRINTED FROM BLACKWOOD S MAGAZINE
 
 THE 
 
 MAID OF SKER 
 
 BY 
 
 R. D. BLACKMORE 
 
 Al'THOR OF 
 'lORNA DOONK,' "CLARA VAUGHAN,' AND 'CRADOCK NOWELI. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXXII 
 
 All Rights are reserved
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/maidofsker01blac
 
 »4 
 
 v> 
 
 
 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 S 
 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. FISHERMAN DAVY A FISH OUT OF WATER. 
 II. HUNGER DRIVES HIM A-FISHING, 
 
 III. THE FISH ARE AS HUNGRY AS HE IS, 
 
 IV. HE LANDS AN UNEXPECTED FISH, 
 V. A LITTLE ORPHAN MERMAID, 
 
 VI. FINDS A HOME OF SOME SORT, . 
 
 VII. BOAT versus bardie, 
 
 VIII. CHILDREN WILL BE CHILDREN, . 
 IX. SAND-HILLS TURNED TO SAND-HOLES, 
 X. UNDER THE ROCK, 
 XL A WRECKER WRECKED, . 
 XIL HOW TO SELL FISH, 
 XIII. THE CORONER AND THE CORONET, 
 XIV. IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE EVIDENCE, 
 XV. A VERDICT ON THE JURY, 
 XVI. TRUTH LIES SOMETIMES IN A WELL, 
 XVII. FOR A LITTLE CHANGE OF AIR, . 
 XVIII. PUBLIC APPROBATION, 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 31 
 43 
 54 
 65 
 76 
 90 
 100 
 
 115 
 130 
 142 
 
 33 
 
 166 
 181 
 197 
 
 ^
 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XIX. A CRAFT BEYOND THE LAW, 
 XX. CONFIDENTIAL INTERCOURSE, 
 XXI. CROSS-EXAMINATION, 
 XXII. ANOTHER DISAPPOINTMENT, 
 
 XXIII. INTO GOOD SOCIETY, 
 
 XXIV. SOUND INVESTMENTS, 
 XXV. A LONG GOOD-BYE, 
 
 XXVI. BRAUNTON BURROWS, 
 
 214 
 227 
 241 
 
 265 
 278 
 
 307
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FISHERMAN DAVY A FISH OUT OF WATER. 
 
 I AM but an ancient fisherman upon the coast of Gla- 
 morganshire, with work enough of my own to do, and 
 trouble enough of my own to heed, in getting my 
 poor living. Yet no peace there is for me among my 
 friends and neighbours, unless I will set to and try — 
 as they bid me twice a-day, perhaps — whether 1 can- 
 not tell the rights of a curious adventure which it 
 pleased Providence should happen, off and on, amidst 
 us, now for a good many years, and with many ins 
 and outs to it. They assure me, also, that all good 
 people who can read and write, for ten, or it niny be 
 twenty, miles around the place I live in, will buy my 
 book — if I can make it — at a higher price, XDerluips, 
 
 VOL. I. A
 
 2 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 per lb., than they would give me even for sewin, 
 which are the very best fish I catch : and hence pro- 
 vision may be found for the old age and infirmities, 
 now gaining upon me, every time I try to go out 
 fishing. 
 
 In this encouragement and prospect I have little 
 faith, knowing how much more people care about 
 what they eat than what they read. Nevertheless I 
 will hope for the best, especially as my evenings now 
 are very long and wearisome ; and I was counted a 
 hopeful scholar, fifty years agone perhaps, in our vil- 
 lage school here — not to mention the Eoyal Navy ; 
 and most of all, because a very wealthy gentleman, 
 whose name will appear in this story, has promised 
 to pay all expenses, and £50 down (if I do it well), 
 and to leave me the profit, if any. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, the work of writing must be 
 very dull to me, after all the change of scene, and the 
 open air and sea, and the many sprees ashore, and the 
 noble fights with Frenchmen, and the power of oaths 
 that made me jump so in his Majesty's navy. God 
 save the King, and Queen, and members of the Eoyal 
 Family, be they as many as they will — and they seem, 
 in faith, to be manifold. But His power is equal to 
 it all, if they will but try to meet Him. 
 
 However, not to enter upon~aiiy view of politics —
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 3 
 
 all of which are far beyond the cleverest hand at a 
 bait among us — I am inditing of a thing very plain 
 and simple, when you come to understand it ; yet 
 containing a little strangeness, and some wonder, here 
 and there, and apt to move good people's grief at the 
 wrongs we do one another. Great part of it fell 
 under mine own eyes, for a period of a score of years, 
 or something thereabout. My memory still is pretty 
 good ; but if I contradict myself, or seem to sweep 
 beyond my reach, or in any way to meddle with 
 things which I had better have let alone, as a humble 
 man and a Christian, I pray you to lay the main fault 
 thereof on the badness of the times, and the rest upon 
 human nature. For I have been a roving man, and 
 may have gathered much of evil from contact with 
 my fellow-men, although by origin meant for good. 
 In this I take some blame to myself ; for if I had 
 polished my virtue well, the evil could not have stuck 
 to it. Nevertheless, I am, on the whole, pretty well 
 satisfied with myself ; hoping to be of such quality as 
 the Lord prefers to those perfect creatures with whom 
 he has no trouble at all, and therefore no enjoyment. 
 But sometimes, taking up a book, I am pestered 
 with a troop of doubts ; not only about my want of 
 skill, and language, and experience, but chiefly be- 
 cause I never have been a man of consummate inno-
 
 4 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 cence, excellence, and high wisdom, such as all these 
 writers are, if we go by their own opinions. 
 
 Now, when I plead among my neighbours, at the 
 mouth of the old well, all the above, my sad short- 
 comings, and my own strong sense of them (which 
 perhaps is somewhat over-strong), they only pat me 
 on the back, and smile at one another, and make a 
 sort of coughing noise, according to my bashfulness. 
 And then, if I look pleased (which for my life 1 can- 
 not help doing), they wink, as it were, at one another, 
 and speak up like this : — 
 
 " Now, Davy, you know better. You think your- 
 self at least as good as any one of us, Davy, and likely 
 far above us all. Therefore, Davy the fisherman, out 
 with all you have to say, without any French palaver. 
 You have a way of telling things so that we can see 
 them." 
 
 With this, and with that, and most of all ^dth 
 hinting about a Frenchman, they put me on my 
 mettle, so that I sit upon the side-stones of the old- 
 well gallery (which are something like the companion- 
 rail of a fore-and-after), and gather them around me, 
 with the householders put foremost, according to 
 their income, and the children listening between their 
 legs ; and thus I begin, but never end, the tale I now 
 begin to you, and perhaps shall never end it
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HUNGER DRIVES HIM A-FISHING. 
 
 In tlie summer of the year 1782, 1, David Llewellyn, 
 of Newton-N'ottage, fisherman and old sailor, was in 
 great distress and trouble, more than I like to tell 
 you. My dear wife (a faithful partner for eight-and- 
 twenty years, in spite of a very quick temper) was 
 lately gone to a better world ; and I missed her 
 tongue and her sharp look-out at almost every corner. 
 Also my son (as fine a seaman as ever went aloft), 
 after helping Lord Rodney to his great victory over 
 Grass the Frenchman, had been lost in a prize-ship 
 called the Tonner, of 54 guns and 500 Crappos, which 
 sank with all hands on her way home to Spithead, 
 under Admiral Graves. His young wife (who had 
 been sent to us to see to, with his blessing) no sooner 
 heard of this sad affair as in the Gazette reported, 
 and his pay that week stopped on her, but she fell 
 into untimely travail, and was dead ere morning. So
 
 6 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 I buried my wife and daughter-in-law, and lost all 
 chance to bury my son, between two Bridgend 
 market-days. 
 
 Now this is not very mnch, of course, compared 
 with the troubles some people have. But I had not 
 been used to this matter, except in case of a mess- 
 mate ; and so I was greatly broken down, and found 
 my eyes so weak of a morning, that I would not 
 be seen out of doors, almost. 
 
 The only one now to keep a stir or sound of life in 
 my little cottage, which faces to the churchyard, was 
 my orphan grandchild " Bunny," daughter of my son 
 just drowned, and his only child that we knew of. 
 Bunny was a rare strong lass, five years old about 
 then, I think ; a stout and hearty-feeding child, able 
 to chew every bit of her victuals, and mounting a fine 
 rosy colour, and eyes as black as Archangel pitch. 
 
 One day, when I was moping there, all abroad 
 about my bearings, and no better than water-ballasted, 
 the while I looked at my wife's new broom, now car- 
 rying cobweb try-sails, this little Bunny came up to 
 me as if she had a boarding-pike, and sprang into the 
 netting hammocks of the best black coat I wore. 
 
 " Grand-da !" she said, and looked to know in what 
 way I would look at her ; " Grand-da, I must have 
 ^umkin more to eat."
 
 .THE MAID OF SKER. 7 
 
 " Something more to eat !" I cried, almost witli some 
 astonishment, well as I knew her appetite ; for the 
 child had eaten a barley-loaf, and two pig's feet, and 
 a dog-fish. 
 
 " Yes, more ; more bexfass, grand-da." And though 
 she had not the words to tell, she put her hands in a 
 way that showed me she ought to have more solid 
 food. I could not help looking sadly at her, proud 
 as I was of her appetite. But, recovering in a minute 
 or two, I put a good face upon it. 
 
 " My dear, and you shall have more," I said ; "only 
 take your feet out of my pocket. Little heart have 
 I for fishing, God knows ; but a-fishing I will go this 
 day, if mother Jones will see to you." 
 
 For I could not leave her alone quite yet, although 
 she was a brave little maid, and no fire now was 
 burning. But within a child's trot from my door 
 and down toward the sandhills, was that famous 
 ancient well of which I spoke just now, dedicate to St 
 John the Baptist, where they used to scourge them- 
 selves. The village church stood here, they say, be- 
 fore the inroad of the sand ; and the water was 
 counted holy. How that may be, I do not know ; 
 but the well is very handy. It has a little grey round 
 tower of stone domed over the heart of it, to which a 
 covered way goes down, with shallow steps irregular
 
 8 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 If it were not for this plan, the sand -would whelm 
 the whole of it over ; even as it has overwhelmed all 
 the departure of the spring, and the cottages once 
 surrounding it. Down these steps the children go, 
 each with a little browm pitcher, holding hands and 
 groping at the sides, as they begin to feel darker. 
 And what with the sand beneath their feet, and the 
 narrowing of the roof above, and the shadows moving 
 round them, and the doubt where the water begins or 
 ends (which nobody knows at aaiy time), it is much 
 but what some little maid tumbles in, and the rest 
 have to pull her out again. 
 
 For this well has puzzled all the country, and all 
 the men of great learning, being as full of contrariety 
 as a maiden courted. It comes and goes, in a man- 
 ner, against the coming and going of the sea, which 
 is only half a mile from it ; and twice in a day it is 
 many feet deep, and again not as many inches. And 
 the water is so crystal-clear, that down in the dark 
 it is like a dream. Some people say that John the 
 Baptist had nothing to do with the making of it, be- 
 cause it was made before his time by the ancient 
 family of De Sandford, who once owned all the 
 manors here. In this, however, I place no faith, 
 having read my Bible to better purpose than to be- 
 lieve that John Baptist was the sort of man to claim
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 9 
 
 anything, least of all any water, unless lie came 
 honestly by it. 
 
 In either case, it is very pretty to see the children 
 round the entrance on a summer afternoon, when 
 they are sent for water. They are all a little afraid 
 of it, partly because of its maker's name, and his 
 having his head on a charger, and partly on account 
 of its curious ways, and the sand coming out of its 
 " nostrils " when first it begins to flow. 
 
 That day with which I begin my story, Mrfe Jones 
 was good enough to take charge of little Bunny ; and 
 after getting ready to start, I set the thong of our 
 latch inside, so that none but neighbours who knew 
 the trick could enter our little cottage (or rather 
 " mine " I should say now) ; and thus with conger- 
 rod, and prawn-net, and a long pole for the bass, and 
 a junk of pressed tobacco, and a lump of barley- 
 bread, and a maybird stuffed with onions (just to re- 
 fine the fishiness), away I set for a long-shore day, 
 upon as dainty a summer morn as ever shone out of 
 the heavens. 
 
 " Fisherman Davy " (as they call me all around 
 our parts) was fifty and two years of age, I believe, 
 that very same July, and with all my heart I wish 
 that he were as young this very day. For I never 
 have found such call to enter into the affairs of an-
 
 JO THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 other world, as to forget my business here, or press 
 upon Providence impatiently for a more heavenly 
 state of things. People may call me worldly-minded 
 for cherishing such a view of this earth ; and perhaps 
 it is not right of me. However, I can put up with 
 it, and be in no unkindly haste to say " good-bye " 
 to my neighbours. For, to my mind, such a state of 
 seeking, as many amongst us do even boast of, is, un- 
 less in a bad cough or a perilous calenture, a certain 
 proof of curiosity displeasing to our INIaker, and I 
 might even say of fickleness degrading to a true 
 Briton. 
 
 The sun came down upon my head, so that I 
 thought of bygone days, when I served under Captain 
 Howe, or Sir Edward Hawke, and used to stroll away 
 upon leave, w4th half a hundred Jacks ashore, at 
 jSTaples, or in Bermudas, or wherever the luck might 
 happen. Now, however, was no time for me to think of 
 strolling, because I could no longer live at the expense 
 of the Government, which is the highest luck of all, 
 and full of noble dignity. Things were come to such a 
 push that I must either work or starve ; and could I 
 but recall the past, I would stroll less in the days 
 gone by. A pension of one and eightpence farthing 
 for the weeks I was alive (being in right of a heavy 
 wound in capture of the Bellona, Frenchman of two-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. U 
 
 and-thirty guns, by his Majesty's frigate Vesta, under 
 Captain Hood) was all I had to hold on by, in sup- 
 port of myself and Bunny, except the slippery fish 
 that come and go as Providence orders them. She 
 had sailed from Martinique, when luckily we fell in 
 with her ; and I never shall forget the fun, and the 
 five hours at close quarters. We could see the powder 
 on the other fellows' faces while they were training 
 their guns at us, and we showed them, with a slap, 
 our noses, which they never contrived to hit. She 
 carried heavier metal than ours, and had sixty more 
 men to work it, and therefore we were obliged at last 
 to capture her by boarding. I, like a fool, was the 
 first that leaped into her mizen-chains, without look- 
 ing before me, as ought to have been. The French- 
 men came too fast upon me, and gave me more than 
 I bargained for. 
 
 Thus it happened that I fell off, in the very prime 
 of life and strength, from an able-bodied seaman and 
 captain of the fore-top to a sort of lurcher along shore, 
 and a man who must get his own living with nets 
 and rods and suchlike. For that very beautiful fight 
 took place in the year 1759, before I was thirty years 
 old, and before his present most gracious Majesty 
 came to the throne of England. And inasmuch as a 
 villanous Frenchman made at me with a cutlash, ancl
 
 12 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 a power of blue oaths (taking a nasty advantage of 
 me, while I was yet entangled), and thumped in three 
 of my ribs before a kind Providence enabled me to 
 relieve him of his head at a blow — I was discharged, 
 when we came to Spitliead, with an excellent char- 
 acter in a silk bag, and a considerable tightness of 
 breathing, and leave to beg my way home again. 
 
 Now I had not the smallest meaning to enter into 
 any of these particulars about myself, especially as 
 my story must be all about other people — beautiful 
 maidens, and fine young men, and several of the prime 
 gentry. But as I have written it, so let it stay ; be- 
 cause, perhaps, after all, it is well that people should 
 have some little knowledge of tlie man they have to 
 deal with, and learn that his character and position 
 are a long way above all attempt at deceit. 
 
 To come back once again, if you please, to that 
 very hot day of July 1782 — whence I mean to depart 
 no more until I have fully done with it — both from 
 the state of the moon, I knew, and from the neap 
 when my wife went oft", that the top of the spring 
 was likely to be in the dusk of that same evening. 
 At first I had thought of going down straight below 
 us to Newton Bay, and peddling over the Black Eocks 
 towards the Ogmore river, some two miles to the 
 east of us. But the bright sun gave me more enter-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I3 
 
 prise ; and remembering how the tide would ebb, also 
 how low my pocket was, I felt myself bound in 
 honour to Bunny to make a real push for it, and 
 thoroughly search the conger-holes and the lobster- 
 ledges, which are the best on all our coast, round 
 about Pool Tavan, and down below the old house at 
 Sker.
 
 H 
 
 CHAPTER TIL 
 
 THE FISH ARE AS HUNGRY AS HE IS. 
 
 To fish at Sker had always been a matter of some 
 risk and conflict ; inasmucli as Evan Thomas, who 
 lived in the ancient house there, and kept the rabbit- 
 warren, never could be brought to know that the sea 
 did not belong to him. He had a grant from the 
 manor, he said, and the shore was part of the manor ; 
 and whosoever came hankering there was a poacher, 
 a thief, and a robber. With these hard words, and 
 harder blows, he kept off most of the neighbourhood ; 
 but I always felt that the lurch of the tide was no 
 more than the heeling of a ship, and therefore that 
 any one free of the sea, was free of the ebb and flow 
 of it. 
 
 So when he began to reproach me once, I allowed 
 him to swear himself thoroughly out, and then, in a 
 steadfast manner, said, " Black Evan, the shore is not 
 mine or yours. Stand you here and keep it, and I
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 5 
 
 will never come again ; " for in three hours' lime 
 there would be a fathom of water M^here we stood. 
 And w^hen he caught me again, I answered, " Evan 
 Black, if you catch me inland, meddling with any of 
 your land-goods, coneys, or hares, or partridges, give 
 me a leathering like a man, and I must put up with 
 it ; but dare you touch me on this shore, which be- 
 longs to our lord the King, all the way under high- 
 water mark, and by the rod of the Eed Sea I will 
 show you the law of it." 
 
 He looked at me and the pole I bore, and, heavy 
 and strong man as he was, he thought it wiser to 
 speak me fair. "Well, w^ell, Dyo, dear," he said in 
 Welsh, having scarce any English, " you have served 
 the King, Dyo, and are bound to know what is right 
 and wrong ; only let me know, good man, if you see 
 any other rogues fishing here." 
 
 This I promised him freely enough, because, of 
 course, I had no objection to his forbidding other 
 people, and especially one vile Scotchman. Yet 
 teing a man of no liberality, he never could see even 
 me fish there without following and abusing me, and 
 most of all after a market-day. 
 
 That tide I had the rarest sport that ever you did 
 see. Scarcely a conger-hole I tried without the land- 
 lord being at home, and biting savagely at the iron,
 
 1 6 THE MAID OF SKER, 
 
 which came (like a rate) upon him ; whereupon I had 
 him by the jaw, as the tax-collector has us. Scarcely 
 a lobster-shelf I felt, tickling as I do under the weeds, 
 but what a grand old soldier came to the portcullis 
 of his stronghold, and nabbed the neat-hide up my 
 fingers, and stuck thereto till I hauled him out " nolus- 
 woluss," as we say ; and there he showed his purple 
 nippers, and his great long whiskers, and then his 
 sides, hooped like a cask, till his knuckled legs fought 
 with the air, and the lobes of his tail were quiver- 
 ing. It was fine to see these fellows, worth at least 
 a shilling, and to pop them into my basket, where 
 they clawed at one another. Glorious luck I had, in 
 truth, and began to forget my troubles, and the long 
 way home again to a lonely cottage, and my fear that 
 little Bunny was passing a sorry day of it. She 
 should have a new pair of boots, and mother Jones a 
 good Sunday dinner ; and as for myself, I would 
 think, perhaps, about half a glass of fine old rum (to 
 remind me of the navy), and a pipe of the short-cut 
 Bristol tobacco — but that must depend upon circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Now circumstances had so much manners (con- 
 trary to their custom) that they contrived to keep 
 themselves continually in my favour. Not only did 
 I fetch up and pile a noble heap of oysters and
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. ly 
 
 mussels just at the lowest of the ebb, but after that, 
 when the tide was flowing, and my work grew brisker 
 — as it took me by the calves, and my feet were not 
 cut by the mussels more than I could walk upon — 
 suddenly I found a thing beating all experience both 
 of the past and future. 
 
 This was, that the heat of the weather, and the soft 
 south wind prevailing, had filled the deep salt-water 
 pools among the rocks of Pool Tavan, and as far as 
 Ffynnon wen, with the finest prawns ever seen or 
 dreamed of; and also had peopled the shallow pools 
 higher up the beach with shoals of silver muUet-frj'' 
 — small indeed, and as quick as lightning, but well 
 worth a little trouble to catch, being as fine eating as 
 any lady in the land could long for. 
 
 And here for a moment I stood in some doubt, 
 whether first to be down on the prawns or the mullet ; 
 but soon I remembered the tide would come first 
 into the pools that held the prawns. Now it did not 
 take me very long to fill a great Holland bag with 
 these noble fellows, rustling their whiskers, and 
 rasping their long saws at one another. Four gal- 
 lons I found, and a little over, when I came to 
 measure them ; and sixteen shillings I made of them, 
 besides a good many which Bunny ate raw. 
 
 Neither was my luck over yet, for being now in 
 VOL. L B
 
 l8 THE MAID OF SKER.' 
 
 great heart and good feather, what did I do but fall 
 very briskly upon the grey mullet in the pools : and 
 fast as they scoured away down the shallows, fluting 
 the surface with lines of light, and huddling the 
 ripples all up in a curve, as they swung themselves 
 round on their tails with a sweep, when they could 
 swim no further — nevertheless it was all in vain, for 
 T blocked them in with a mole of kelp, weighted with 
 heavy pebbles, and then baled them out at my plea- 
 sure. 
 
 Xow the afternoon was wearing away, and the flood 
 making strongly up channel by the time I came 
 back from Ffynnon wen — whither the mullet had led 
 me — to my headquarters opposite Sker farmhouse, at 
 the basin of Pool Tavan. This pool is made by a ring 
 of rocks sloping inward from the sea, and is dry al- 
 together for two hours' ebb and two hours' flow of a 
 good spring-tide, except so much as a little land- 
 spring, sliding down the slippery sea-weed, may have 
 power to keep it moist. 
 
 A wonderful place here is for wild-fowl, the very 
 choicest of all I know, both when the sluice of the 
 tide runs out and when it comes swelling back again; 
 for as the water ebbs away with a sulky wash in the 
 hollow places, and the sand runs down in little cran- 
 nies, and the bladder-weeds hang trickling, and the
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. IQ 
 
 limpets close their valves, and the beautiful jelly- 
 flowers look no better than chilblains, — all this void 
 and glistening basin is at once alive with birds. 
 
 First the seapie runs and chatters, and the turn- 
 stone pries about with his head laid sideways in a 
 most sagacious manner, and the sanderlings glide in 
 file, and the greenshanks separately. Then the shy 
 curlews over the point warily come, and leave one to 
 watch ; while the brave little mallard teal, with his 
 green triangles glistening, stands on one foot in the 
 fresh-water runnel, and shakes with his quacks of 
 enjoyment. 
 
 Again, at the freshening of the flood, when the 
 round pool flUs with sea (pouring in through the gate 
 of rock), and the waves push merrily onward, then a 
 mighty stir arises, and a different race of birds — those 
 which love a swimming dinner — swoop upon Pool 
 Tavan. Here is the giant grey gull, breasting (like 
 a cherub in church) before he dowses down his head, 
 and here the elegant kittywake, and the sullen cor- 
 morant in the shadow swimming; and the swiftest 
 of swift wings, the silver-grey sea-swallow, dips like 
 a butterfly and is gone ; while from slumber out at 
 sea, or on the pool of Kenfig, in a long wedge, cleaves 
 the air the whistling flight of wild-ducks. 
 
 Standing upright for a moment, with their red toes
 
 20 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 on the water, and their strong wings flapping, in they 
 souse with one accord and a strenuous delight. Then 
 ensues a mighty quacking of unanimous content, a 
 courteous nodding of quick heads, and a sluicing and 
 a shovelling of water over shoulder-blades, in all the 
 glorious revelry of insatiable washing. 
 
 Eecovering thence, they dress themselves in a 
 sober-minded manner, paddling very quietly, proudly 
 puffing out their breasts, arching their necks, and 
 preening themselves, titivating (as we call it) with 
 their bills in and out the down, and shoulders up to 
 run the wet off ; then turning their heads, as if on a 
 swivel, they fettle their backs and their scapular 
 plume. Then, being as clean as clean can be, they 
 begin to think of their dinners, and with stretched 
 necks down they dive to catch some luscious morsel, 
 and all you can see is a little sharp tail and a pair 
 of red feet kicking. 
 
 Bless all their innocent souls, how often I longed 
 to have a good shot at them, and might have killed 
 eight or ten at a time with a long gun heavily loaded ! 
 But all these birds knew, as well as I did, that I had 
 no gun with me ; and although they kept at a tidy 
 distance, yet they let me look at them, which I did 
 with great peace of mind all the time I was eating 
 my supper. The day had been too busy till now to
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 21 
 
 stop for auy feeding ; but now there would be twenty 
 minutes or so ere the bass came into Pool Tavan, for 
 these like a depth of water. 
 
 . So, after consuming my bread and maybird, and 
 having a good drink from the spring, I happened to 
 look at my great flag-basket, now ready to burst 
 with congers and lobsters and mullet, and spider- 
 crabs for Bunny (who could manage any quantity), 
 also with other good saleable fish ; and I could not 
 help saying to myself, " Come, after all now, Davy 
 Llewellyn, you are not gone so far as to want a low 
 Scotchman to show you the place where the fish 
 live." And with that I Kt a pipe. 
 
 What with the hard work, and the heat, and the 
 gentle plash of wavelets, and the calmness of the 
 sunset, and the power of red onions, what did I do 
 but fall asleep as snugly as if I had been on watch 
 in one of his Majesty's ships of the line after a heavy 
 gale of wind ? And when I woke up again, behold, 
 the shadows of the rocks were over me, and the sea 
 was saluting the calves of my legs, which up to that 
 mark were naked ; and but for my instinct in putting 
 my basket up on a rock behind me, all my noble 
 catch of fish must have gone to the locker of Davy 
 Jones. 
 
 At this my conscience smote me hard, as if I were
 
 22 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 irettinfr old too soon ; and with one or two of tlie short 
 strong words which I had learned in the navy, where 
 the chaplain himself stirred us up with them, up I 
 roused and rigged my pole for a good bout at the 
 bass. At the butt of the ash was a bar of square 
 oak, figged in with a screw-bolt, and roven round 
 this was my line of good hemp, twisted evenly, so 
 that if any fish came who could master me, and pull 
 me off the rocks almost, I could indulge him with 
 some slack by unreeving a fathom of line. At the 
 end of the pole was a strong loop -knot, through 
 which ran the line, bearing two large hooks, with 
 the eyes of their shanks lashed tightly with cobbler's 
 ends upon whipcord. The points of the hooks were 
 fetched up with a file, and the barbs well backened, 
 and the whole dressed over with whale-oil. Then 
 upon one hook I fixed a soft crab, and on the other 
 a cuttle-fish. There were lug-worms also in my pot, 
 but they would do better after dark, wlien a tumbling 
 cod might be on the feed. 
 
 Good-luck and bad-luck has been my lot ever 
 since I can remember; sometimes a long spell of 
 one, wing and wing, as you might say, and then a 
 long leg of the other. But never in all my born 
 days did I have such a spell of luck in the fishing 
 way as on that blessed 10th of July 1782
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 23 
 
 What to do with it all now became a puzzle, for I 
 could not carry it home all at once ; and as to leav- 
 ing a bit behind, or refusing to catch a single fish 
 that wanted to be caught, neither of these was a 
 possible thing to a true-born fisherman. 
 
 At last things came to such a pitch that it was 
 difficult not to believe that all must be the crowd 
 and motion of a very pleasant dream. Here was 
 the magic ring of the pool, shaped by a dance of 
 sea-fairies, and the fading light shed doubtfully 
 upon the haze of the quivering sea, and the silver 
 water lifting like a mirror on a hinge, while the 
 black rocks seemed to nod to it ; and here was I 
 pulliug out big fishes almost faster than I cast in.
 
 24 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HE LANDS AN UNEXPECTED FISH. 
 
 Now, as the rising sea came sliding over the coronet 
 of rocks, as well as through the main entrance — for 
 even the brim of the pool is covered at high water — 
 I beheld a glorious sight, stored in my remembrance 
 of the southern regions, but not often seen at home. 
 The day had been very hot and brilliant, with a light 
 air from the south ; and at sunset a haze arose, and 
 hung as if it were an awning over the tranquil sea. 
 First, a gauze of golden colour, as the western light 
 came through, and then a tissue shot with red, and 
 now a veil of silvery softness, as the summer moon 
 grew bright. 
 
 Then the quiet waves began — as their plaited lines 
 rolled onward into frills of whiteness — in the very curl 
 and fall, to glisten with a flitting light. Presently, 
 as each puny breaker overshone the one in front, 
 not the crest and comb alone, but the slope behind
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 2$ 
 
 it, and the crossing flaws inshore, gleamed with 
 hovering radiance and soft flashes vanishing ; till, in 
 the deepening of the dusk, each advancing crest was 
 sparkling with a mane of fire, every breaking wave- 
 let glittered like a shaken seam of gold. Thence the 
 shower of beads and lustres lapsed into a sliding tier, 
 moving up the sands with light, or among the pebbles 
 breaking into a cataract of gems. 
 
 Being an ancient salt, of course I was not dis- 
 mayed by this show of phosphorus, nor even much 
 astonished, but rather pleased to watch the bright- 
 ness, as it brought back to my mind thoughts of 
 beautiful sunburnt damsels whom I had led alonw 
 the shore of the lovely Mediterranean. Yet our 
 stupid landsmen, far and wide, were panic-struck ; 
 and hundreds fell upon their knees, expecting the 
 last trump to sound. All I said to myself was this : 
 " No wonder I had such sport to-day ; change of 
 weather soon, I doubt, and perhaps a thunderstorm." 
 
 As I gazed at all this beauty, tiying not to go 
 astray with wonder and with weariness, there, in the 
 gateway of black rock, with the offing dark behind 
 her, and the glittering waves upon their golden 
 shoulders bearing her — sudden as an apparition came 
 a smoothly-gliding boat. Beaded all athwart the 
 bows and down the bends with drops of light, hold-
 
 26 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 ing stem wefU up in air, and the forefoot shedding 
 gold, slie came as straight toward this poor and un- 
 converted Davy as if an angel held the tiller, with 
 an admiral in the stern-sheets. 
 
 Hereupon such terror seized me, after the wonders 
 of the day, that my pole fell downright into the 
 water (of which a big fish wronged me so as to slip 
 the hook and be off again), and it was no more than 
 the turn of a hair but what I had run away head 
 over heels. For the day had been so miraculous, 
 beginning with starvation, and going on with so 
 much heat and hard work and enjoyment, and such 
 a draught of fishes, that a poor body's wits were gone 
 wdth it ; and therefore I doubt not it must have been 
 an especial decree of Providence that in turning 
 round to run away I saw my big fish-basket. 
 
 To carry this over the rocks at a run was entirely 
 impossible (although I was still pretty good in my 
 legs), but to run away without it was a great deal 
 more impossible for a man who had caught the fish 
 himself; and beside the fish in the basket, there 
 must have been more than two hundredweight of 
 bass that would not go into it. Three hundred and 
 a half in all was what I set it down at, taking no 
 heed of prawns and lobsters ; and with any luck in 
 selling, it must turn two guineas.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 2^ 
 
 • Hence, perhaps, it came to pass (as mucli as from 
 downright braver}', of which sometimes I have some 
 little) that I felt myself bound to creep back again, 
 under the shade of a cold wet rock, just to know 
 what that boat was up to. 
 
 A finer floatage I never saw, and her lines were 
 purely elegant, and she rode above the water without 
 so much as parting it. Then, in spite of all my fear, 
 I could not help admiring ; and it struck me hotly 
 at the heart, " Oh, if she is but a real boat, what a 
 craft for my business ! " And with that I dropped 
 all fear. For I had not been able, for many years, 
 to carry on my fishing as skill and knowledge war- 
 ranted, only because I could not afford to buy a 
 genuine boat of my own, and hitherto had never 
 won the chance without the money. 
 
 As yet I could see no soul on board. No one was 
 rowing, that was certain, neither any sign of a sail 
 to give her steerage- way. However, she kept her 
 course so true that surely there must be some hand 
 invisible at the tiller. This conclusion flurried me 
 again, very undesirably ; and I set my right foot in 
 such a manner as to be off in a twinkling of any- 
 thing unholy. 
 
 But God has care of the little souls which nobody 
 else takes heed of ; and so He ordained that the boat
 
 28 THE MAIU OF SKER. 
 
 should heel, and then yaw across the middle of the 
 pool ; but for which black rocks alone would have 
 been her welcome. 
 
 At once my heart came back to me ; for I saw at 
 once, as an old sailor pretty well up in shipwrecks, 
 that the boat was no more than a derelict ; and feeling 
 that here was my chance of chances, worth perhaps 
 ten times my catch of fish, I set myself in earnest to 
 the catching of that boat. 
 
 Therefore I took up my pole again, and finding 
 that the brace of fish whom I had been over-scared 
 to land had got away during my slackness, I spread 
 the hooks, and cast them both, with the slugs of lead 
 upon them, and half a fathom of spare line ready, as 
 far as ever my arms would throw. 
 
 The flight of the hooks was beyond my sight, for 
 the phosphorus spread confusion ; but I heard most 
 clearly the thump, thump of the two leaden bobs— 
 the heavy and the light one — upon hollow planking. 
 Upon this I struck as I would at a fish, and the 
 hooks got hold (or at any rate one of them), and I 
 felt the light boat following faster as she began to 
 get way on the haul ; and so I drew her gently to- 
 ward me, being still in some misgiving, although 
 resolved to go through with it. 
 
 But, bless my heart, when the light boat glided
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 29 
 
 buoyantly up to my very feet, and the moon shone 
 over the starboard gunwale, and without much draw- 
 back I gazed at it — behold ! the little craft was laden 
 with a freight of pure innocence ! All for captain, 
 crew, and cargo, was a little helpless child. In the 
 stern-sheets, fast asleep, with the baby face towards 
 me, lay a little child in white. Something told me 
 that it was not dead, or even ailing ; only adrift 
 upon the world, and not at all aware of it. Quite an 
 atom of a thing, taking God's will anyhow ; cast, no 
 doubt, according to the rocking of the boat, only 
 with one tiny arm put up to keep the sun away, 
 before it fell asleep. 
 
 Being taken quite aback with pity, sorrow, and 
 some anger (which must have been of instinct), 1 
 laid hold of the bows of the skiff, and drew her up 
 a narrow channel, where the land-spring found its 
 way. The lift of a round wave helped her on, and 
 the bladder-weed saved any chafing. A brand-new 
 painter (by the feel) it was that I caught hold of ; 
 but instead of a hitch at the end, it had a clean 
 sharp cut across it. Having made it fast with my 
 fishing-pole jammed hard into a crevice of rock, I 
 stepped on board rather gingerly, and, seating myself 
 on the forward thwart, gazed from a respectful dis- 
 tance at the little stranger.
 
 30 THE MATD OF SKER. 
 
 The light of the moon was clear and strong, and 
 the phosphorus of the sea less dazing as the night 
 grew deeper, therefore I could see pretty well ; and 
 I took a fresh plug of tobacco before any further 
 meddling. For the child was fast asleep ; and, 
 according to my experience, they are always best in 
 that way.
 
 31 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A LITTLE ORPHAN MERMAID. 
 
 By the clear moonlight I saw a very wee maiden, all 
 in white, having neither cloak nor shawl, nor any 
 other soft appliance to protect or comfort her, hut 
 lying with her little back upon the aftmost planking, 
 with one arm bent (as I said before), and the other 
 drooping at her side, as if the baby-hand had been 
 at work to ease her crying ; and then, when tears 
 were tired out, had dropped in sleep or numb despair. 
 
 My feelings were so moved by this, as I became 
 quite sure at last that here was a little mortal, that 
 the tears came to mine own eyes too, she looked so 
 purely pitiful. " The Lord in heaven have mercy on 
 the little dear!" I cried, without another thought 
 about it ; and then I went and sat close by, so that 
 she lay between my feet. 
 
 However, she would not awake, in spite of my 
 whistling gradually, and singing a little song to her,
 
 32 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 and playing with her curls of hair; therefore, as 
 nothing can last for ever, and the tide was rising 
 fast, I was forced to give the little lady, not what 
 you would call a kick so much as a very gentle 
 movement of the muscles of the foot. 
 
 She opened her eyes at this, and yawned, but 
 was much inclined to shut them again ; till I (hav- 
 ing to get home that night) could make no further 
 allowance for her, as having no home to go to ; and 
 upon this I got over all misgivings about the dirti- 
 ness of my jacket, and did what I had feared to do, 
 by reason of great respect for her ; that is to say, I 
 put both hands very carefully under her, and lifted 
 her like a delicate fish, and set her crosswise on my 
 lap, and felt as if I understood her ; and she could 
 not have weighed more than twenty pounds, accord- 
 ing to my heft of fish. 
 
 Having been touched with trouble lately, I w^as 
 drawn out of all experience now (for my nature is 
 not over-soft) towards this little thing, so cast, in a 
 dream almost, upon me. I thought of her mother, 
 well drowned, no doubt, and the father who must 
 have petted her, and of the many times to come 
 when none would care to comfort her. And though 
 a child is but a child, somehow I took to that child. 
 Therefore I became most anxious as to her state of
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 33 
 
 body, and handled her little mites of feet, and her 
 fingers, and all her outworks; because I was not 
 sure at all that the manner of her yawning might be 
 nothing more or less than a going out of this world 
 almost. For think, if you can see it so, how every- 
 thing was against her. To be adrift without any 
 food, or any one to tend her, many hours, or days 
 perhaps, with a red-hot sun or cold stars overhead, 
 and the greedy sea beneath her ! 
 
 However, there she was alive, and warm, and limp, 
 to the best of my judgment, sad though I was to 
 confess to myself that I knew more of bass than of 
 babies. For it had always so pleased God that I 
 happened to be away at sea when He thought fit to 
 send them ; therefore my legs went abroad with fear 
 of dandling this one, that now was come, in a way 
 to disgrace a seaman ; for if she should happen to 
 get into irons, I never could get her out again. 
 
 Upon that matter, at any rate, I need not have 
 concerned myself, for the child was so trim and well 
 ballasted, also ribbed so stiff and sound, that any 
 tack I set her on she would stick to it, and start no 
 rope ; and knowing that this was not altogether the 
 manner of usual babies (who yaw about, and no 
 steerage-way), I felt encouraged, and capable almost 
 of a woman's business. Therefore I gave her a little 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 34 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 tickle ; and verily she began to laugh, or perhaps I 
 should say by rights to smile, in a gentle and supe- 
 rior way — for she always was superior. And a 
 funnier creature never lived, neither one that could 
 ciy so distressfully. 
 
 "Wake up, wake up, my deary," said I, "and 
 don't you be afraid of me. A fine little girl I've got 
 at home, about twice the size that you be, and goes 
 by the name of * Bunny.' " 
 
 " Bunny ! " she said ; and I was surprised, not 
 being up to her qualities, that she could speak so 
 clearly. Then it struck me that if she could talk 
 like that I might as well know more about her. So 
 I began, very craftily, with the thing all children 
 are proud about, and are generally sure to be up to. 
 
 " Pretty little soul," I said, " how old do you call 
 yourself?" 
 
 At this she gathered up her forehead, not being 
 used to the way I put it, while she was trying to 
 think it out. 
 
 " How old are you, deary ?" said I, trying hard to 
 suck up my lips and chirp, as I had seen the nurses 
 do. 
 
 " I'se two, I'se two," she answered, looking with 
 some astonishment ; " didn't 'a know that ? Hot's 
 'a name ?"
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 35 
 
 This proof of her high standing and knowledge of 
 the world took me for the moment a good deal off 
 my legs, until I remembered seeing it put as a thing 
 all must give in to, that the rising generation was 
 beyond our understanding. So I answered, very 
 humbly, "Deary, my name is 'old Davy.' Baby, 
 kiss old Davy." 
 
 " I 'ill," she answered, briskly. " Old Davy, I likes 
 'a. I'll be a good gal, I 'HL" 
 
 " A good girl ! To be sure you wiU. Bless my 
 heart, I never saw such a girl." And I kissed her 
 three or four times over, until she began to smell my 
 plug, and Bunny was nobody in my eyes. "But 
 what's your own name, deary, now you know old 
 Davy's name ?" 
 
 " I'se Bardie. Didn't 'a know that ?" 
 
 "To be sure I did;" for a little fib was needful 
 from the way she looked at me, and the biggest one 
 ever told would have been a charity under the cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 "Pease, old Davy, I'se aye hungy," she went 
 on ere I was right again, " and I 'ants a dink o' 
 yater." 
 
 " What a fool I am ! " cried I. " Of course you 
 do, you darling. What an atomy you are to talk ! 
 Stop here a moment."
 
 36 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Setting her on the seat by herself (like a stupid, 
 as I was, for she might have tumbled overboard), I 
 jumped out of the boat to fetch her water from the 
 spring-head, as well as the relics of my food from the 
 corner of the fish-basket. And truly vexed was I 
 with myself for devouring of my dinner so. But no 
 sooner was I gone, than feeling so left alone again 
 after so much desertion, what did the little thing do 
 but spring like a perfect grasshopper, and, slipping 
 under the after-thwart, set off in the bravest toddle 
 for the very bow of the boat, in fear of losing sight 
 of me? Unluckily, the boat just happened to lift 
 upon a bit of a wave, and, not having won her sea- 
 legs yet in spite of that long cruise, down came poor 
 Bardie with a thump, which hurt me more than her, 
 I think. 
 
 Knowing what Bunny would have done, I ex- 
 pected a fearful roar, and back I ran to lift her up. 
 But even before I could interfere, she was up again 
 and all alive, with both her arms stretched out to 
 show, and her face set hard to defy herself 
 
 " I 'ont ky, I 'ont, I tell 'a.. 'Ee see if I does now, 
 and ma say hot a good gal I is." 
 
 "Where did you knock yourself, little wonder? 
 Let old Davy make it well. Show old Davy the 
 poor sore place."
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 37 
 
 "Nare it is. Gardy la ! nare poor Bardie knock 
 herself/' 
 
 And she held up her short white smock, and 
 showed me the bend of her delicate round knee as 
 simply and kindly as could be. 
 
 " I 'ont ky ; no, I 'ont," she went on, with her 
 pretty lips screwed up. " Little brother ky, 'e know ; 
 but Bardie a gate big gal, savvy voo? Bardie too 
 big enough to ky." 
 
 However, all this greatness vanished when a drop 
 of blood came oozing from the long black bruise, and 
 still more when I tried to express my deep com- 
 passion. The sense of bad-luck was too strong for 
 the courage of even two years' growth, and little 
 Bardie proved herself of just the right age for crying. 
 I had observed how clear and bright and musical 
 her voice was for such a tiny creature ; and now the 
 sound of her great woe, and scene of her poor help- 
 less plight, was enough to move the rocks into a 
 sense of pity for her. 
 
 However, while she had her cry out (as the tide 
 would never wait), I took the liberty of stowing all 
 my fish and fishing-tackle on board of that handy 
 little boat, which I began to admire and long for 
 more and more every time I jumped from the rock 
 into her foresheets. And finding how tight and
 
 38 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 crank she was, and fiill of spring at every step, and 
 ■with a pair of good ash sculls, and, most of all, dis- 
 covering the snuggest of snug lockers, my conscience 
 (always a foremost feature) showed me in the 
 strongest light that it would be a deeply ungracious, 
 ungrateful, and even sinful thing, if I failed to thank 
 an ever- wise and overruling Providence for sending 
 me this useful gift in so express a manner. 
 
 And taking this pious and humble view of the 
 night's occurrence, I soon perceived a special fitness 
 in the time of its ordering. For it happened to be 
 the very night when Evan Thomas was out of the 
 way, as I had been told at N"ottage, and the steward 
 of the manor safe to be as drunk as a fiddler at 
 Bridgend ; and it was not more than a few months 
 since that envious Scotchman, Sandy Macraw (a 
 scurvy limb of the coast-guards, who lived by poach- 
 ing on my born rights), had set himself up with a 
 boat, forsooth, on purpose to rogue me and rob me 
 the better. No doubt he had stolen it somewhere, 
 for he first appeared at night with it ; and now here 
 was a boat, in all honesty mine, which would travel 
 two feet for each one of his tub ! 
 
 By the time I had finished these grateful reflec- 
 tions, and resolved to contribute any unsold crabs 
 to the Dissenting minister's salary (in recognition of
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 39 
 
 the hand of Providence, and what he had taught me 
 concerning it no longer ago than last Sabbath-day, 
 when he said that the Lord would make up to me 
 for the loss of my poor wife, though never dreaming, 
 I must confess, of anything half so good as a boat), 
 and by the time that I had moored this special 
 mercy snugly, and hidden the oars, so that no vile 
 wrecker could make off with her feloniously, that 
 dear little child was grown quiet again, being unable 
 to cry any more, and now beginning to watch my 
 doings as much as I could wish, or more. 
 
 She never seemed tired of watching me, having 
 slept out all her sleep for the moment; and as I 
 piled up fish on fish, and they came sliding, slippery, 
 she came shyly, eyeing them with a desire to see 
 each one, pushing her mites of fingers out, and then 
 drawing back in a hurry as their bellies shone in the 
 moonlight. Some of the congers could wriggle still, 
 and they made her scream when they did it ; but 
 the lobsters were her chief delight, being all alive 
 and kicking. She came and touched them rever- 
 ently, and ready to run if they took it amiss ; and 
 then she stroked their whiskers, crying, " Pitty, 
 pitty ! jolly, jolly !" till one great fellow, who knew 
 no better, would have nipped her wrist asunder if I 
 had not ricked his claw.
 
 40 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 " Now, deary," said I, as I drew her away, " you 
 have brought poor old Davy a beautiful boat, and 
 the least that he can do for you is to get you a good 
 supper." For since her tumble the little soul had 
 seemed neither hungry nor thirsty. 
 
 " Pease, old Davy," she answered, " I 'ants to go 
 to mama and papa, and ickle bother and Susan." 
 
 " The devil you do !" thought I, in a whistle, not 
 seeing my way to a fib as yet. 
 
 " Does 'ee know mama and papa, and ickle bother, 
 old Davy?" 
 
 " To be sure I do, my deary — better than I know 
 you, almost." 
 
 " 'Et me go to them, 'et me go to them. Hot ma 
 say about my poor leggy peggy ?" 
 
 This was more than I could tell ; believing her 
 mother to be, no doubt, some thirty fathoms under 
 water, and her father and little brother in about the 
 same predicament. 
 
 " Come along, my little dear, and I'll take you to 
 your mother." This was what I said, not being 
 ready, as yet, with a corker. 
 
 " I'se yeady, old Davy," she answered ; " I'se kite 
 yeady. 'Hen '11 'e be yeady ? Peshy voo." 
 
 " Eeady and steady : word of command ! march ! " 
 said I, looking up at the moon, to try to help me out
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 4 1 
 
 of it. But the only thing that I could find to help 
 me in this trouble, was to push about and stir, and 
 keep her looking at me. She was never tired of 
 looking at things with life or motion in them ; and 
 this I found the special business of her nature after- 
 wards. 
 
 Now, being sure of my boat, I began to think 
 what to do with Bardie. And many foolish ideas 
 came, but I saw no way to a wise one, or at least I 
 thought so then, and unhappily looked to prudence 
 more than to gracious Providence, for which I have 
 often grieved bitterly, ever since it turned out who 
 Bardie was. 
 
 For the present, however (though strongly smitten 
 with her manners, appearance, and state of ship- 
 wreck, as well as impressed with a general sense of 
 her being meant for good-luck to me), I could not see 
 my way to take her to my home and support her. 
 Many and many times over I said to myself, in my 
 doubt and uneasiness, and perhaps more times than 
 need have been if my conscience had joined me, that 
 it was no good to be a fool, to give way (as a woman 
 might do) to the sudden affair of the moment, and a 
 hot-hearted mode of regarding it. And the harder 
 I worked at the stowing of fish, the clearer my duty 
 appeared to me.
 
 42 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 So by the time that all was ready for starting with 
 this boat of mine, the sea being all the while as pretty 
 as a pond by candle-light, it was settled in my mind 
 what to do with Bardie. She must go to the old Sker- 
 house. And having taken a special liking (through 
 the goodness of my nature and the late distress upon 
 me) to this little helpless thing, most sincerely I 
 prayed to God that all might be ordered for the 
 best ; as indeed it always is, if we leave it to Him. 
 
 Nevertheless I ought never to have left it to Him, 
 as every one now acknowledges. But how could I 
 teU? 
 
 By this time she began to be overcome with 
 circumstances, as might happen naturally to a child 
 but two years old, after long exposure without any 
 food or management. Scared, and strange, and tired 
 out, she fell down anyhow in the boat, and lay like a 
 log, and frightened me. Many men would have cared 
 no more, but, taking the baby for dead, have dropped 
 her into the grave of the waters. I, however, have 
 always been of a very different stamp from these ; 
 and all the wars, and discipline, and doctrine I have 
 encountered, never could imbue me with the cruelty 
 of my betters. Therefore I was shocked at thinking 
 that the little dear was dead.
 
 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FINDS A HOME OF SOME SORT. 
 
 HowEVEK, it was high time now, if we had any hope 
 at all of getting into Sker-house that night, to be up 
 and moving. For though Evan Thomas might be 
 late, Moxy, his wife, would be early ; and the door 
 would open to none but the master after the boys 
 were gone to bed. For the house is very lonely ; and 
 people no longer innocent as they used to be in that 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 I found the child quite warm and nice, though 
 overwhelmed with weight of sleep ; and setting her 
 crosswise on my shoulders, whence she slid down 
 into my bosom, over the rocks I picked my way, 
 by the light of the full clear moon, towards the 
 old Sker-Grange, which stands a little- back from 
 the ridge of beach, and on the edge of the sand- 
 hills. 
 
 This always was, and always must be, a very sad
 
 44 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 and lonesome place, close to a desolate waste of sand, 
 and the continual roaring of the sea upon black rocks. 
 A great grey house, with many chimneys, many 
 gables, and many windows, yet not a neighbour to 
 look out on, not a tree to feed its chimneys, scarce a 
 firelight in its gables in the very depth of winter. 
 Of course, it is said to be haunted ; and though I 
 believe not altogether in any stories of that kind — 
 despite some very strange things indeed which I have 
 beheld at sea — at any rate, I would rather not hear 
 any yarns on that matter just before bedtime in that 
 house ; and most people would agree with me, unless 
 I am much mistaken. 
 
 For the whole neighbourhood — if so you may call 
 it, where there are no neighbours — is a very queer 
 one — stormy, wild, and desolate, with little more 
 than rocks and sand and sea to make one's choice 
 among. As to the sea, not only dull, and void it is of 
 any haven, or of proper traffic, but as dangerous as 
 need be, even in good weather, being full of draughts 
 and currents, with a tide like a mill-race, suffering 
 also the ups and downs which must be where the 
 Atlantic Ocean jostles with blind narrowings : it 
 offers, moreover, a special peril (a treacherous and a 
 shifty one) in the shape of some horrible quicksands, 
 known as the " Sker-Weathers :" these at the will of
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 45 
 
 storm and current change about from place to place, 
 but are, for the most part, some two miles from shore, 
 and from two to four miles long, according to circum- 
 stances ; sometimes almost bare at half-tide, and 
 sometimes covered at low water. If any ship falls 
 into them, the bravest skipper that ever stood upon 
 a quarter-deck can do no more than pipe to prayers, 
 though one or two craft have escaped when the tide 
 was rising rapidly. 
 
 As for the shore, it is no better (when once you 
 get beyond the rocks) than a stretch of sandhills, 
 with a breadth of flaggy marsh behind them all the 
 way to the mouth of Neath river, some three leagues 
 to the westward. Eastward, the scene is fairer 
 inland, but the coast itself more rugged and steep, 
 and scarcely more inhabited, having no house nearer 
 than Pthw}^chyns, which is only a small farm, nearly 
 two miles from Sker- Grange, and a mile from any 
 other house. And if you strike inland from Sker — 
 that is to say, to the northward — there is nothing to 
 see but sand, warren, and furze, and great fields 
 marked with rubble, even as far as Kenfig. 
 
 Looking at that vast lonely house, there were two 
 things I never could make out. The first was, who 
 could ever have been mad enough to build it there ? 
 — for it must have cost a mint of money, being all of
 
 46 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 quarried and carried stone, and with no rich farm to 
 require it. And the second thing was still worse a 
 puzzle : how could any one ever live there ? 
 
 As to the first point, the story is, that the house 
 was built by abbots of Neath, when owners of Sker- 
 manor, adding to it, very likely, as they followed one 
 another ; and then it was used as their manor-court, 
 and for purposes more important, as a place of refec- 
 tion, being near good fisheries, and especially Kenfig 
 Pool, stocked with all fresh-water fish, and every kind 
 of wild-fowl. 
 
 But upon the other question all that I can say is 
 this : I have knocked about the world a good bit, and 
 have suffered many trials, by the which I am, no 
 doubt, chastened and highly rectified ; nevertheless, 
 I would rather end my life among the tombstones, 
 if only allowed three farthings' worth of tobacco 
 every day, than live with all those abbots' luxuries 
 in that old grey house. 
 
 However, there were no abbots now, nor any sort 
 of luxury, only a rough unpleasant farmer, a kind 
 but slovenly wife of his, and five great lads, notorious 
 for pleasing no one except themselves ; also a boy of 
 a different order, as you soon shall see. 
 
 Thinking of all this, I looked with tenderness at 
 the little dear, fallen back so fast asleep, innocent,
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 47 
 
 and trustful, with her head upon my shoulder, and 
 her breathing in my beard. Turning away at view 
 of the house, I brought the moonlight on her face, 
 and this appeared so pure, and calm, and fit for bet- 
 ter company, that a pain went to my heart, as in 
 Welsh we speak of it. 
 
 Because she was so fast asleep, and that alone is 
 something holy in a very little child; so much it 
 seems to be the shadow of the death itself, in their 
 pausing fluttering lives, in their want of wit for 
 dreaming, and their fitness for a world of which they 
 must know more than this ; also to a man who feels 
 the loss of much believing, and what grievous gain 
 it is to make doubt of everything, such a simple trust 
 in Him, than whom we find no better father, such a 
 confidence of safety at the very outset seems a happy 
 art unknown, and tempts him back to ignorance. 
 Well aware what years must bring, from all the ill 
 they have brought to us, we cannot watch this simple 
 sort without a sadness on our side, a pity, and a long- 
 ing, as for something lost and gone. 
 
 In the scoop between two sand-hills such a power 
 of moonlight fell upon the face of this baby, that it 
 only wanted the accident of her lifting bright eyes 
 to me to make me cast away all prudence, and even 
 the dread of Bunny. But a man at my time of life
 
 48 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 must really look to the main chance first, and scout 
 all romantic visions ; and another face means another 
 mouth, however pretty it may be. Moreover, I had 
 no wife now, nor woman to look after us ; and what 
 can even a man-child do, without their apparatus ? 
 While on the other hand I knew that (however 
 dreary Sker might be) there was one motherly heart 
 inside it. Therefore it came to pass that soon the 
 shadow of that dark house fell upon the little one in 
 my arms, while with a rotten piece of timber, which 
 was lying handy, I thumped and thumped at the old 
 oak door, but nobody came to answer me ; nobody 
 even seemed to hear, though every knock went fur- 
 ther and further into the emptiness of the place. 
 
 But just as I had made up my mind to lift the 
 latch, and to walk in freely, as I would have done 
 in most other houses, but stood upon scruple with 
 Evan Thomas, I heard a slow step in the distance, 
 and Moxy Thomas appeared at last — a kindly- 
 hearted and pleasant woman, but apt to be low- 
 spirited (as was natural for Evan's wife), and not 
 very much of a manager. And yet it seems hard to 
 blame her there, when I come to tliink of it, for most 
 of the women are but so, round about our neighbour- 
 hood — sanding up of room and passage, and forming 
 patterns on the floor every other Saturday, and yet
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 49 
 
 the roof all frayed with cobwebs, and the corners 
 such as, in the navy, we should have been rope-ended 
 for. 
 
 By means of nature, Moxy was shaped for a 
 thoroughly good and lively woman ; and such no 
 doubt she would have been, if she had had the luck 
 to marry me, as at one time was our signification. 
 God, however, ordered things in a different manner, 
 and no doubt He was considering what might be 
 most for my benefit. Nevertheless, in the ancient 
 days, when I was a fine young tar on leave, and all 
 Sunday-school set caps at me (perhaps I was two- 
 and-twenty then), the only girl I would allow to sit 
 on the crossing of my legs, upon a well-dusted tomb- 
 stone, and suck the things I carried for them (all 
 being fond of peppermint), was this little Moxy 
 Stradling, of good Newton family, and twelve years 
 old at that time. She made me swear on the blade 
 of my knife never to have any one but her ; and 
 really I looked forward to it as almost beyond a 
 joke ; and her father had some money. 
 
 " Who's there at this time of night ? " cried Moxy 
 Thomas, sharply, and in Welsh of course, although 
 she had some English ; " pull the latch, if you be 
 honest, Evan Black is in the house." 
 
 By the tone of her voice I knew that this last was 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 a fib of fright, and glad I was to know it so. Much 
 the better chance was left me of disposing Bardie 
 somewhere, where she might be comfortable. 
 
 Soon as Mrs Thomas saw us by the light of a home- 
 made dip, she scarcely stopped to stare before she 
 wanted the child out of my arms, and was ready to 
 devour it, guessing that it came from sea, and talking 
 all the while, full gallop, as women find the way to 
 do. I was expecting fifty questions, and, no doubt, 
 she asked them, yet seemed to answer them all her- 
 self, and be vexed with me for talking, yet to want 
 me to go on. 
 
 " Moxy, now be quick," I said ; " this little thing 
 from out the sea " 
 
 " Quick is it ? Quick indeed ! Much quick you 
 are, old Dyo ! " she replied in English. " The darling 
 dear, the pretty love ! " for the child had spread its 
 hands to her, being taken with a woman's dress. 
 " Give her to me, clumsy Davy. Is it that way you 
 do carry her ? " 
 
 " Old Davy tarry me aye nicely, I tell 'a. Old Davy 
 good and kind ; and I 'ont have him called kumsy." 
 
 So spake up my two-year-old, astonishing me (as 
 she always has done) by her wonderful cleverness, 
 and surprising Moxy Thomas that such clear good 
 words should come from so small a creature.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 5 1 
 
 " My goodness me ! you little vixen ! wherever 
 did you come from? Bring her in yourself, then, 
 Dyo, if she thinks so much of you. Let me feel her. 
 Not wet she is. Wlierever did you get her ? Put 
 her on this little stool, and let her warm them mites 
 of feet till I go for bread and butter." 
 
 Although the weather was so hot, a fire of coal 
 and driftwood was burning in the great chimney- 
 place, for cooking of black Evan's supper ; because 
 he was an outrageous man to eat, whenever he was 
 drunk, which (as a doctor told me once) shows the 
 finest of all constitutions. 
 
 But truly there was nothing else of life, or cheer, 
 or comfort, in the great sad stony room. A floor of 
 stone, six gloomy doorways, and a black-beamed ceil- 
 ing — no wonder that my little darling cowered back 
 into my arms, and put both hands before her eyes. 
 
 " No, no, no ! " she said. " Bardie doesn't 'ike it. 
 When mama come, she be very angy with 'a, old 
 Davy." 
 
 I felt myself bound to do exactly as Mrs Thomas 
 ordered me, and so I carried Miss Finical to the 
 three-legged stool of firwood which had been pointed 
 out to me ; and having a crick in my back for a 
 moment after bearing her so far, down I set her 
 upon her own legs, which, although so neat and 
 
 uMVERs\rf or
 
 52 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 pretty, were uncommonly steadfast. To my astonish- 
 ment, off she started (before I conld fetch myself to 
 think) over the rough stone flags of the hall, trotting 
 on her toes entirely, for the very life of her. Before 
 I could guess what she was up to, she had pounced 
 upon an old kitchen-towel, newly washed, but full of 
 splinters, hanging on a three-legged horse, and back 
 she ran in triumph with it — for none could say that 
 she toddled — and with a want of breath, and yet a 
 vigour that made up for it, began to rub with all her 
 power, as well as a highly skilful turn, the tox^ of 
 that blessed three-legged stool, and some way down 
 the sides of it. 
 
 "What's the matter, my dear?" I asked, almost 
 losing my mind at this, after all her other 
 wonders. 
 
 " Dirt," she replied ; " degustin' dirt ! " never 
 stopping to look up at me. 
 
 " What odds for a little dirt, when a little soul is 
 hungry ? " 
 
 " Bardie a boofley kean gal, and this 'tool degus- 
 tin' cochong !" was all the reply she vouchsafed me; 
 but I saw that she thought less of me. However, I 
 was glad enough that Moxy did not hear her, for 
 Mrs Thomas had no unreasonable ill-will towards 
 dirt, but rather liked it in its place ; and with her
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 53 
 
 its place was everywhere. But I, being used to see 
 every cranny searched and scoured with holystone, 
 blest, moreover, when ashore, with a wife like Aniphi- 
 trite (who used to come aboard of us), could thor- 
 oughly enter into the cleanliness of this Bardie, and 
 thought more of her accordingly. 
 
 While this little trot was working, in the purest 
 ignorance of father and of mother, yet perhaps in 
 her tiny mind hoping to have pleased them both, 
 back came Mrs Thomas, bringing all the best she 
 had of comfort and of cheer for us, although not 
 much to speak of. 
 
 I took a little hoUands hot, on purpose to oblige 
 her, because she had no rum ; and the little baby 
 had some milk and rabbit-gravy, being set up in a 
 blanket, and made the most we could make of her. 
 And she ate a truly beautiful supper, sitting gravely 
 on the stool, and putting both hands to her mouth in 
 fear of losing anything. All the boys were gone to 
 bed after a long day's rabbiting, and Evan Black 
 still on the spree ; so that I was very pleasant 
 (knowing my boat to be quite safe) toward my 
 ancient sweetheart. And we got upon the old times 
 so much, in a pleasing, innocent, teasing way, that 
 but for fear of that vile black Evan we might have 
 forgotten poor Bardie.
 
 54 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BOAT VERSUS BARDIE. 
 
 Glad as I was, for the poor child's sake, that 
 hlack Evan happened to be from home, I had per- 
 haps some reason also to rejoice on my own account. 
 Tor if anything of any kind could ever be foretold 
 about that most uncertain fellow's conduct, it was 
 that when in his cups he would fight — with cause, if 
 he could find any ; otherwise, wdthout it. 
 
 And in the present case, perhaps, was some little 
 cause for fighting ; touching (as he no doubt would 
 think) not only his marital but manorial rights of 
 plunder. Of course, between Moxy and myself all 
 was purely harmless, each being thankful to have 
 no more than a pleasant eye for the other ; and of 
 course, in really serious ways, I had done no harm 
 to him ; that boat never being his, except by down- 
 right piracy. Nevertheless few men there are who 
 look at things from what I may call a large and open
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 55 
 
 standing-place ; and Evan might even go so far as to 
 think that I did him a double wrong, in taking that 
 which was his, the boat, and leaving that which 
 should have been mine — to wit, the little maiden — 
 as a helpless burden upon his hands, without so much 
 as a change of clothes ; and all this after a great day's 
 sport among his rocks, without his permission ! 
 
 Feehng how hopeless it would be to reason these 
 matters out with him, especially as he was sure to 
 be drunk, I was glad enough to say " Good-night" to 
 my new young pet, now fast asleep, and to slip off 
 quietly to sea with my little frigate and its freight, 
 indulging also my natural pride at being, for the first 
 time in my life, a legitimate shipowner and indepen- 
 dent deep-sea fisherman. By this time the tide was 
 turned, of course, and running strong against me as 
 I laid her head for Newton Bay by the light of the 
 full moon ; and proud I was, without mistake, to 
 find how fast I could send my little crank barky 
 against the current, having been a fine oarsman in 
 my day, and always stroke of the captain's gig. 
 
 But as one who was well acquainted with the 
 great dearth of honesty (not in our own parish only, 
 but for many miles around), I could not see my way 
 to the public ownership of this boat, without a deal 
 of trouble and vexation. Happening so that I did
 
 56 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 not "buy it, "being thoroughly void of money (which 
 was too notorious, especially after two funerals con- 
 ducted to everybody's satisfaction), big rogues would 
 declare at once, judging me by themselves perhaps, 
 that I had been and stolen it. And likely enough, 
 to the back of this, they would lay me half-a-dozen 
 murders and a wholesale piracy. 
 
 Now I have by nature the very strongest affection 
 for truth that can be reconciled with a good man's 
 love of reason. But sometimes it happens so that 
 we must do violence to ourselves for the sake of our 
 fellow-creatures. If these, upon occasion offered, are 
 only too sure to turn away and reject the truth with 
 a strong disgust, surely it is dead against the high 
 and pure duty we owe them, to saddle them with 
 such a heavy and deep responsibility. And to take 
 still loftier views of the charity and kindness needful 
 towards our fellow-beings — when they hanker for a 
 thing, as they do nearly always for a lie, and have 
 set their hearts upon it, how selfish it must be, and 
 inhuman, not to let them have it ! Otherwise, like 
 a female in a delicate condition, to what extent of 
 injury may we not expose them ? Now saUors have 
 a way of telling great facts of imagination in the 
 most straightforward and simple manner, being so 
 convinced themselves that they care not a rope's end
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 57 
 
 who besides is convinced, and who is not. And to 
 make other people believe, the way is not to want 
 them to do it ; only the man must himself believe, 
 and be above all reasoning. 
 
 And I was beginning to believe more and more as 
 I went on, and the importance of it grew clearer, all 
 about that ill-fated ship of which I had been think- 
 ing ever since the boat came in. Twelve years ago, 
 as nearly as need be, and in the height of summer — 
 namely, on the 3d of June 1770 — a large ship called 
 the ' Planter's Welvard,' bound from Surinam to the 
 Port of Amsterdam, had been lost and swallowed up 
 near this very dangerous place. Three poor children 
 of the planter (whose name was J. S. Jackert), on 
 their way home to be educated, had floated ashore, 
 or at least their bodies, and are now in Newton 
 churchyard. The same must have been the fate of 
 Bardie but for the accident of that boat. And thoush 
 she was not a Dutchman's child, so far as one could 
 guess, from her wonderful power of English, and no 
 sign of Dutch build about her, she might very well 
 have been in a Dutch ship with her father and 
 mother, and little brothei* and Susan, in the best 
 cabin. It was well known among us that Dutch 
 vessels lay generally northward of their true course, 
 and from the likeness of the soundings often came
 
 S8 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Up the Bristol instead of the English Channel ; and 
 that this mistake (which the set of the stream would 
 increase) generally proved fatal to them in the 
 absence of any lighthouse. 
 
 That some ship or other had been lost, was to ray 
 mind out of aU dispute, although the weather had 
 been so lovely ; but why it must have been a Dutch 
 rather than an English ship, and why I need so very 
 plainly have seen the whole of it myself (as by this 
 time I began to believe that I had done), is almost 
 more than I can tell, except that I hoped it might be 
 so, as giving me more thorough warrant in the pos- 
 session of my prize. This boat, moreover, seemed to 
 be of foreign build, so far as I could judge of it by 
 moonlight : but of that hereafter. 
 
 The wonder is that I could judge of anything at 
 all, I think, after the long and hard day's work, for 
 a man not so young as he used to be. And rocks 
 are most confusing things to be among for a length 
 of time, and away from one's fellow-creatures, and 
 nothing substantial on the stomach. They do so 
 darken and jag and quiver, and hang over heavily as 
 a man wanders under them, with never a man to 
 speak to ; and then the sands have such a way of 
 shaking, and of shivering, and changing colour be- 
 neath the foot, and shining in and out with patterns
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 59 
 
 coming all astray to you ! When to these contrary 
 vagaries you begin to add the loose unprincipled 
 curve of waves, and the up and down of light around 
 you, and to and fro of sea-breezes, and startling noise 
 of sea-fowl, and a world of other confusions, with 
 roar of the deep confounding them — it becomes a 
 bitter point to judge a man of what he saw, and what 
 he thinks he must have seen. 
 
 It is beneath me to go on with what might seem 
 excuses. Enough that I felt myself in the right; 
 and what more can any man do, if you please, how- 
 ever perfect he may be ? Therefore I stowed away 
 my boat (well earned both by mind and body) snugly 
 enough to defy, for the present, even the sharp eyes 
 of Sandy Macraw, under Newton Point, where no 
 one ever went but myself Some of my fish I put to 
 freshen in a solid mass of bladder-weed, and some I 
 took home for the morning, and a stroke of business 
 after church. And if any man in the world deserved 
 a downright piece of good rest that night, with weary 
 limbs and soft conscience, you will own it was Davy 
 Llewellyn. 
 
 Sunday morning I lay abed, with Bunny tugging 
 very hard to get me up for breakfast, until it was 
 almost eight o'clock, and my grandchild in a bitter 
 strait of hunger for the things she smelled. After
 
 60 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 satisfying her, and scoring at the " Jolly Sailors " 
 three fine bass against my shot, what did I do but go 
 to church with all my topmost togs on ? And that 
 not from respect alone for the parson, who was a 
 customer, nor even that Colonel Lougher of Candle- 
 ston Court might see me, and feel inclined to dis- 
 charge me as an exemplary Churchman (when next 
 brought up before him). These things weighed with 
 me a little, it is useless to deny ; but my main desire 
 was that the parish should see me there, and know 
 that I was not abroad on a long-shore expedition, but 
 was ready to hold up my head on a Sunday with the 
 best of them, as I always had done. 
 
 At one time, while I ate my breakfast, I had some 
 idea perhaps that it would be more pious almost, and 
 create a stronger belief in me, as well as ease my 
 own penitence with more relief of groaning, if I were 
 to appear in the chapel of the Primitive Christians, 
 after certain fish were gutted. But partly the fear 
 of their singing noise (unsuitable to my head that 
 morning after the hollands at Sker-house), and partly 
 my sense that after all it was but forecastle work 
 there, while the church was quarterdeck, and most 
 of all the circumstance that no magistrate ever went 
 there, led me, on the whole, to give the preference to 
 the old concern, supported so bravely by royalty.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 6 1 
 
 Accordingly to church I went, and did a tidy stroke 
 of business, both before and after service, in the way 
 of lobsters. 
 
 We made a beautiful dinner that day, Bunny and 
 I, and mother Jones, who was good enough to join 
 us ; and after slipping down to see how my boat lay 
 for the tide, and finding her as right as could be, it 
 came into my head that haply it would be a nice 
 attention, as well as ease my mind upon some things 
 that were running in it, if only I couid pluck up 
 spirit to defy the heat of the day, and challenge my 
 own weariness by walking over to Sker-Manor. For 
 of course the whole of Monday, and perhaps of Tues- 
 day too, and even some part of Wednesday (with 
 people not too particular), must be occupied in sell- 
 ing my great catch of Saturday : so I resolved to go 
 and see how the little visitor was getting on, and to 
 talk with her. For though, in her weariness and 
 wandering of the night before, she did not seem to 
 remember much, as was natural at her tender age, 
 who could tell what might have come to her memory 
 by this time, especially as she was so clever ? And 
 it might be a somewhat awkward thing if the adven- 
 tures which I felt really" must have befallen her 
 should happen to be contradicted by her own remem- 
 brance : for all I wanted was the truth ; and if her
 
 62' THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 truths contradicted mine, why, mine must be squared 
 off to meet them; for great is truth, and shall 
 prevail. 
 
 I thought it as well to take Bunny with me, for 
 children have a remarkable knack of talking to one 
 another, which they will not use to grown people ; 
 also the walk across the sands is an excellent thing 
 for young legs, we say, being apt to crack the skin 
 a little, and so enabling them to grow. A strong and 
 hearty child was Bunny, fit to be rated A.B., almost, 
 as behoved a fine sailor's daughter. And as proud 
 as you could wish to see, and never willing to give 
 in ; so I promised myself some little sport in watch- 
 ing our Bunny's weariness, as the sand grew deeper, 
 and yet her pride to the last declaring that I should 
 not carry her. 
 
 But here I reckoned quite amiss, for the power of 
 the heat was such — being the very hottest day I 
 ever knew out of the tropics, and the great ridge of 
 sandhills shutting us off from any sight of the water 
 — that my little grandchild scarcely plodded a mile 
 ere I had to carry her. And this was such a heavy 
 job among the deep dry mounds of sand, that for a 
 time I repented much of the over-caution \vhich had 
 stopped me from using my beautiful new boat at 
 once, to paddle down with the ebb to Sker, and come
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 63 
 
 home gently afterwards with the flow of the tide 
 towards evening. Nevertheless, as matters proved, 
 it was wiser to risk the broiling. 
 
 This heat was not of the sun alone (such as we get 
 any summer's day, and such as we had yesterday), 
 but thickened heat from the clouds themselves, shed- 
 ding it down like a burning-glass, and weltering all 
 over us. It was, though I scarcely knew it then, the 
 summing-up and crowning period of whole weeks of 
 heat and drought, and indeed of the hottest summer 
 known for at least a generation. And in the hollows 
 of yellow sand, without a breath of air to stir, or a 
 drop of moisture, or a firm place for the foot, but a 
 red and fiery haze to go through, it was all a man 
 could do to keep himself from staggering. 
 
 Hence it was close upon three o'clock, by the place 
 the sun was in, when Bunny and I came in sight of 
 Sker-house, and hoped to find some water there. 
 Beer, of course, I would rather have ; but never w^as 
 there a chance of that within reach of Evan Thomas. 
 And I tried to think this all the better ; for half a 
 gallon would not have gone any distance with me, 
 after ploughing so long through sand, with the heavy 
 weight of Bunny, upon a day like that. Only I hoped 
 that my dear little grandchild might find something 
 fit for her, and such as to set her up again ; for never
 
 64 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 before had I seen her, high and strong as her spirit 
 was, so overcome by the power and pressure of the 
 air above us. She lay in my arms almost as helpless 
 as little Bardie, three years younger, had lain the 
 night before ; and knowing how children will go off 
 without a man's expecting it, I was very uneasy, 
 though aware of her constitution. So in the heat I 
 chirped and whistled, though ready to drop myself 
 almost ; and coming in sight of the house, I tried my 
 best to set her up again, finding half of her clothes 
 gone down her back, and a great part of her fat legs 
 somehow sinking into her Sunday shoes.
 
 65 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHILDREN WILL BE CHILDREN. 
 
 The "boys of Sker," as we always called those 
 rough fellows over at Newton, were rabbiting in the 
 warren ; according to their usual practice, on a Sunday 
 afternoon. A loose unseemly lot of lads, from fifteen 
 up to two- and- twenty years of age, perhaps, and very 
 little to choose between them as to work and .charac- 
 ter. All, however, were known to be first-rate hands 
 at any kind of sporting, or of poaching, or of any 
 roving pleasure. 
 
 Watkin, the sixth and youngest boy, was of a 
 different nature. His brothers always cast him off, 
 and treated him with a high contempt, yet never 
 could despise him. In their rough way, they could 
 hardly help a sulky sort of love for him. 
 
 The seventh and last child had been a girl — a sweet 
 little creature as could be seen, and taking after Wat- 
 Icin. But she had something on her throat from six 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 66 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 months up to six years old ; and when she died, some 
 three months back, people who had been in the house 
 said that her mother would sooner have lost all the 
 boys put together, if you left Watkin out of them. 
 How that was I cannot say, and prefer to avoid those 
 subjects. But I know that poor black Evan swore 
 no oath worth speaking of for one great market and 
 two small ones, but seemed brought down to sit by 
 himself, drinking quietly all day long. 
 
 When we came to the ancient hall (or kitchen, as 
 now they called it), for a moment I was vexed — ex- 
 pecting more of a rush, perhaps, than I was entitled 
 to. Knowing how much that young child owed me 
 for her preservation, and feeling how fond I was of 
 her, what did I look for but wild delight at seeing 
 "old Davy" back again? However, it seems, she 
 had taken up with another and forgotten me. 
 
 Watkin, the youngest boy of Sker, was an innocent 
 good little fellow, about twelve years old at that time. 
 Bardie had found this out already ; as quickly as she 
 found out my goodness, even by the moonlight. She 
 had taken the lead upon Watkin, and was laying 
 down the law to him, upon a question of deep im- 
 portance, about the manner of dancing. I could 
 dance a hornpipe with anybody, and forward I came 
 to listen.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 6/ 
 
 " Xo, no, no ! I tell 'a. 'E mustn't do like that, 
 Yatkin. 'E must go yound and yound like this ; and 
 'e must hold 'a cothes out, same as I does. Gardy 
 Ik ! 'E must hold 'a cothes out all the time, 'e must." 
 
 The little atom, all the time she delivered these 
 injunctions, was holding out her tiny frock in the 
 daintiest manner, and trijDping sideways here and 
 there, and turning round quite upon tiptoe, with her 
 childish figure poised, and her chin thrown forward ; 
 and then she would give a good hard jump, but all to 
 the tune of the brass jew's-harp which the boy was 
 playing for his very life. And all the while she was 
 doing this, the amount of energy and expression in 
 her face was wonderful. You would have thought 
 there was nothing else in all the world that required 
 doing with such zeal and abandonment. Presently 
 the boy stopped for a moment, and she came and 
 took the knee of his trousers, and put it to her pretty 
 lips with the most ardent gratitude. 
 
 " She must be a foreigner," said I to myself : • " no 
 British child could dance like that, and talk so ; and 
 no British child ever shows gratitude." 
 
 As they had not espied us yet, where we stood in 
 the passage-comer, I drew Bunny backward, and 
 found her all of a tremble with eagerness to go and 
 help.
 
 68 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 " More pay," said little missy, with a coaxing look ; 
 " more pay, Yatkin ! " 
 
 " No, no. You must say ' more play, please, Wat- 
 kin.'" 
 
 " See voo pay, Yatkin ; I 'ants — more pay ! " The 
 funny thing laughed at herself while saying it, as if 
 with some comic inner sense of her own insatiability 
 in the matter of play. 
 
 " But how do you expect me to play the music," 
 asked Watkin, very reasonably, "if I am tohold my 
 clothes out all the time ? " 
 
 " Can't 'a ? " she replied, looking up at him with 
 the deepest disappointment ; "can't 'a pay and dance 
 too, Yatkin? I thought 'a could do anything. I 
 'ants to go to my dear mama and papa and ickle 
 bother." 
 
 Here she began to set up a very lamentable cry, 
 and Watkin in vain tried to comfort her, till, hearing 
 us, she broke from him. 
 
 "Nare's my dear mama, nare's my dear mama 
 coming ! " she exclaimed, as she trotted full speed 
 to the door. " Mama ! mama ! here I is. And 'e 
 mustn't scold poor Susan." 
 
 It is out of my power to describe how her little 
 flushed countenance fell when she saw only me and 
 Bunny. She drew back suddenly, with the bright-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 69 
 
 ness fading out of her eager eyes, and the tears that 
 were in them began to roll, and her bits of hands 
 went up to her forehead, as if she had lost herself, 
 and the corners of her mouth came down ; and then 
 with a sob she turned away, and with quivering 
 shoulders hid herself I scarcely knew what to do 
 for the best ; but our Bunny was very good to her, 
 even better than could have been hoped, although 
 she came of a kindly race. "Without standing upon 
 ceremony, as many children would have done, up she 
 ran to the motherless stranger, and, kneeling down 
 on the floor, contrived to make her turn and look at 
 her. Then Bunny pulled out her new handkerchief, 
 of which she was proud, I can tell you, being the first 
 she had ever owned, made from the soundest corner 
 of mother Jones's old window-blind, and only allowed 
 with a Sunday frock; and although she had too 
 much respect for this to wet it with anything herself, 
 she never for a moment grudged to wipe poor Bardie's 
 eyes with it. Nay, she even permitted her — which 
 was much more for a child to do — to take it into her 
 own two hands and rub away at her eyes with it. 
 
 Gradually she coaxed her out of the cupboard of 
 her refuge, and sitting in some posture known to 
 none but women children, without a stool to help 
 her, she got the little one on her lap, and stroked at
 
 70 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 her, and murmured to her, as if she had found a 
 favourite doll in the depth of trouble. Upon the 
 whole, I was so pleased that I vowed to myself I 
 would give my Bunny the very brightest halfpenny 
 I should earn upon the morrow. 
 
 Meanwhile, the baby of higher birth — as a glance 
 was enough to show her — began to relax and come 
 down a little, both from her dignity and her woe. 
 She looked at Bunny with a gleam of humour, to 
 which her wet eyes gave effect. 
 
 " 'E call that a ponkey-hankerchy ? Does 'a call 
 that a ponkey-hankerchy ? " 
 
 Bunny was so overpowered by this, after all that 
 she had done, and at the air of pity wherewith her 
 proud ornament was flung on the floor, that she 
 could only look at me as if I had cheated her about 
 it. And truly I had seen no need to tell her about 
 mother Jones and her blind. Then these little ones 
 got up, having sense of a natural discordance of rank 
 between them, and Bunny no longer wiped the eyes 
 of Bardie, nor Bardie wept in the arms of Bunny. 
 They put their little hands behind them, and stood 
 apart to think a bit, and watched each other shyly. 
 To see them move their mouths and fingers, and peep 
 from the corners of their eyes, was as good as almost 
 any play without a hornpipe in it. It made no
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 7 1 
 
 difference however. Very soon they came to settle 
 it between them. The low-born Bunny looked down 
 upon Bardie for being so much smaller, and the high- 
 born Bardie looked down upon Bunny for being so 
 much coarser. But neither was able to tell the 
 other at all what her opinion was ; and so, without 
 any further trouble, they became very excellent 
 playmates. 
 
 Doing my best to make them friends, I seized the 
 little stranger, and gave her several good tosses-up, 
 as well as tickles between them ; and this was more . 
 than she could resist, being, as her nature shows, 
 thoroughly fond of any kind of pleasure and amuse- 
 ment. She laughed, and she flung out her arms, 
 and every time slie made such jumps as to go up 
 like a feather. Pretty soon I saw, however, that 
 this had gone on too long for Bunny. She put her 
 poor handkerchief out of sight, and then some fingers 
 into her mouth, and she looked as black as a dog in 
 a kennel. But Bardie showed good-nature now, for 
 she ran up to Bunny and took her hand and led her 
 to me, and said very nicely, " Give this ickle gal 
 some, old Davy. She haven't had no pay at all. 
 Oh, hot boofley buckens oo's got ! JoUy, jolly ! Keel 
 song grand ! " 
 
 This admiration of my buttons — which truly were
 
 72 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 very handsome, being on my regulation-coat, and as 
 good as gilt almost, with " Minotaur " (a kiad of 
 grampus, as they say) done round them — this appre- 
 ciation of the navy made me more and more perceive 
 what a dear child was come ashore to us, and that 
 we ought to look alive to make something out of her. 
 If she had any friends remaining (and they could 
 scarcely have all been drowned), being, as she clearly 
 was, of a high and therefore rich family, it might be 
 worth ten times as much as even my boat had been 
 to me, to keep her safe and restore her in a fat state 
 when demanded. With that I made up my mind to 
 take her home with me that very night, especially as 
 Bunny seemed to have set up a wonderful fancy to 
 her. But man sees single, God sees double, as our 
 saying is, and her bits of French made me afraid 
 that she might after all be a beggar. 
 
 " Now go and play, like two little dears, and re- 
 member whose day it is," I said to them both, for 
 I felt the duty of keeping my grandchild up to the 
 mark on all religious questions ; " and be sure you 
 don't go near the well, nor out of sight of the house 
 at all, nor pull the tails of the chickens out, nor 
 throw stones at the piggy-wiggy," for I knew what 
 Bunny's tricks were. " And now, AYatty, my boy, 
 come and talk to me, and perhaps I will give you a
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 73 
 
 jimeating apple from my own tree under the 
 Clevice." 
 
 Although the heat was tremendous now (even in- 
 side those three-feet walls), the little things did as I 
 hade them. And I made the most of this occasion 
 to have a talk with Watkin, who told me every- 
 thing he knew. His mother had not heen down 
 since dinner, which they always got anyhow ; he- 
 cause his father, who had heen poorly for some days, 
 and feverish, and forced to lie in hed a little, came 
 to the top of the stairs, and called, requiring some 
 attendance. "What this meant I knew as well as if 
 I had seen black Evan there, parched with thirst 
 and with great eyes rolling after helpless drunken- 
 ness, and roaring, with his night-clothes on, for a 
 quart of fresh-drawn ale. 
 
 But about the shipwrecked child "Watty knew 
 scarce anything. He had found her in his bed that 
 morning — Moxy, no doubt, having been hard pushed 
 (with her husband in that state) what to do. And 
 knowing how kind young Watty was, she had quar- 
 tered the baby upon him. But "Watkin, though gif- 
 ted with pretty good English (or " Sassenach," as we 
 call it) beyond all the rest of his family, could not 
 follow the little creature in her manner of talking ; 
 •which indeed, as I found thereafter, nobody in the
 
 74 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 parish could do except myself, and an English- 
 woman whose word was not worth takinc. 
 
 " Indeed and indeed then, Mr Llewellyn," he went 
 on in English, having an evident desire to improve 
 himself by discourse with me, " I did try, and I did 
 try ; and my mother, she try too. Times and times, 
 for sure we tried. But no use was the whole of it. 
 She only shakes her head, and thinks with all her 
 might, as you may say. And then she says, ' No ! 
 I'se not hot you says. I'se two years old, and I'se 
 Bardie. And my papa he be very angy if 'e goes 
 on so with me. My mama yoves me, and I yove 
 her, and papa, and ickle brother, and every^body. 
 But not the naughty bad man, I doesn't.' That isn't 
 true English now, I don't think ; is it then, Mr 
 Llewellyn ? " 
 
 "Certainly not," I answered, seeing that my char- 
 acter for good English was at stake. 
 
 " And mother say she know well enough the baby 
 must be a foreigner. On her dress it is to show it. 
 No name, as the Christians put, but marks without 
 any meaning. And of clothes so few upon her till 
 mother go to the old cupboard. Eich people mother 
 do say they must be ; but dead by this time, she 
 make no doubt." 
 
 "Boy," I replied, "your mother, I fear, is right in
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 75 
 
 that particular. To me it is a subject of anxiety 
 and sorrow. And I know perhaps more about it 
 than any one else can jDretend to do." 
 
 The boy looked at me with wonder and eagerness 
 about it. But I gave him a look, as much as to say, 
 "Ask no more at present." However, he was so full 
 of her that he could not keep from talking. 
 
 " We asked who the naughty bad man was, but 
 she was afraid at that, and went all round the room 
 with her eyes, and hid under mother's apron. And 
 dreadful she cried at breakfast about her mama and 
 her own spoon. To my heart I feel the pain when 
 she does cry ; I know I do. And then of a sudden 
 she is laughing, and no reason for it ! I never did 
 see such a baby before. Do you think so, ]\Ir 
 Llewellyn ? "
 
 ye 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SAND-HILLS TURNED TO SAND-HOLES. 
 
 While I was talking thus with the boy, and expect- 
 ing his mother every minute (with hope of a little 
 refreshment when the farmer should have dropped off 
 into his usual Sunday sleep), a very strange thing 
 began more and more to force itself on my attention. 
 I have said that the hall of this desolate house was 
 large and long, and had six doorways — narrow 
 arches of heavy stone, without a door to any of them. 
 Three of these arches were at the west and three at 
 the east end of the room, and on the south were two 
 old windows, each in a separate gable, high up from 
 the floor, and dark with stone -work and with lead- 
 work ; and in the calmest weather these would draw 
 the air and make a rattle. At the north side of the 
 hall was nothing but dead wall, and fireplace, and 
 cupboards, and the broad oak staircase. Having 
 used the freedom to light a pipe, I sate with my face
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. "JJ 
 
 to the chimney-corner, where some wood-ashes were 
 smouldering, after the dinner was done with ; and 
 sitting thus, I became aware of a presence of some 
 sort over my right shoulder. At first I thought it 
 was nothing more than the smoke from my own pipe, 
 for I puffed rather hard, in anxiety about that little 
 darling. But seeing surprise, and alarm perhaps, in 
 "Watkin's face, who sate opposite, I turned round, and 
 there beheld three distinct and several pillars of a 
 brownish-yellow light standing over against the 
 doorways of the western end. 
 
 At first I was a little scared, and the more so 
 because the rest of the hall was darkening with a 
 pulse of colour gradually vanishing ; and for an 
 instant I really thought that the ghosts of the 
 wrecked child's father and mother, and perhaps her 
 nurse, were come to declare the truth about her, and 
 challenge me for my hesitation. But presently I 
 called to mind how many strange things had befallen 
 me, both at sea and on the coast, in the way of feel- 
 ing and vision too, designed, however, by the Power 
 that sends them, more to forewarn than frighten 
 us, and, as we get used to them, to amuse or edify. 
 
 Therefore I plucked my spirit up and approached 
 this odd appearance, and found that no part of it was 
 visible upon the spot where it seemed to stand. But
 
 yS THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Watldu, who was mucli emboldened by my dauntless 
 carriage, called out in Welsh that he could see me 
 walking in and out of them, like so many haystacks. 
 Upon this I took yet further courage, having a 
 witness so close at hand, and nothing seeming to hurt 
 me. So what did I do but go outside, without any 
 motion of running away, but to face the thing to its 
 utmost ; and AVatkin, keeping along the wall, took 
 o-ood care to come after me. 
 
 Here 1 discovered in half a second that I had been 
 wise as well as strong in meeting the matter valiantly; 
 for what we had seen was but the glancing — or 
 reflection, as they call it now — of what was being 
 done outside. In a word, the thick and stifling heat 
 of the day (which had gathered to a head the glaring 
 and blazing power of the last two months of hot 
 summer) was just beginning to burst abroad in whirl- 
 wind, hail, and thunder. All the upper heaven was 
 covered with a spread of burning yellow; all the 
 half-way sky was red as blood with fibres under it, 
 and all the sides and margin looked as black as the 
 new-tarred bends of a ship. But what threw me 
 most astray was, that the whole was whirling, tossing 
 upward jets of darkness, as a juggler flings his balls, 
 yet at one time spinning round, and at the same time 
 scowling down.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 79 
 
 " It is a hurricane," said I, having seen some in the 
 "West Indies which began like this. Watkin knew 
 not much of my meaning, but caught hold of my coat, 
 and stood. And in truth it was enough to make not 
 only a slip of a boy, but a veteran sailor, stand and 
 fear. 
 
 Not a flash of lightning yet broke the expectation 
 of it, nor had been a drop of rain. But to my sur- 
 prise, and showing how little we know of anything, 
 over the high land broke a sand-storm, such as they 
 have in Africa. It had been brewing some time, 
 most likely in the Kenfig burrows, toward the west- 
 ward and the windward, although no wind was astir 
 with us. I thought of a dance of waterspouts, such 
 as we had twice encountered in the royal navy ; once, 
 I know, was after clearing the mouth of the Strait of 
 Malaccas ; where the other was I truly forget, having 
 had so much to go everywhere. But this time the 
 whirliug stuff was neither water, nor smoke, nor 
 cloud ; but sand, as plain as could be. It was just 
 like the parson's hour-glass— only going up, not 
 coming down, and quickly instead of slowly. And 
 of these funnels, spinning around, and coming near 
 and nearer, there may have been perhaps a dozen, or 
 there may have been threescore. They differed very 
 much in size, according to the breadth of whirlwind,
 
 80 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 and the stuff it fed upon, and the hole in the air it 
 bored ; but all alike had a tawny colour, and a man- 
 ner of bulking upward, and a loose uncertain edge, 
 often lashing off in frays ; and between them black 
 clouds galloped; and sometimes two fell into one, 
 and bodily broke downward ; then a pile (as big as 
 Newton Eock) rose in a moment anyhow. Hill or 
 valley made no odds ; sand-hill, or sand-bottom ; the 
 sand was in the place of the air, and the air itself 
 was sand. 
 
 Many people have asked me, over and over again 
 (because such a thing was scarcely known, except at 
 the great storm of sand four hundred years ago, they 
 say) — our people, ever so many times, assert their 
 privilege to ask me (now again especially) how many 
 of these pillars there were ! I wish to tell the truth 
 exactly, having no interest in the matter — and if I 
 had, no other matter would it be to me ; and after 
 going into my memory deeper than ever I could have 
 expected there would be occasion for, all I can say is 
 this — legion was their number ; because they were all 
 coming down upon me ; and how could I stop to 
 count them ? 
 
 Watkiu lost his mind a little, and asked me (with 
 his head gone under my regulation-coat) if I thought 
 it was the judgment-day.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 8 1 
 
 To this question I " replied distinctly in tlie nega- 
 tive " (as the man of the paper wrote, when I said 
 " no " about poaching) ; and then I cheered young 
 Watkin up, and told liim that nothing more was 
 wanted than to keep a weather-helm. 
 
 Before his wit could answer helm so much as to 
 clear my meaning, the storm was on me, and broke 
 my pipe, and filled my lungs and all my pockets, and 
 spoiled every corner of the hat I had bought for my 
 dear wife's funeral. I pulled back instantly (almost 
 as quickly as boy Watkin could), and we heard the 
 sand burst over the house, with a rattle like shot, 
 and a roar like cannon. And being well inside the 
 walls, we fixed our eyes on one another, in the gloom 
 and murkiness, as much as we could do for coughing, 
 to be sure of something, 
 
 " Where is Bardie gone ? " I asked, as soon as my 
 lungs gave speech to me : it should have been, 
 " Where is Bunny gone ? " But my head was full of 
 the little one. 
 
 " Who can tell ? " cried the boy, in Welsh, being 
 thoroughly scared of his English. " Oh, Dyo dear, 
 God the great only knows." 
 
 " God will guard her," I said softly, yet without 
 pure faith in it, having seen such cruel things ; but 
 the boy's face moved me. Moreover, Bardie seemed 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 82 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 almost too full of life for quenching; and having 
 escaped rocks, waves, and quicksands, surely she 
 would never be wrecked upon dry land ignobly. 
 Nevertheless, at the mere idea of those helpless little 
 ones out in all this raging havoc, tears came to my 
 eyes, until the sand, of which the very house was 
 full, crusted up and blinded them. 
 
 It was time to leave off thinking, if one meant to 
 do any good. The whirlwinds spun and whistled 
 round us, now on this side, now on that ; and the old 
 house creaked and rattled as the weather pulled or 
 pushed at it. The sand was drifted in the courtyard 
 (without any special whirlwind) three feet deep in 
 the north-east corner; and the sky, from all sides, 
 fell upon us, like a mountain undermined. 
 
 " Boy, go in to your mother," I said ; and I thank 
 God for enabling me, else might she have been child- 
 less. " Tell your mother not to be frightened, but to 
 get your father up, and to have the kettle boiling." 
 
 " Oh, Dyo — dear Dyo ! let me come with you, after 
 that poor little child, and after my five brothers." 
 
 " Go in, you helpless fool," I said ; and he saw the 
 set of my countenance, and left me, though but half- 
 content. 
 
 It needed all my strength to draw the door of the 
 house behind me, although the wind was bent no more
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 83 
 
 on one way than another, but universal uproar. And 
 down-roar too ; for it fell on my head quite as much 
 as it jerked my legs, and took me ahack, and took 
 me in front, and spun me round, and laughed at me. 
 Then of a sudden all wind dropx^ed, and yellow sky 
 was over me. 
 
 What course to take (if I had the choice) in search 
 of those poor children, was more at first than I could 
 judge, or bring my mind to bear upon. For as sure 
 as we live by the breath of the Lord, the blast of His 
 anger deadens us. 
 
 Perhaps it was my instinct only, having been so 
 long afloat, which drove me, straight as affau's per- 
 mitted, toward the margin of the sea. And perhaps 
 I had some desire to know how the sea itself would 
 look under this strange visiting. Moreover, it may 
 have come across me, without any thinking twice of 
 it, that Bunny had an inborn trick of always run- 
 ning toward the sea, as behoved a sailor's daughter. 
 
 Anyhow, that way I took, so far as it was left to me 
 to know the points of the compass, or the shape and 
 manner of anything. For simple and short as the right 
 road was, no simpleton or shortwitted man could have 
 hit it, or come near it, in that ravenous weather. In 
 the whirl and grim distortion of the air and the very 
 earth, a man was walking (as you might say) in the
 
 84 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 depth of a perfect calm, ■with stifling heat upon him, 
 and a piece of shadow to know himself by ; and then, 
 the next moment, there he was in a furious state of 
 buffeting, baffled in front, and belaboured aback, and 
 bellowed at under the swing of his arms, and the 
 staggering failure of his poor legs. 
 
 Nevertheless, in the lull and the slack times, I 
 did my utmost to get on, having more presence of 
 mind perhaps than any landsman could have owned. 
 Poor fellows they are when it comes to blow ; and 
 what could they do in a whuiwind ? 
 
 As I began to think of them, and my luck in being 
 a seaman,'^my courage improved to that degree that 
 I was able quite heartily to commend niyself to the 
 power of God, whom, as a rule, I remember best when 
 the world seems coming to an end. And I think it 
 almost certain that this piety on my part enabled me 
 to get on as I did. 
 
 For without any skill at all or bravery of mine, but 
 only the calmness which fell upon me, as it used to 
 do in the heat of battle, when I thought on my 
 Maker, all at once I saw a way to elude a great deal 
 of the danger. This was as simple as could be, yet 
 never would have come home to a man unable to 
 keep his wits about him. 
 
 Blurred and slurred as the whole sky was with
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. ' 85 
 
 twisted stuff and with yellowness, I saw that the whir- 
 ling pillars of sand not only whirled but also travelled 
 in one spiral only. They all came from the west, 
 where lay the largest spread of sandhills, and they 
 danced away to the north-east first, and then away 
 to south of east, shaping a round like a ship with 
 her helm up, preserving their spiral from left to right 
 as all waterspouts do on the north of the Line. 
 
 So when a column of sand came nigh to suck me 
 up, or to bury me — although it went thirty miles an 
 hour, and I with the utmost scare of my life could 
 not have managed ten perhaps — by porting my helm 
 without carrying sail, and, so working a traverse, I 
 kept the weather-gage of it, and that made all the 
 difference. 
 
 Of course I was stung in the face and neck as bad 
 as a thousand musquitoes when the skirts of the 
 whirl flapped round at me, but what was that to care 
 about ? It gave me pleasure to walk in such peril, 
 and feel myself almost out of it by virtue of coolness 
 and readiness. Nevertheless it gave me far greater 
 pleasure, I can assure you, to feel hard ground 
 beneath my feet, and stagger along the solid pebbles 
 of the beach of Sker, where the sandstorm could not 
 come so much. 
 
 Hereupon I do believe that, in spite of all my
 
 86 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 courage — so stout and strong in the moment of trial 
 — all my power fell away before the sense of safety. 
 What could my old battered life matter to any one 
 in the world, except myself and Bunny ? However, 
 I was so truly thankful to kind Providence for pre- 
 serving it, that I cannot have given less than nine 
 jumps, and said, " Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John," 
 three times over, and in both ways. 
 
 This brought me back to the world again, as any 
 power of piety always does when I dwell therein, 
 and it drove me thereupon to trust in Providence no 
 longer than the time was needful for me to recover 
 breathing. 
 
 When I came to my breath and prudence, such a 
 fright at first oppressed me, that I made a start for 
 running into the foremost of the waves, thinking (if 
 I thought at all) of lying down there, with my head 
 kept up, and defying the sand to quench the sea. 
 
 Soon, however, I perceived that this was not advis- 
 able. Such a roar arose around me from the blows 
 of hills and rocks, and the fretful eagerness of the 
 sea to be at war again, and the deep sound of the 
 distance — the voice of man could travel less than 
 that of a sandpiper, and the foot of man might 
 long to be the foot of a sandhopper. For the sea 
 was rising fast up the verge of ground-sweU, and a
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 8/ 
 
 deep hoarse echo rolling down the shoaling of the 
 surges. This to me was pleasant music, such as 
 makes a man awake. 
 
 The colour of the sun and sky was just as I had 
 once beholden near the pearl-grounds of Ceylon, 
 where the bottom of the sea comes up with a very 
 mournful noise, and the fish sing dirges, and no 
 man, however clear of eye, can open the sea and the 
 sky asunder. And by this time being able to look 
 round a little — for the air was not so full of sand, 
 though still very thick and dusty — I knew that we 
 were on the brink of a kind of tornado, as they call 
 it in the tropics, — a storm that very seldom comes 
 into these northern latitudes, being raised by violence 
 of heat, as I have heard a surveyor say, the air going 
 upward rapidly, with a great hole left below it. 
 
 Now as I stood on watch, as it were, and, being in 
 such a situation, longed for more tobacco, what came 
 to pass was exactly this — so far as a man can be 
 exact when his wits have long been failing him. 
 
 The heaven opened, or rather seemed to be cloven 
 by a sword-sweep, and a solid mass of lightning fell, 
 with a cone like a red-hot anvil. The ring of black 
 rocks received its weight, and leaped like a boiling 
 caldron, while the stormy waters rose into a hiss and 
 heap of steam. Then the crash of heaven stunned me.
 
 88 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 When I came to myself it was raining as if it had 
 never rained before. The rage of sand and air was 
 beaten flat beneath the rain, and the fretful lifting of 
 the sea was hushed off into bubbles. What to do I 
 could not tell, in spite of all experience, but rubbed 
 the sand from both my eyes, as bad as the beard of 
 an oyster, and could see no clear way anywhere. 
 
 'Now the sky was spread and traversed with a net 
 of crossing fires, in and out like mesh and needle, 
 only without time to look. Some were yellow, some 
 deep red, and some like banks of violet, and others 
 of a pale sweet blue, like gazing through a window. 
 They might have been very beautiful, and agreeable 
 to consider, if they had been further off, and with- 
 out that wicked crack of thunder through the roar. 
 Worse storms I had seen, of course, in the hot world 
 and up mountains, and perhaps thought little of 
 them ; but then there was this difference, I had 
 always plenty of fellows with me, and it was not 
 Sunday. Also, I then was young, and trained for 
 cannons to be shot at me. Neither had I a boat of 
 my own, but my dear wife was alive. 
 
 These considerations moved me to be careful of 
 my life — a duty which increases on us after the turn 
 of the balance ; and seeing all things black behind
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 89 
 
 me, and a world of storm around, knowing every 
 hole as I did, with many commendations of myself 
 to God for the sake of Bunny, in I went into a hole 
 under a good solid rock, where I could watch the 
 sea, and care for nothing but an earthquake.
 
 90 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 UNDER THE ROCK. 
 
 For a while the power of the lightning seemed to 
 quench the wind almost, and one continuous roar of 
 thunder rang around the darkness. Then, with a 
 bellow, the wind sprang forth (like a wild bull out of 
 a mountain), and shattered the rain and drowned the 
 thunder, and was lord of everything. Under its 
 weight the flat sea quivered, and the crests flew into 
 foam, and the scourge upon the waters seemed to 
 beat them all together. The whirlwinds now were 
 past and done with, and a violent gale begun, and in 
 the burst and change of movement there appeared a 
 helpless ship. 
 
 She was bearing towards Pool Tavan, as poor 
 Bardie's boat had done, but without the summer 
 glory and the golden wealth of waves. All was 
 smooth and soft and gentle, as the moonlight in a 
 glass, when the little boat came gliding with its baby
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 9I 
 
 captain. All was rough and bard and furious as a 
 fight of devils, when that ship came staggering with 
 its load of sin and woe. And yet there had not been 
 so much as twenty-four hours between the two. 
 
 Not one of our little coasting vessels, but a full- 
 rigged ship she loomed, of foreign build, although at 
 present carrying no colours. I saw at once what her 
 business was, to bring from the West Indies sugar, 
 rum, and suchlike freight, to Bristol, or to the 
 Dutchmen. This was in her clearance-bill ; but be- 
 hind that she had other import not so clearly en- 
 tered. In a word, slie carried negroes from the over- 
 stocked plantations, not to be quite slaves (at least in 
 the opinion of their masters), but to be distributed, 
 for their own Christian benefit, at a certain sum per 
 head, among the Bristol or Dutch merchants, or 
 wherever it might be. And it serves them right, I 
 always say ; for the fuss that we now make about 
 those black men must bring down the anger of the 
 Creator, who made them black, upon us. 
 
 As the gale set to its work, and the sea arose in 
 earnest, and the lightning drifted off into the scud of 
 clouds, I saw, as plain as a pikestaff, that the ship 
 must come ashore, and go to pieces very likely, be- 
 fore one could say " Jack Eobiuson." She had been 
 on the Sker-weather sands already, and lost her
 
 92 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 rudder and some of her sternpost, as the lift of the 
 water showed; and now there was nothing left on 
 board her of courage or common seamanship. The 
 truth of it was, although of course I could not know 
 it then, that nearly all the ship's company acted as 
 was to be expected from a lot of foreigners ; that is 
 to say, if such they were. They took to the boats in 
 a kind of panic when first she struck among the 
 sands in the whirlwind which began the storm. 
 There could have been then no great sea running, 
 only quiet rollers ; and being but two miles off the 
 shore, they hoped, no doubt, to land well enough, 
 after leaving the stupid negroes and the helpless 
 passengers to the will of Providence. 
 
 However, before they had rowed a mile, with the 
 flood-tide making eastward, one of the boats was 
 struck by lightning, and the other caught in a whirl 
 vorago (as the Spaniards call it), and not a soul ever 
 came to land, and scarcely any bodies. Both these acci- 
 dents were seen from Porthcawl Point by Sandy 
 Macraw through a telescope : and much as he was 
 mine enemy, I do him the justice to believe it ; 
 partly because he could look for no money from any 
 lies in the matter, and still more because I have heard 
 that some people said that they saw him see it. 
 
 But to come back to this poor ship : the wind.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 93 
 
 though blowing madly enough (as a summer gale is 
 often hotter for a while than a winter one), had not 
 time and sweep as yet to raise any very big rollers. 
 The sea was sometimes beaten flat and then cast up 
 in hillocks ; but the mighty march of waters fetched 
 by a tempest from the Atlantic was not come, and 
 would not come in a veering storm like this. For it 
 takes a gale of at least three tides, such as we never 
 have in summer, to deliver the true buffet of the vast 
 Atlantic, 
 
 Nevertheless the sea was nasty and exceeding 
 vicious ; and the wind more madly wild, perhaps, 
 than when it has full time to blow ; in short, the 
 want of depth and power was made up by rage and 
 spite. And for a ship not thoroughly sound and 
 stanch in all her' timbers it had been better, perhaps, 
 to rise and fall upon long billows, with a chance of 
 casting high and dry, than to be twirled round and 
 plucked at, thrown on beam-ends, and taken aback, 
 as this hapless craft was being, in the lash of rocky 
 waters and the drift of gale and scud. 
 
 By this time she was close ashore, and not a man 
 (except myself) to help or even pity her. All around 
 her was wind and rocks, and a mad sea rushing under 
 her. The negroes, crouching in the scuppers, or 
 clinging to the masts and rails, or rolling over one
 
 94 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 another in their want of pluck and skill, seemed to 
 shed their blackness on the snowy spray and curdled 
 foam, like cuttle-fish in a lump of froth. Poor things ! 
 they are grieved to die as much, perhaps, as any white 
 man ; and my heart was overcome, in spite of all I 
 know of them. 
 
 The ship had no canvas left, except some tatters of 
 the foretopsail, and a piece of the main-royals ; but 
 she drifted broadside on, I daresay five or six knots 
 an hour. She drew too much water, unluckily, to 
 come into Pool Tavan at that time of the tide, even if 
 the mouth had been wide enough ; but crash she 
 went on a ledge of rocks thoroughly well known to 
 me, every shelf of which was a razor. Half a cable's 
 length below the entrance to Pool Tavan, it had the 
 finest steps and stairs for congers and for lobsters, 
 whenever one could get at it in a low spring-tide ; 
 but the worst of beaks and barbs for a vessel to strike 
 upon at haK-flow, and with a violent sea, and a wind 
 as wild as Bedlam. 
 
 With the pressure of these, she lay so much to lee- 
 ward before striking (and perhaps her cargo had 
 shifted), that the poor blackies rolled down the deck 
 like pickling walnuts on a tray ; and they had not 
 even the chance of dying each in his own direction. 
 
 I was forced to shut my eyes ; till a grey squall
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 95 
 
 came, and caught her up, as if she had been a hum- 
 ming-top, and flung her (as we drown a kitten) into 
 the mashing waters. 
 
 Now I hope no man who knows me would ever 
 take me for such a fool as to dream for a moment — 
 after all I have seen of them — that a negro is " our 
 own flesh and blood, and a brother immortal," as the 
 parsons begin to prate, under some dark infection. 
 They differ from us a great deal more than an ass 
 does from a horse ; but for all that I was right down 
 glad — as a man of loving-kindness — that such a pelt 
 of rain came up as saved me from the discomfort — or 
 pain, if you must have the truth — of beholding several 
 score, no doubt, of unfortunate blacks a-drowning. 
 
 If it had pleased Pro^'idence to drown any white 
 men with them, and to let me know it, beyond 
 a doubt I had rushed in, though without so 
 much as a rope to help me ; and as it was, I was 
 ready to do my very best to save them if they had 
 only shown some readiness to be hawled ashore by a 
 man of proper colour. But being, as negroes always 
 are, of a most contrary nature, no doubt they preferred 
 to drift out to sea rather than Christian burial. At 
 any rate, none of them came near me, kindly disposed 
 as I felt myself, and ready to tuck up my Sunday 
 trousers at the very first sight of a woolly head. But
 
 96 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 several came ashore next tide — when it could "be no 
 comfort at all to them. And such, as I have always 
 found, is the nature of black people. 
 
 But for me it was a sad, and, as I thought, severe, 
 visitation to be forced on a Sabbath-day — my only 
 holiday of the week — to meditate over a scene like 
 this. As a truly consistent and truth-seeking Chris- 
 tian (especially when I go round with fish on a Mon- 
 day among Nonconformists), it was a bitter trial for 
 me to reflect upon those poor negroes, gone without 
 any sense at all, except of good Christians' wicked- 
 ness, to the judgment we decree for all, except our- 
 selves and families. 
 
 But there was worse than this behind ; for after 
 waiting as long as there seemed good chance of any- 
 thing coming ashore, which might go into my pocket, 
 without risk of my pension, and would truly be mine 
 in all honesty — and after seeing that the wreck 
 would not break up till the tide rose higher, though 
 all on board were swept away — suddenly it came 
 into my head about poor Bardie and Bunny. They 
 were worth all the niggers that ever made coal look 
 the colour of pipeclay ; and with a depth of self-re- 
 proach which I never deserved to feel, having truly 
 done my utmost — for who could walk in such 
 weather ?— forth I set, resolved to face whatever came
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 97 
 
 out of the heavens. Verily nothing could come much 
 worse than what was come already. Eheumatics, I 
 mean, which had struck me there, under the rock, as 
 a snake might. Three hours ago all the world was 
 sweat, and now all the air was shivers. Such is the 
 climate of our parts, and many good people rail at it, 
 who have not been under discipline. But all who 
 have felt that gnawing anguish, or that fiery freezing, 
 burning at once and benumbing (like a dead bone 
 put into the live ones, with a train of powder down 
 it) — all these will have pity for a man who had 
 crouched beneath a rock for at least three houi's, with 
 dripping clothes, at the age of two-and-fifty. 
 
 For a hero I never set up to be, and never came 
 across one until my old age in the navy, as hereafter 
 to be related. And though I had served on board of 
 one in my early years, off La Hague and Cape 
 Grisnez, they told me she was only a woman that 
 used to hold a lantern. Hero, however, or no hero, 
 in spite of all discouragement and the aching of my 
 bones, resolved I was to follow out the fate of those 
 two children. There seemed to be faint hope, indeed, 
 concerning the little stranger ; but Bunny might be 
 all alive and strong, as was right and natural for a 
 child of her age and substance. But I was sore 
 downcast about it when I looked around and saw the 
 VOL. I. G
 
 98 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 effect of the storm that had been over them. For 
 the alteration of everything was nothing less than 
 amazing. 
 
 It is out of my power to tell you how my heart 
 went up to God, and aU my spirit and soul was 
 lifted into something purer, when of a sudden, in a 
 scoop of sand, with the rushes overhanging, I came 
 on those two little dears, fast asleep in innocence. 
 A perfect nest of peace they had, as if beneath their 
 Father's eye, and by His own hand made for them. 
 The fury of the earth and sky was all around and 
 over them ; the deep revenge of the sea was rolling, 
 not a hundred yards away ; and here those two little 
 dots were asleep, with their angels trying to make 
 them dream. 
 
 Bunny, being the elder and much the stronger 
 child, had thrown the skirt of her frock across poor 
 little Bardie's naked shoulders ; while Bardie, finding 
 it nice and warm, had nestled her delicate head into 
 the lap of her young nurse, and had tried (as it 
 seemed), before dropping off, to tell her gratitude by 
 pressing Bunny's red hands to her lips. In a word, 
 you might go a long way and scarcely see a prettier 
 or more moving picture, or more apt to lead a man 
 who seldom thinks of his Maker. As for me, I 
 became so proud of my own granddaughter's good-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 99 
 
 ness, and of the little lady's trast and pure repose 
 therein, that my heart went back at once to my dead 
 boy Harry, and I do believe that I must have wept, 
 if I could have stopped to look at them. 
 
 But although I was truly loath to spoil this pretty 
 picture, the poor things must be partly wet, even in 
 that nest of rushes, which the whirlwinds had not 
 touched. So I awoke them very gently, and shook 
 off the sand, while they rubbed their eyes, and gaped, 
 and knew no more of their danger than if they had 
 been in their own dear beds. Then, with Bardie in 
 my arms, and Bunny trotting stoutly with her thimib 
 spliced into my trousers, I shaped a course for Sker 
 farmhouse, having a strong gale still abaft, but the 
 weather slightly moderating.
 
 100 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A WRECKER WRECKED. 
 
 Near the gate I met Evan Thomas, the master of 
 the house himself, at length astir, but still three- 
 parts drunk, and — if I may say so with due com- 
 passion for the trouble then before him— in a very 
 awkward state of mind. It happened so that the 
 surliness of his liquor and of his nature mingled 
 at this moment with a certain exultation, a sense 
 of good-luck, and a strong desire to talk and be 
 told again of it. And this is the nature of all 
 Welshmen ; directly they have any luck, they must 
 begin to brag of it. You will find the same in me 
 perhaps, or, at any rate, think you do, although 
 I try to exclude it, having to deal with English- 
 men, who make nothing of all the great deeds 
 they have done until you begin to agree with them. 
 And then, my goodness, they do come out ! But the 
 object of my writing is to make them understand us,
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. lOI 
 
 which they never yet have done, being unlike some- 
 how in nature, although we are much of their fathers. 
 
 Having been almost equally among both these 
 nations, and speaking English better perhaps than 
 my native tongue of the Cwmri — of which anybody 
 can judge who sees the manner in which I do it — it 
 is against my wish to say what Evan Thomas looked 
 like. His dark face, overhung with hair, and slouched 
 with a night of drinking, was beginning to burn up, 
 from paleness and from weariness, into a fury of 
 plunder. Scarcely did I know the man, although I 
 had so many recollections of evil against him. A 
 big, strong, clumsy fellow at all times, far more ready 
 to smite than smile, and wholly void of that pleasant 
 humour, which among almost all my neighbours — 
 though never yet could I find out why — creates a 
 pleasing eagerness for my humble society as punctual 
 as my pension-day. 
 
 But now his reeling staggering manner of coming 
 along towards us, and the hunching of his shoulders, 
 and the swagging of his head, and, most of all, the 
 great gun he carried, were enough to make good 
 quiet people who had been to church get behind a 
 sand-hill. However, for that it was too late. I was 
 bound to face him. Bardie dropped her eyes under 
 my beard, and Bunny crept closer behind my leg.
 
 i02 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 For my part, although the way was narrow, and the 
 lift of the storm gave out some light, it would have 
 moved no resentment in me if he had seen (as rich 
 men do) unfit to see a poor man. 
 
 However, there was no such luck. He carried his 
 loaded gun with its muzzle representing a point of 
 view the very last I could have desired — namely, at 
 my midships ; and he carried it so that I longed to 
 have said a little word about carefulness. But I durst 
 not, with his coal-black eyes fixed upon me as they 
 were, and so I pulled up suddenly. For he had given 
 me an imperious nod, as good as ordering me to stop. 
 
 " Wreck ashore ! " he cried out in Welsh, having 
 scarce a word of English — " wreck ashore ! I smell 
 her, Dyo. Don't tell me no lies, my boy. I smelled 
 her all the afternoon. And high time to have one." 
 
 "There is a wreck ashore," I answered, looking 
 with some disgust at him, as a man who has been 
 wrecked himself must do at a cruel wrecker ; " but 
 the ebb most likely will draw her off and drift her 
 into the quicksands." 
 
 " Great God ! speak not like that, my boy. The 
 worst you are of everything. If those two children 
 came ashore, there must have been something better." 
 And he peered at the children as if to search for any 
 gold upon them.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I03 
 
 "Neither child came from that wreck. One is 
 my granddaughter Bunny, Bunny, show yourself to 
 black Evan." But the cliild shrank closer behind me. 
 " Evan black, you know her well. And the other is 
 a little thing I picked up on the coast last night." 
 
 " Ha, ha ! you pick up children where you put 
 them, I suppose. But take them indoors and be done 
 with them. Cubs to come with a wreck ashore, a 
 noble wreck ashore, I say ! But come you down 
 again, fisherman Dyo." He used the word " fisher- 
 man" with a peculiar stress, and a glance of sus- 
 picion at my pockets. " Come you down again, Dyo 
 dear. I shall want you to help me against those 
 thieves from Kenfig. Bring my other gun from the 
 clock-case, and tell the boys to run down with their 
 bando- sticks. I'll warrant we'll clear the shore 
 between us ; and then, good Dyo, honest Dyo, you 
 shall have some — you shall, you dog. Fair-play, 
 Dyo; fair share and share, though every stick is 
 mine of right. Ah, Dyo, Dyo, you cunning sheep's 
 head, you love a keg of rum, you dog." 
 
 This I knew to be true enough, but only within 
 the bounds of both honesty and sobriety. But so 
 much talking had made his brain, in its present 
 condition, go round again ; and while I was thinking 
 how far it might be safe and right to come into his
 
 104 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 views, his loaded gun began wagging about in a 
 manner so bigbly dangerous, that for the sake of the 
 two poor children I was obliged to get out of his 
 way, and, looking back from a safer distance, there I 
 beheld him flourishing with his arms on the top of 
 a sand-hill, and waving his hat on the top of his 
 gun, for his sons to come over the warren. 
 
 Moxy Thomas was very kind; she never could 
 help being so, and therefore never got any thanks. 
 She stripped the two wet children at once, and put 
 them in bed together to keep each other warm. But 
 first she had them snugly simmering in a milk-pan 
 of hot water with a little milk for the sake of their 
 skins. Bunny was heavy and sleepy therein, and 
 did nothing but yawn and stretch out her arms. 
 Bardie, on the other hand, was ready to boU over 
 with delight and liveliness, flashing about like a 
 little dab-chick. 
 
 " Old Davy," she said, as I came to see her at her 
 own invitation, and she sate quite over Bunny, " '111 
 'a have a ickle dop ? " With the water up to her 
 neck, she put one mite of a transparent finger to my 
 grizzled mouth, and popped a large drop in, and 
 laughed, until I could have worshipped her. 
 
 Now, having seen these two little dears fast asleep 
 and warmly compassed, I began, according to Evan's
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. IO5 
 
 orders, to ask about the boys, not having seen any 
 sign of them. Moxy said that Watkin went out to 
 look for his five brothers about an hour after I had 
 left, and in spite of the rain and lightning. She had 
 tried in vain to stop him: something was on his 
 mind, it seemed ; and when she went up to attend 
 on his father, he took the opportunity to slip out of 
 the kitchen. 
 
 Now Moxy having been in the house, and the 
 house away from the worst of the storm, being more- 
 over a woman, and therefore wholly abroad about 
 weather, it was natural that she should not have 
 even the least idea of the jeopardy encountered by 
 her five great sons in the warren. Enough for her 
 that they were not at sea. Danger from weather 
 upon dry land was out of her comprehension. 
 
 It wanted perhaps half an hour of dusk, and had 
 given over raining, but was blowing a good reef- 
 topsail gale, when I started to search for the sons 
 of Sker. Of course I said nothing to make their 
 mother at all uneasy about them, but took from the 
 clock-case the loaded gun (as Evan had commanded 
 me), and set forth upon the track of young Watkin, 
 better foot foremost. For he was likely to know best 
 what part of the warren his five great brothers had 
 chosen for their sport that day ; and in the wet
 
 I06 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 sand it was easy to follow the course the boy had 
 taken. 
 
 The whirlwinds had ceased before he went forth, 
 and the deluge of rain was now soaked in, through 
 the drought so long abiding. But the wind was 
 wailing pitifully, and the rushes swaying wearily ; 
 and the yellow baldness, here and there, of higher 
 sand-hills, caught the light. Eagged clouds ran over 
 all, and streamers of the sunset ; and the sky was 
 like a school let loose, with the joy of wind and rain 
 again. It is not much of me that swears, when cir- 
 cumstances force me ; only a piece, perhaps, of cus- 
 tom, and a piece of honesty. These two lead one 
 astray sometimes ; and then comes disappointment. 
 For I had let some anger vex me at the rudeness of 
 black Evan, and the ungodliness of his sons, which 
 forced me thus to come abroad, when full of wet 
 and weariness. In spite of this, I was grieved and 
 frightened, and angry with no one but myself, when 
 I chanced upon boy Watkin, fallen into a tuft of 
 rushes, with his blue eyes running torrents. There 
 he lay, like a heap of trouble, as young folk do ere 
 they learn the world ; and I put him on his legs 
 three times, but he managed to go down again. At 
 last I got his knees to stick ; but even so he turned 
 away, and put his head between his hands, and could
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. IO7 
 
 not say a word to me. And by the way his shoul- 
 ders went, I knew that he was sobbing. I asked him 
 what the matter was, and what he was taking so 
 much to heart ; and, not to be too long over a trifle, 
 at last I got this out of him : — 
 
 " Oh, good Mr Llewellyn, dear, I never shall see 
 nothing more of my great brothers five, so long as 
 ever I do live. And when they kicked me out of 
 bed every Sunday morning, and spread the basins 
 over me, it was not that they meant to harm — I do 
 feel it, I do feel it ; and perhaps my knees ran into 
 them. Under the sands, the sands, they are; and 
 never to kick me again no more ! Of sorrow it is 
 more than ever I can tell." 
 
 " Watty," said I, " why talk you so? Your brothers 
 know every crick and corner of this warren, miles 
 and miles ; and could carry a sand-hill among them. 
 They are snug enough somewhere with their game, 
 and perhaps gone to sleep, like the little ones." 
 
 Of the babies' adventures he knew notliing, and 
 only stared at me ; so I asked him what had scared 
 him so. 
 
 " Under the sands, the sands, they are, so sure as 
 ever I do live. Or the rabbit-bag would not be here, 
 and Dutch, who never, never leaves them, howling at 
 the rabbit-bag ! "
 
 I08 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Looking further through the tussocks, I saw that 
 it was even so. Dutch, the mongrel collie, crouched 
 beside a bag of something, with her tail curled out 
 of sight, and her ears laid flat and listless, and her 
 jowl along the ground. And every. now and then 
 she gave a low but very grievous howl. 
 
 " Now, boy, don't be a fool," I said, with the desire 
 to encourage him ; " soon we shall find your brothers 
 five, with another great sack of rabbits. They left 
 the bitch yonder to watch the sack, while they went 
 on for more, you see." 
 
 " It is the sack ; the sack it is ! And no other 
 sack along of them. Oh, Mr LleweUyn, dear, here 
 is the bag, and there is Dutch, and never no sign at 
 all of them ! " 
 
 At this I began to fear indeed that the matter was 
 past helping — that an accident and a grief had hap- 
 pened worse than the drowning of all the negroes, 
 which it has ever pleased Providence (in a darkness 
 of mood) to create for us. But my main desire was 
 to get poor Watty away at once, lest he should 
 encounter things too dreadful for a boy like him. 
 
 " Go home," I said, " with the bag of rabbits, and 
 give poor Dutch her supper. Your father is down 
 on the shore of the sea, and no doubt the boys are 
 with him. They are gone to meet a great sliipwreck,
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. IO9 
 
 wortli all the rabbits all the way from Dunraveu to 
 Giant's Grave." 
 
 " But little Dutch, it is little Dutch ! They never 
 would leave her, if wreck there was. She can fetch 
 out of the water so good almost as any dog." 
 
 I left him to his own devices, being now tired of 
 arguing. For by this time it was growing dark ; and 
 a heavy sea was roaring ; and the wreck was sure to 
 be breaking up, unless she had been swallowed up. 
 And the common-sense of our village, and parish, 
 would go very hard against me, for not being on 
 the spot to keep the adjacent parish from stealing. 
 For Kenfig and Newton are full of each other, with 
 a fine old ancient hatred. So we climbed over the 
 crest of high sand, where the rushes lay weltering 
 after the wind ; and then with a plunge of long 
 strides down hiU, and plucking our feet out hastily, 
 on the watered marge we stood, to which the sea was 
 striving. 
 
 Among the rocks black Evan leaped, with white 
 foam rushing under him, and sallies of the stormy 
 tide volleying to engulf him. Strong liquor stiU 
 was in his brain, and made him scorn his danger, 
 and thereby saved him from it. One timid step, and 
 the churning waters would have made a curd of him. 
 The fury of his visage showed that somebody had
 
 no THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 wronged him, after whom he rushed with vengeance, 
 and his great gun swinging. 
 
 " Sons of dogs ! " he cried in Welsh, alighting on 
 the pebbles ; " may the devil feed their fathers with a 
 melting bowl ! " 
 
 "What's the rumpus now?" I asked ; "what have 
 your sons been doing?" 
 
 For he always swore at his sons as freely as at 
 anybody's, and at himself for begetting them. 
 
 " My sons !" he cried, with a stamp of rage ; " if 
 my sons had been here, what man would have dared 
 to do on the top of my head this thing ? Where are 
 they ? I sent you for them." 
 
 " I have sought for them high and low," I answer- 
 ed ; " here is the only one I could find." 
 
 " Watkin ! What use of Watkin ? A boy like a 
 girl or a baby ! I want my five tall bully-boys to 
 help their poor father's livelihood. There's little 
 Tom tailor gone over the sand-hills with a keg of 
 something ; and Teddy shoemaker with a spar ; and 
 I only shot between them ! Cursed fool ! what 
 shall I come to, not to be able to shoot a man ? " 
 
 He had fired his gun, and was vexed, no doubt, at 
 wasting a charge so randomly ; then spying his other 
 gun on my shoulder, with the flint and the priming 
 set, he laid his heavy hand on it. I scarce knew
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. Ill 
 
 what to do, but feared any accident in the struggle ; 
 and after all, he was not so drunk that the law 
 would deny him his own gun. 
 
 "Ha, ha!" with a pat of the breech, he cried; 
 " for this I owe thee a good turn, Dyo. Thou art 
 loaded with rocks, my darling, as the other was with 
 cowries. Twenty to the pound of lead for any long- 
 shore robbers. I see a lot more sneaking down. 
 Dyo, now for sport, my boy." 
 
 I saw some people, dark in the distance, under the 
 brow of a sand-hill; and before I could speak or 
 think, black Evan was off to run at them. I too set 
 my feet for speed, but the strings of my legs hung 
 backward ; and Watty, who could run like a hare, 
 seemed to lag behind me. And behind him there 
 was little Dutch, crawling with her belly down, and 
 her eyes turned up at us, as if we were dragging her 
 to be hanged. 
 
 Until we heard a shout of people, through the 
 roar of wind and sea, in front of where black Evan 
 strode ; and making towards it, we beheld, in glim- 
 mering dusk of shore and sky, something we knew 
 nothing of. 
 
 A heavy sand-hill hung above them, with its 
 brow come over ; and long roots of rushes naked in 
 the shrillness of the wind. Under this were men at
 
 112 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 work, as we work for lives of men ; and their Sun- 
 day shirt-sleeves flashed, white like ghosts, and gone 
 again. Up to them strode Evan black, over the 
 marge of the wild March tides ; and grounded his 
 gun and looked at them. They for a breath gazed 
 up at him, and seemed to think and wonder ; and 
 then, as though they had not seen him, fell again 
 a-digging. 
 
 " What means this ? " he roared at them, with his 
 great eyes flashing fire, and his long gun levelled. 
 But they neither left their work nor lifted head to 
 answer him. The yellow sand came sliding down, 
 in wedge-shaped runnels, over them, and their feet 
 sank out of sight ; but still they kept on working. 
 
 " Come away, then, Evan great ; come away and 
 seek for wreck," I shouted, while he seemed to stand 
 in heaviness of wonder. "This is not a place for 
 you. Come away, my man, my boy." 
 
 Thus I spoke, in Welsh of course, and threw my 
 whole weight on his arm, to make him come away 
 with me. But he set his feet in sand, and spread 
 his legs, and looked at me ; and the strongest man 
 that was ever born could not have torn him from his 
 hold, with those eyes upon him. 
 
 " Dyo, I am out of dreaming. Dyo, I must see 
 this wreck ; only take the gun from me."
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. II3 
 
 This I would have done right gladly, but he 
 changed his mind about it, falling back to a savage 
 mood. 
 
 "You down there, who gave you leave to come 
 and dig my sandhills ? Answer, or have skins of 
 lead." 
 
 Two or three of the men looked up, and wanted to 
 say something. But the head-man from the mines, 
 who understood the whole of them, nodded, and they 
 held their tongues. Either they were brave men aU 
 (which never is without discipline), or else the sense 
 of human death confused and overpowered them. 
 Whatever they meant, they went on digging. 
 . " Some damned sailor under there," cried Evan, 
 losing patience; "little mustard-spoons of sand. 
 Can't you throw it faster ? Fine young fellows three 
 of them, in the hole their own ship made, last March 
 tide, it must have been. Let us see this new batch 
 come. They always seem to have spent their wages 
 before they learn to drown themselves." 
 
 He laughed and laid his gun aside, and asked me 
 for tobacco, and, trying to be sober, sang " the rising 
 of the lark." I, for my part, shrunk away, and my 
 flesh crawled over me. 
 
 " Work away, my lads, work away. You are all 
 of a mind to warm yourselves. Let me know when 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 114 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 you have done. And all yon find belongs to me. I 
 can sit and see it out, and make a list of everytliing. 
 Ear-rings gold, and foreign pieces, and the trinkets 
 they have worn. Out with them ! I know them all. 
 Fools ! what use of skulking ? You are on soft stuff, 
 I see. Have out every one of them." 
 
 So they did ; and laid before him, in the order of 
 their birth, the carcases of his five sons. Evan first, 
 his eldest born ; Thomas next, and Eees, and Hop- 
 kin, and then (with the sigh of death still in him) 
 Jenkin, newly turned fifteen.
 
 115 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HOW TO SELL FISH. 
 
 What I liad seen that niglit upset me more than 
 I like to dwell upon. But with all my fish on 
 hand, I was forced to make the best of it. For a 
 down-hearted man will turn meat, as we say, and 
 much more, fish, to a farthing's-worth. And though 
 my heart was sore and heavy for my ancient sweet- 
 heart Moxy, and for little Bardie in the thick of 
 such disasters, that could be no excuse to me for 
 wasting good fish — or at least pretty good — and 
 losing thoroughly good money. 
 
 Here were the mullet, with less of shine than I 
 always recommended and honestly wish them to 
 possess ; here were the prawns, with a look of pale- 
 ness and almost of languishing, such as they are 
 bound to avoid until money paid and counted ; and 
 most of all, here were lawful bass, of very great size 
 and substance, inclined to do themselves more jus- 
 tice in the scales than on the dish.
 
 Il6 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 I saw that tMs would never answer to my present 
 high repute. Concerning questions afterwards, and 
 people being hard upon me, out of thoughtless ignor- 
 ance, that was none of my affair. The whole of that 
 would go, of course, upon the weather and sudden 
 changes, such as never were known before. And if 
 good religious people would not so be satisfied with 
 the will of Providence to have their fish as fish are 
 made, against them I had another reason, which 
 never fails to satisfy. 
 
 The "burning tide," as they called it (through which 
 poor Bardie first appeared), had been heard of far 
 inland, and with one consent pronounced to be the 
 result of the devil improperly flipping his taU while 
 bathing. Although the weather had been so hot, 
 this rumour was beyond my belief; nevertheless I 
 saw my way, if any old customer should happen, 
 when it came to his dinner-time, to be at all dis- 
 contented (which no man with a fine appetite and a 
 wholesome nose should indulge in) — I saw my way 
 to sell him more, upon the following basket-day, by 
 saying what good people said, and how much I my- 
 self had seen of it. 
 
 With these reflections I roused my spirits, and 
 resolved to let no good fish be lost, though it took 
 all the week to sell them. For, in spite of the laws
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. II7 
 
 laid down in the books (for young married women, 
 and so forth), there is scarcely any other thing upon 
 which both men and women may be led astray so 
 pleasantly as why to buy fish, and when to buy fish, 
 and what fish to buy. 
 
 Therefore I started in good spirits on the Monday 
 morning, carrying with me news enough to sell three 
 times the weight I bore, although it was breaking my 
 back almost. Good fish it was, and deserved all the 
 praise that ever I could bestow on it, for keeping so 
 well in such shocking weather ; and so I sprinkled a 
 little salt in some of the delicate places, just to store 
 the flavour there; for cooks are so forgetful, and 
 always put the blame on me when they fail of pro- 
 ducing a fine fresh smell. 
 
 Also knowing, to my sorrow, how suspicious peo- 
 ple are, and narrow-minded to a degree none would 
 give them credit for, I was forced to do a thing 
 which always makes me to myself seem almost 
 uncharitable. 
 
 But I felt that I could trust nobody to have proper 
 faith in me, especially when they might behold the 
 eyes of the fishes retire a little, as they are very apt to 
 do when too many cooks have looked at them. And 
 knowing how strong the prejudice of the public is in 
 this respect, I felt myself bound to gratify it, though
 
 Il8 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 at some cost of time and trouble. This method I 
 do not mind describing (as T am now pretty clear of 
 the trade) for the good of my brother fishermen. 
 
 When the eyes of a fish begin to fail him through 
 long retirement from the water, you may strengthen 
 his mode of regarding the world (and therefore the 
 world's regard for him) by a delicate piece of hand- 
 ling. Keep a ray-fish always ready — it does not 
 matter how stale he is — and on the same day on 
 which you are going to sell your bass, or mullet, or 
 cod, or whatever it may be, pull a few sharp spines, 
 as clear as you can, out of this good ray. Then open 
 the moutli of your languid fish and embolden the 
 aspect of either eye by fetching it up from despond- 
 ency with a skewer of proper length extended from 
 one ball to the other. It is almost sure to drop out 
 in the cooking ; and even if it fails to do so, none 
 will be the wiser, but take it for a provision of 
 nature — as indeed it ought to be. 
 
 Now, if anybody is rude enough to gainsay your 
 fish in the market, you have the evidence of the eyes 
 and hands against that of the nose alone. "Why, 
 bless me, madam," I used to say, " a lady like you, 
 that understands fish a great deal better than I do ! 
 His eyes are coming out of his head, ma'am, to hear 
 you say such things of him. Afloat he was at four
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. II9 
 
 this morning, and his eyes will speak to it." And so 
 he was, well afloat in my tub, before I began to pre- 
 pare him for a last appeal to the public. Only they 
 must not float too long, or the scales will not be 
 stiff enough. 
 
 Being up to a few of these things, and feeling very 
 keenly how hard the public always tries to get upper 
 hand of me, and would beat me down to half nothing 
 a pound (if allowed altogether its own way), I fought 
 very bravely the whole of that Monday to turn a 
 few honest shillings. " Good old Davy, fine old 
 Davy, brave old Davy ! " they said I was every time 
 I abated a halfpenny ; and I called them generous 
 gentlemen and Christian-minded ladies every time 
 they wanted to smell my fish, which is not right 
 before payment. What right has any man to dis- 
 parage the property of another ? When you have 
 bought him, he is your own, and you have the title 
 to canvass him ; but when he is put in tlie scales, 
 remember " nothing but good of the dead," if you 
 remember anytliing. 
 
 As I sate by the cross roads in Bridgend on the 
 bottom of a bucket, and with a four-legged dressing- 
 table (hired for twopence) in front of me, who should 
 come up but the well-known Brother Hezekiah ? 
 Truly tired I was getting, after plodding through
 
 120 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Merthyr Mawr, Ogmore, and Ewenny, Llaleston, and 
 Newcastle, and driven at last to the town of Bridg- 
 end. For some of my fish had a gamesome odour, 
 when first I set off in the morning; and although 
 the rain had cooled down the air, it was now become 
 an unwise thing to recommend what still remained to 
 any man of unchristian spirit, or possessing the ear 
 of the magistrates. 
 
 Now perhaps I should not say this thing, and 
 many may think me inclined to vaunt, and call me 
 an old coxcomb ; but if any man could sell stinking 
 fish in the times of which I am writing — and then 
 it was ten times harder than now, because women 
 looked after marketing — that man I verily believe 
 was this old Davy Llewellyn ; and right he has to 
 be proud of it. But what were left on my hands 
 that evening were beginning to get so strong, that I 
 feared they must go over Bridgend bridge into the 
 river Ogmore. 
 
 The big coach with the London letters, which came 
 then almost twice a-week, was just gone on, after 
 stopping three hours to rest the horses and feed the 
 people; and I had done some business with them, 
 for London folk for the most part have a kind 
 and pleasing ignorance. They paid me well, and I 
 served them well with fish of a fine high flavour ;
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 121 
 
 but now I had some which I would not ofifer to such 
 kind-hearted gentry. 
 
 Hezekiah wanted fish. I saw it by his nostrils, 
 and I knew it for certain when he pretended not to 
 see me or my standing. He went a good bit round 
 the comer, as if to deal with the ironmonger. But 
 for all that, I knew as well as if I could hear his 
 wife beginning to rake the fire, that fish for supper 
 was the business which had brought him across the 
 bridge. Therefore I refused an offer which I would 
 have jumped at before seeing Hezekiah, of twopence 
 a-pound for the residue from an old woman who sold 
 pickles ; and I made up my mind to keep up the 
 price, knowing the man to have ten in family, and 
 all blessed with good appetites. 
 
 "What, Davy! Brother Davy!" he cried, being 
 compelled to begin, because I took care not to look 
 at him. " Has it been so ordered that I behold good 
 brother Davy with fish upon a Monday?" His 
 object in this was plain enough — to beat down my 
 goods by terror of an information for Sabbath-labour. 
 
 " The Lord has been merciful to me," I answered, 
 patting my best fish on his shoulder ; " not only in 
 sending them straight to my net, at nine o'clock this 
 morning ; but also, brother Hezekiah, in the hunger 
 all people have for them. I would that I could have
 
 122 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 kept tliee a taste ; not soon wouldst thou forget it. 
 Sweeter fish and finer fish never came out of Newton 
 Bay" — this I said because Newton Bay is famous 
 for high quality. " But, brother Hezekiah, thou art 
 come too late." And I began to pack up very 
 hastily. 
 
 " Wliat ! " cried Hezekiah, with a keen and hungrily 
 grievous voice ; " all those fish bespoken, Davy ?" 
 
 " Every one of them bespoken, brother ; by a man 
 who knows a right down good bass, better almost 
 than I do. Griffy, the ' Cat and Snuffers.' " 
 
 Now, Griffith, who kept the " Cat and Snuffers,'' 
 was a very jovial man, and a bitter enemy to Heze- 
 kiah Perkins ; and I knew that the latter would 
 gladly offer a penny a-pound upon Griffy's back, to 
 spoil him of his supper, and to make him offend his 
 customers. 
 
 " Stop, brother Davy," cried Hezekiah, stretching 
 out his broad fat hands, as I began to pack my fish, 
 with the freshest smellers uppermost ; " Davy dear, 
 this is not right, nor like our ancient friendship. A 
 rogue like Griffy to cheat you so ! What had he 
 beaten you down to, Davy?" 
 
 " Beaten me down ! " I said, all in a hurry : " is it 
 likely I would be beaten down, with their eyes com- 
 ing out of their heads like that ?"
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 23 
 
 " JSTow, dear brother Dyo, do have patience ! AVhat 
 was he going to give you a-pound ?" 
 
 "Fourpence a-pound, and ten pound of them. 
 Three-and-fourpence for a lot like that ! Ah, the 
 times are bad indeed !" 
 
 " Dear brother Dyo, fourpence-halfpenny ! Three- 
 and-nine down, for the lot as it stands." 
 
 " Hezekiah, for what do you take me ? Cut a 
 farthing in four, when you get it. Do I look a likely 
 man to be a rogue for fivepence ?" 
 
 " No, no, Davy ; don't be angry with me. Say 
 as much as tenpence. Four - and - twopence, ready 
 money ; and no Irish coinage." 
 
 " Brother Hezekiah," said I, " a bargain struck is 
 a bargain kept. Eob a man of his supper for ten- 
 pence !" 
 
 " Oh, Dyo, Dyo ! you never would think of that 
 man's supper, with my wife longing for fish so ! 
 Such a family as we have, and the weakness in 
 Hepzibah's back ! Five shillings for the five, Davy." 
 
 " There, there ; take them along," I cried at last, 
 with a groan from my chest : " you are bound to be 
 the ruin of me. But what can I do with a delicate 
 lady? Brother, surely you have been a little too 
 hard upon me. Whatever shall I find to say to a 
 man who never beats me down ?"
 
 124 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 " Tell that worldly ' Cat and Snuffers ' that your 
 fish were much too good — why, Davy, they seem to 
 smellaHttle!" 
 
 " And small use they would be, Hezekiah, either 
 for taste or for nourishment, unless they had the 
 sea-smell now. Brother, all your money back, and 
 the fish to poor Griffy, if you know not the smell of 
 salt water yet." 
 
 " Now, don't you be so hot, old Davy. The fish 
 are good enough, no doubt ; and it may be from the 
 skewer-wood ; but they have a sort, not to say a 
 smell, but a manner of reminding one " 
 
 " Of the savoury stuff they feed on," said I ; " and 
 the thorough good use they make of it. A fish must 
 eat, and so must we, and little blame to both of us." 
 
 With that he bade me "good-night," and went 
 with alacrity towards his supper, scornfully sneering 
 as he passed the door of the "Cat and Snuffers." 
 But though it was a fine thing for me, and an es- 
 pecial Providence, to finish off my stock so well, at 
 a time when T would have taken gladly a shilling 
 for the lot of it, yet I felt that circumstances were 
 against my lingering. Even if Hezekiah, unable to 
 enter into the vein of my fish, should find himself 
 too fat to hurry down the steep hill after me, still 
 there were many other people, fit for supper, and
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 25 
 
 fresh for it, from the sudden coolness, whom it was 
 my duty now to preserve from mischief ; by leaving 
 proper interval for consideration, before I might 
 happen- to be in front of their dining-room windows 
 another day. 
 
 Therefore, with a grateful sense of goodwill to all 
 customers, I thought it better to be off. There I 
 had been, for several hours, ready to prove anything, 
 but never challenged by anybody ; and my spirit 
 had grown accordingly. But I never yet have found 
 it wise to overlie success. Win it, and look at it, 
 and be off, is the quickest way to get some more. 
 So I scarcely even called so much as a pint at the 
 " Cat and Snuffers," to have a laugh with Griffy ; 
 but set off for Newton, along the old road, with a 
 good smart heel, and a fine day's business, and a 
 light heart inside of me. 
 
 When I had passed Eed-hill and Tythegston, and 
 clearly was out upon Newton Down, where the glow- 
 worms are most soft and sweet, it came upon me, in 
 looking up from the glow-worms to the stars of 
 heaven, to think and balance how far I was right in 
 cheating Hezekiah. It had been done with the 
 strictest justice, because his entire purpose was 
 purely to cheat me. Wliereupon Providence had 
 stepped in and seen that I was the better man. I
 
 126 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 was not so imgrateful — let nobody suppose it — as to 
 repine at this result. So far from that, that I rattled 
 my money and had a good laugh, and went on again. 
 But being used to watch the stars, as an old sailor is 
 bound to do, I thought that Orion ought to be up, 
 and I could not see Orion. This struck me as an 
 unkindly thing, although, when I thought of it next 
 day, I found that Orion was quite right, and per- 
 haps the beer a little strong which had led me to 
 look out for him ; anyhow, it threw me back to 
 think of Hezekiah, and make the worst of him to 
 myself for having had the best of him. 
 
 Everybody may be sure that I never would have 
 gone out of the way to describe my traffic with that 
 man unless there were good reason. Nay, but I 
 wanted to show you exactly the cast and the colour 
 of man he was, by setting forth his low attempt to 
 get my fish for nothing. 
 
 There was no man, of course, in my native village, 
 and very few in Bridgend perhaps, to whom I would 
 have sold those fish, unless they were going to sell 
 it again. But Hezekiah Perkins, a member and 
 leading elder of the " Nicodemus-Christians," was so 
 hard a man to cheat — except by stirring of his gall — 
 and so keen a cheat liimself ; so proud, moreover, of 
 his wit and praying, and truly brotherly, — that to
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 12/ 
 
 lead him astray was the very first thing desired by a 
 sound Churchman. 
 
 By trade and calling he had been — before he 
 received his special call — no more than a common 
 blacksmith. Now a blacksmith is a most useful man, 
 full of news and full of jokes, and very often by no 
 means drunk ; this, however, was not enough to 
 satisfy Hezekiah. Ha\dng parts, as he always told 
 us — and sometimes we wished that he had no whole 
 — cultivated parts, moreover, and taken up by the 
 gentry, nothing of a lower order came up to his merits 
 than to call himself as follows : " Horologist, Gun- 
 smith, Practical Turner, "Working Goldsmith and 
 Jeweller, Maker of all Machinery, and Engineman to 
 the King and Queen." 
 
 The first time he put this over his door, all the 
 neighbours laughed at him, knowing (in spite of the 
 book he had got full of figures and shapes and cross- 
 ings, which he called " Three-gun-ometry ") that his 
 education was scarcely up to the rule of three, with- 
 out any gims. Nevertheless he got on well, having 
 sense enough to guide him when to talk large (in the 
 presence of people who love large talk, as beyond 
 them), and when to sing small, and hold his tongue, 
 and nod at the proper distances, if ever his business 
 led him among gentry of any sense or science, such
 
 128 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 as we sometimes hear of. Hence it was that he got 
 the order to keep the church-clock of Bridgend a-go- 
 ing by setting the hands on twice a-day, and giving a 
 push to the pendulum ; and so long as the clock would 
 only go, nobody in the town cared a tick whether it 
 kept right time or wrong. And if people from the 
 country durst say anything about it, it was always 
 enough to ask them what their own clocks had to say. 
 There were not then many stable- clocks, such as are 
 growing upon us now, so that every horse has his own 
 dinner-bell ; only for all those that were, Hezekiah 
 received, T daresay, from five to ten shillings a-month 
 apiece in order to keep them moving. But, bless my 
 heart ! he knew less of a clock than I, old Davy 
 Llewellyn, and once on a time I asked him, when he 
 talked too much of his " ometries " — as a sailor might 
 do in his simpleness — I asked him to take an "obser- 
 vation," as I had seen a good deal of it. But all he did 
 was to make a very profane and unpleasant one. 
 As for this man's outward looks, he was nothing at 
 all particular, but usually with dirt about him, and a 
 sense of oiliness. Why he must needs set up for a 
 saint the father of evil alone may tell ; but they said 
 that the clock that paid him best (being the worst in 
 the neighbourhood) belonged to a Nicodemus-Christ- 
 ian, with a great cuckoo over it. Having never seen
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 29 
 
 it, I cannot say ; and the town is so full of gossip 
 that I throw myself down on my back and listen, 
 being wholly imable to vie with them in depth or in 
 compass of story-telling, even when fish are a week 
 on my hands. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 130 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE CORONER AND THE CORONET. 
 
 An officer of high repute had lately been set over us, 
 to hold account of the mischief, and to follow evid- 
 ence, and make the best he could of it when anybody- 
 chose to die without giving proper notice. He called 
 himself " Coroner of the King ; " and all the doctors, 
 such as they were, made it a point that he must come, 
 whenever there was a dead man or woman who had 
 died without their help. 
 
 Now all about the storm of sand, and all about the 
 shipwreck, was known in every part of the parish, 
 before the church clock had contrived, in gratitude to 
 Hezekiah, to strike the noon of Monday. Every child 
 that went to the well knew the truth of everything ; 
 and every woman of Newton and Nottage had formed 
 from the men her own opinion, and was ready to 
 stand thereby, and defy all the other women. 
 
 Nevertheless some busy doctor (who had better
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I3I 
 
 been in the stocks) took it for a public duty to send 
 notice and demand for the Coroner to sit upon us. 
 The wrath of the parish (now just beginning to find 
 some wreck, that would pay for the ropes) was so 
 honest and so grave, that the little doctor was com- 
 pelled to run and leave his furniture. And so it 
 always ought to be with people who are meddlesome. 
 
 It came to my knowledge that this must happen, 
 and that I was bound to help in it, somewhere about 
 middle-day of Tuesday ; at a time when I was not 
 quite as well as I find myself, when I have no 
 money. For, being pleased with my luck perhaps, 
 and not content quite to smoke in the dark, and a 
 little dry after the glow-worms, it happened (I will 
 not pretend to say how) that I dropped into tlie 
 " Jolly Sailors," to know what the people could be 
 about, making such a great noise as they were, and 
 keeping a quiet man out of his bed. 
 
 There I smelled a new tobacco, directly I was in 
 the room ; and somebody (pleased with my percep- 
 tion) gave me several pipes of it, with a thimbleful 
 — as I became more and more agreeable — of a sort of 
 rum-and-water. And, confining myself, as my prin- 
 ciple is, to what the public treat me to, it is not quite 
 out of the question that I may have been too generous. 
 And truly full I was of grief, upon the following
 
 132 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 morning, that somebody had made me promise, in a 
 bubbling moment, to be there again, and bring my 
 fiddle, on the Tuesday night. 
 
 Now, since the death of my dear wife, who never 
 put up with my fiddle (except when I was courting 
 her), it had seemed to my feelings to be almost a 
 levity to go fiddling. Also I knew what everybody 
 would begin to say of me ; but the landlord, foresee- 
 ing a large attendance after the Coroner's inquest, 
 would not for a moment hear of any breach of my 
 fiddle pledge. 
 
 HaK of Newton, and perhaps all Nottage, went to 
 Sker the following day to see the Coroner, and to give 
 him the benefit of their opinions. And another piece 
 of luck there was to tempt them in that direction. For 
 the ship which had been wrecked and had disappeared 
 for a certain time, in a most atrocious manner, was 
 rolled about so by the tide and a shift of the wind on 
 Monday, that a precious large piece of her stern was in 
 sight from the shore on Tuesday morning. It lay not 
 more than a cable's length from low-water mark, and 
 was heaved up so that we could see as far as the star- 
 board mizzen-chains. Part of the taffrail was carried 
 away, and the carving gone entirely, but the transom 
 and transom-knees stood firm ; and of the ship's name 
 done in frold I could make out in large letters ta
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 33 
 
 LUCIA; and underneath, in a curve, and in smaller 
 letters, ador. 
 
 Of course no one except myself could make head 
 or tail of this ; but after thinking a little while, I 
 was pretty sure of the meaning of it — namely, that 
 the craft was Portuguese, called tlie Santa Lucia, and 
 trading from San Salvador, the capital of Brazils. 
 And in this opinion I was confirmed by observing 
 through my spy-glass, copper bolt-heads of a pattern 
 such as I had seen at Lisbon, but never in any British 
 ship. However, I resolved, for the present, to keep 
 my opinion to myself, unless it were demanded upon 
 good anthority. For it made me feel confused in 
 mind, and perhaps a little uneasy, when, being struck 
 by some resemblance, I pulled from the lining of my 
 hat a leaf of a book, upon which I copied all that 
 could be made out of the letters, each side of the til- 
 ler of my new boat ; and now I found them to be 
 these, — uc from the starboard side, just where they 
 would have stood in Lucia — and doe from the further 
 end of the line, just as in San Salvador. 
 
 The sands were all alive with people, and the rocks, 
 and every place where anything good might have 
 drifted. For Evan Thomas could scarcely come at a 
 time of such affliction to assert his claims of wreck, 
 and to belabour right and left. Therefore, for a mile
 
 134 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 or more, from where tlie land begins to dip, and the 
 old stone wall, like a jagged cord, divides our parish 
 from Kenfig, hundreds of figures might be seen, run- 
 ning along the grey wet sands, and reflected by their 
 brightness. The day was going for two of the clock, 
 and the tide growing near to the turn of ebb ; and 
 the landsprings oozing down from the beach, spread 
 the whole of the flat sands so, with a silver overlay- 
 ing, that without keen sight it was hard to tell where 
 the shore ended and sea began. And a great jjart of 
 this space was sprinkled with naked feet going pat- 
 tering — boys and girls, and young women and men, 
 who had left their shoes up high on the rocks, to have 
 better chance in the racing. 
 
 Now it is not for me to say that all or half of these 
 good people were so brisk because they expected any 
 fine thing for themselves. I would not even describe 
 them as waiting in readiness for the force of fortune 
 by the sea administered. I believe that all were 
 most desirous of doing good, if possible. In the first 
 case, to the poor people drowned ; but if too late, 
 then to console any disconsolate relations : failing of 
 which, it would be hard if anybody should blame 
 them for picking up something for themselves. 
 
 " What ! you here, mother Probyn?" I cried, com- 
 ing upon a most pious old woman, who led the groan-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 35 
 
 ing at Zoar Chapel, and being for the moment struck 
 out of all my manners by sight of her. 
 
 " Indeed, and so I am, old Davy," she answered, 
 without abashment, and almost too busy to notice 
 me; "the Lord may bless my poor endeavours to 
 rescue them poor Injuns. But I can't get on without 
 a rake. If I had only had the sense to bring my 
 garden-rake. There are so many little things, scarcely 
 as big as cockle-shells ; and the waves do drag them 
 away from me. Oh, there, and there goes another ! 
 Gvvenny, if I don't smack you I" 
 
 All these people, and all their doings, I left with a 
 sort of contempt, perhaps, such as breaks out on me 
 now and then at any very great littleness. And I 
 knew that nothing worth wet of the knees could be 
 found with the ebb-tide running, and ere the hold of 
 the ship broke up. 
 
 So I went toward the great house, whose sorrows 
 and whose desolation they took little heed of. And 
 nothing made me feel more sad — strange as it may 
 seem, and was — than to think of poor black Evan, 
 thus unable to stand up and fight for his unrighteous 
 rights. 
 
 In the great hall were six bodies, five of strong 
 young men laid quiet, each in his several coffin ; and 
 the other of a little child in a simple dress of wliite, 
 
 ^
 
 136 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 stretched upon a piece of board. Death T have seen 
 in all his manners, since I was a cabin-boy, and I 
 took my hat off to the bodies, as I had seen them do 
 abroad; but when I saw the small dead child, a thrill 
 and pang of cold went through me. I made sure of 
 nothing else, except that it was dear Bardie. That 
 little darling whom I loved, for her gifts direct from 
 God, and her ways, so out of the way to all other 
 children — it struck my heart with a power of death, 
 that here this lively soul was dead. 
 
 When a man makes a fool of himself, anybody 
 may laugh at him ; and this does him good, perhaps, 
 and hardens him against more trouble. But bad as 
 I am, and sharp as I am, in other people's opinion 
 (and proud sometimes to think of it), I could not 
 help a good gulp of a tear, over what I believed to 
 be the body of poor little Bardie. For that child had 
 such nice ways, and took such upper hand of me ; 
 that, expecting to find a Captain always, especially 
 among women 
 
 "Old Davy, I 'ants 'a. Old Davy, 'hen is 'a 
 coming?" 
 
 By the union-jack, it was as good as a dozen kegs 
 of rum to me. There was no mistaking the sweetest 
 and clearest voice ever heard outside of a flute. And 
 presently began pit-pat of the prettiest feet ever put
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 37 
 
 in a shoe, down the great oak staircase. She held on 
 by the rails, and showed no fear at all about it, 
 though the least slip might have killed her. Then 
 she saw the sad black sight after she turned the cor- 
 ner, and wondered at the meaning of it, and her little 
 heart stood still. As she turned to me in awe, and 
 held out both hands quivering, I caught her up, and 
 spread my grey beard over her young frightened eyes, 
 and took her out of sight of all those cold and very 
 dreadful things. 
 
 I had never been up the stairs before in that dark 
 and ancient house ; and the length, and the width, 
 and the dreariness, and the creaking noises, frightened 
 me ; not so much for my own sake (being never re- 
 quired to sleep there), but for the tender little creature, 
 full already of timid fancies, who must spend the 
 dark nights there. And now the house, left empty 
 of its noise, and strength, and boastfulness, had only 
 five more ghosts to wander silent through the silent 
 places. And this they began the very night after 
 their bodies were in a churchyard. 
 
 Tlie Coroner came on an old white pony, nearly 
 four hours after the time for which his clerk had 
 ordered us. Being used, for my part, to royal dis- 
 cipline, and everything done to the minute fixed, 
 with the captain's voice like the crack of a gun, I was
 
 138 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 vexed and surprised ; but expected him to give us 
 some reason, good or bad. Instead of that he roared 
 out to us, with his feet still in both stirrups, " Is 
 there none of you Taffies with manners enough to 
 come and hold a gentleman's horse ? Here you, Davy 
 Jones, you are long enough, and lazy enough ; put 
 your hand to the bridle, will you ? " 
 
 This was to me, who was standing by, in the very 
 height of innocence, having never yet seen any man 
 appointed to sit upon dead bodies, and desiring to 
 know how he could help them. I did for his Honour 
 all I could, although his manner of speech was not 
 in any way to my liking. But my rule has always 
 been that of the royal navy, than which there is no 
 wiser. If my equal insults me, I knock him down ; 
 if my officer does it, I knock under. 
 
 Meanwhile our people were muttering " Sassenach, 
 Sassenach !" And from their faces it was plain that 
 they did not like an Englishman to sit upon Cymric 
 bodies. However, it was the old, old thing. The 
 Welsh must do all the real work ; and the Eng- 
 lish be paid for sitting upon them after they are 
 dead. 
 
 " I never sate on a black man yet, and I won't sit 
 on a black man now," the Coroner said, when he was 
 sure about oats enough for Lis pony ; " I'll not dis-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 39 
 
 grace his Majesty's writ by sitting upon damned 
 niggers." 
 
 "Glory be to God, your Honour!" Stradling 
 Williams cried, who had come as head of the jury : 
 clerk he was of Newton church, and could get no 
 fees unless upon a Christian burial : " we thought 
 your Honour would hardly put so great a disgrace 
 upon us ; but we knew not how the law lay." 
 
 " The law requires no Christian man," pronounced 
 the Crowner, that all might hear, " to touch pitch, 
 and defile himself. Both in body and soul. Master 
 Clerk, to lower and defile himself !" 
 
 Hereupon a high hard screech, which is all we 
 have in Wales for the brave liurrah of Englishmen, 
 showed that all the jury were of one accord with the 
 Coroner : and I was told by somebody that all had 
 shaken hands, and sworn to strike work, rather than 
 put up with misery of conscience. 
 
 " But, your Honour," said Mr Lewis, bailiff to 
 Colonel Lougher, " if we hold no quest on the black 
 men, how shall we certify anything about tliis 
 terrible shipwreck ?" 
 
 "The wreck is no concern of mine," answered the 
 Crowner, crustily : " it is not my place to sit upon 
 planks, but upon Christian bodies. Do you attend 
 to your own business, and leave mine to me, sir."
 
 140 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 The bailiff, being a nice quiet man, thought it best 
 to say no more. But some of the people who were 
 thronging from every direction to see his Honour, 
 told him about the little white baby found among 
 the bladder-weed. He listened to this, and then he 
 said, — 
 
 " Show me this little white infant discovered 
 among the black men. My business here is not with 
 infants, but with five young smothered men. How- 
 ever, if there be an infant of another accident, and of 
 Christian colour, I will take it as a separate case, 
 and damn the county in the fees." 
 
 "We assured his lordship, as every one now began 
 to call him (in virtue of his swearing so, which no 
 doubt was right in a man empowered to make other 
 people swear), we did our best at any rate to convince 
 the Crowner, that over and above all black men, 
 there verily was a little child, and, for all one could 
 tell, a Christian child, entitled to the churchyard, 
 and good enough for him to sit on. And so he 
 entered the house to see it. 
 
 But if he had sworn a little before (and more than 
 I durst set down for him), he certainly swore a great 
 deal now, and poured upon us a bitter heat of 
 English indignation. All of the jury were taken 
 aback ; and I as a witness felt most uneasy ; until
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I4I 
 
 we came to understand that his Honour's wrath was 
 justly kindled on account of some marks on the 
 baby's clothes. 
 
 " A coronet !" he cried, stamping about ; " a coronet 
 on my young lord's pinafore, and you stupid oafs 
 never told me !" 
 
 Nobody knew except myself (who had sailed with 
 an earl for a captain) what the meaning of tliis thing 
 was ; and when the clerk of the church was asked, 
 rather than own his ignorance, he said it was part of 
 the arms of the crown ; and the Crowner was bound 
 like a seal by it. 
 
 This explanation satisfied all the people of the 
 parish, except a few far-going Baptists, with whom 
 it was a point of faith always to cavil and sneer at 
 every " wind of doctrine," as they always called it — 
 the scent of which could be traced, anyhow, to either 
 the parson or the clerk, or even the gravedigger. 
 But I was content to look on and say nothing, having 
 fish to sell, at least twice a- week, and finding all 
 customers orthodox, until they utter bad shillings.
 
 142 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Theee is no need for me to follow all the Crowner's 
 doings, or all that the juries thought and said, which 
 was different altogether from what they meant to 
 think and say. And he found himself bound to have 
 two of them, with first right of inquest to the baby 
 because of the stamp on his pinafore. And here I 
 was, foreman of the jury, with fifteenpence for my 
 services, and would gladly have served on the other 
 jury after walking all that way, but was disabled for 
 doing so, and only got ninepence for testimony. 
 With that, however, I need not meddle, as every one 
 knows all about it ; only, to make clear all that 
 happened, and, indeed, to clear myself, I am forced 
 to put before you all that we did about that baby, as 
 fully and emphatically as the state of our doings 
 upon that occasion permitted me to remember it. 
 For the Coroner sate at the head of the table, in
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I43 
 
 the great parlour of the house ; and the dead child 
 came in on his board, and we all regarded him carefully, 
 especially heeding his coronet mark, and then set him 
 by the window. A fine young boy enough to look at, 
 about the age of our Bardie, and might have been her 
 twin-brother, as everybody vowed he was, only his 
 face was bolder and stronger, and his nose quite dif- 
 ferent, and altogether a brave young chap, instead of 
 funny and delicate. All this, however, might well 
 have come from knocking about in the sea so much. 
 I would have given a good half-crown to have 
 bitten off my foolish tongue, when one of the jury- 
 men stood up and began to address the Coroner. 
 He spoke, unluckily, very good English, and his 
 Honour was glad to pay heed to him. And the 
 clerk put down nearly all he said, word for word, as 
 might be. This meddlesome fellow (being no less 
 than brother Hezekiah's self) nodded to me for leave 
 to speak, which I could not deny him ; and his 
 Honour lost no time whatever to put his mouth into 
 his rummer of punch, as now provided for all of us, 
 and to bow (whenever his mouth was empty) to that 
 Hezekiah. For the man had won some reputation, 
 or rather had made it, for himself, by perpetual 
 talking, as if he were skilled in the history and an- 
 tiquities of the neighbourhood. Of these he made
 
 144 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 SO rare a patchwork, heads and tails, prose, verse, 
 and proverbs, histories, and his stories, that (as I 
 heard from a man of real teaching and learning "who 
 met him once and kept out of his way ever after) 
 any one trusting him might sit down in the chair of 
 Canute at King Arthur's table. Not that I or any 
 of my neighbours would be the worse for doing that ; 
 only the thought of it frightened us, and made us 
 unwilling to hearken him much. 
 
 However, if there was any matter on which Heze- 
 kiah deserA'ed to be heard, no doubt it was this upon 
 which he was now delivering his opinions — to wit, 
 the great inroad or invasion of the sand, for miles 
 along our coast ; of which there are very strange 
 things to tell, and of which he had made an especial 
 study, having a field at Candleston with a shed upon 
 it and a rick of hay, all which disappeared in a single 
 night, and none was ever seen afterwards. It was 
 the only field he had, being left to him by his grand- 
 mother ; and many people were disappointed that 
 he had not slept with his cow that night. This 
 directed his attention to the serious consideration, 
 as he always told us at first start, being a lover of 
 three-decked words, of the most important contem- 
 plation which could occupy the attention of any 
 Cambrian landowner.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I45 
 
 " Show your land/' cried a wag of a tailor, with 
 none to cross his legs upon ; but we put him down, 
 and pegged him down, till his manners should be 
 of the pattern-book. Hezekiah went on to tell, in 
 words too long to answer the helm of such a plain 
 sailor as I am, how the sweep of hundreds of miles 
 of sand had come up from the west and south-west 
 in only two hundred and fifty years. How it had 
 first begun to flow about the Scilly Islands, as men- 
 tioned by one Borlase, and came to the mouth of 
 Hayle river, in Cornwall, in the early years of King 
 Henry VIII., and after that blocked up Bude Haven, 
 and swallowed the ploughs in the arable land. Then 
 at Llanant it came like a cloud over the moon one 
 winter night, and buried five-and-thirty houses with 
 the people in them. 
 
 An Act of Parliament was passed — chapter the 
 second of Philip and jNIary — to keep it out of 
 Glamorganshire ; and good commissioners were 
 appointed, and a survey made along the coast, 
 especially of Kenfig. Nevertheless the dash of sand 
 was scarcely on their ink, when swarming, driving, 
 darkening the air, the storm swept on their survey. 
 At the mouths of the Tawey and Afan rivers the 
 two sailors' chapels were buried, and then it swept 
 up the great Koman road, a branch of the Julian 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 146 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 way, and smothered the pillars of Gordian, and swal- 
 lowed the castle of Kenfig, which stood by the side 
 of the western road ; and still rushing eastward, took 
 Newton village and Newton old church beneath it. 
 And so it went on for two hundred years, coming 
 up from the sea, no doubt, carried by the perpetual 
 gales, which always are from the south and west — 
 filling all the hollow places, changing all bright 
 mossy pools into hills of yellow drought, and, like a 
 great encampment, dwelling over miles and leagues 
 of land. And like a camp it was in this, that it 
 was always striking tent. Six times in the last few 
 years had the highest peak of sand — the general's 
 tent it might be called — been shifted miles away, 
 perhaps, and then come back towards Ogmore ; and 
 it was only the other day that, through some shift 
 or swirl of wind, a windmOl, with its sails entire, 
 had been laid bare near Candleston, of which the 
 last record was in Court-rolls of a hundred and fifty 
 years agone.* 
 
 Now all this, though Hezekiah said it, was true 
 
 * A clear and interesting account of this mighty sand-march 
 may be found in a very learned paper by the Rev. H. H. Knight, 
 B.D., formerly rector of Neath, Glamorgan ; -which paper, entitled 
 "An Account of Newton-Nottage," was reprinted at Tenby in 1853, 
 from the * Archreologia Cambrensis. ' Considerable movements still 
 occur, but of late years no very great advance.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I47 
 
 enough, I do believe, having heard things much to 
 the same purpose from my own old grandfather. The 
 Coroner listened with more patience than we had 
 given him credit for, although he told us that brother 
 Perkins should have reserved his learned speech for the 
 second inquiry, which was to be about the deaths of 
 the five young men ; for to him it appeared that this 
 noble infant must lay the blame of his grievous loss 
 not on the sand but upon the sea. Hezekiah replied, 
 with great deference, that the cause in both cases 
 was the same, for that the movement of sand went 
 on under the sea even more than ashore, and hence 
 the fatal gulfing of that ship, the Andalusia, and the 
 loss of his young lordship. 
 
 The name he had given the ship surprised me ; 
 and indeed I felt sure that it was quite wrong ; and 
 so I said immediately, without any low consideration 
 of what might be mine own interest. But the 
 Coroner would not hearken to me, being much 
 impressed now with the learning and wisdom of 
 Hezekiah Perkins. And when Hezekiah presented 
 his card, beginning with " horologist," and ending 
 with the " king and queen," he might have had any 
 verdict he liked, if he himself had been upon trial. 
 
 Therefore, after calling in (for the sake of form) the 
 two poor women who found the dead baby among
 
 148 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 the sea-weed, and had sevenpence apiece for doing 
 so, and who cried all the while that they talked in 
 Welsh (each having seen a dear baby like him not 
 more than twenty years ago), we came in the most 
 unanimous manner, under his lordship's guidance, to 
 the following excellent verdict : — 
 
 "Found drowned on Pool Tavan rocks, a man- 
 child, supposed to be two years old ; believed to be 
 a young nobleman, from marks on pinafore, and high 
 bearing ; but cast away by a storm of sand from the 
 ship Andalusia of Appledore." 
 
 Now I was as certain, as sure could be, that half 
 of tliis verdict must be wrong; especially as to the 
 name of the ship, and her belonging to Appledore, 
 which never yet owned any craft of more than 200 
 tons at the utmost — a snow, or a brig at the very 
 outside. Nevertheless I was compelled to give in 
 to the rest of them, and most of all to the Coroner. 
 Only I said, as many who are still aUve can remem- 
 ber, and are not afraid to speak to, and especially 
 my good friend Mr Lewis, " The ship was not called 
 the Andalusia ; the ship was never from Appledore ; 
 neither was she of British build. As an old seaman, 
 it is likely that I know more of the build of a ship 
 than a lubber of a clock-maker, or rather a clock- 
 mauler."
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I49 
 
 But here I was put down sternly ; and hearing of 
 verdicts a great deal worse, without any mischief 
 come of them, I was even content to sign the return, 
 and have a new pipe of bird's-eye. And a bird's-eye 
 view this gave me of them at the second inquest 
 wherein I had to give evidence ; and was not of the 
 jury. They wanted to cross-examine me, because I 
 had been unpleasant ; but of that they got the worst, 
 and dropped it. But as all our jurymen declared 
 upon their oaths that the little nobleman was 
 drowned in a storm of sand, so they found that the 
 five young rabbiters came to their end of smothering 
 through a violent sea-tempest. 
 
 In the days of my youth such judgments perhaps 
 would have tried my patience ; but now I knew that 
 nothing ever follows truth and justice. People talk 
 of both these things, and perhaps the idea does them 
 good. 
 
 Be that according to God's will — as we always say 
 when deprived of our own — at any rate, I am bound 
 to tell one little thing more about each quest. And 
 first about the first one. "Why was I so vexed and 
 angry with my foolish tongue when Hezekiah began 
 to speak? Only because I knew full well that it would 
 lead to the very thing, which it was my one desire to 
 avoid, if possible. And this — as you may guess at
 
 150 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 once, after what happened on the stairs — was the 
 nide fetching and exposing of the dear little maid 
 among so many common fellows ; and to show her 
 the baby-corpse. I feared that it must come to this, 
 through my own thoughtless blabbing about her 
 " ickle bother " in the presence of Hezekiah : and if 
 every man had a hollow dry heart from over-pumping 
 of the tongue, I had it when Hezekiah came in ; 
 bearing, in a depth of fright and wonder, and con- 
 tempt of him, my own delicate Bardie. I had set my 
 back against the door, and sworn that they should 
 not have her ; but crafty Perkins had stolen out by 
 another door while they humoured me. Now my 
 pretty dear was awed, and hushed beyond all crying, 
 and even could not move her feet, as children do, in 
 a kicking way. Trying to get as far as possible from 
 Hezekiah's nasty face — which gave me a great deal 
 of pleasure, because she had never done the like to 
 me, unless I were full of tobacco — she stretched away 
 from his greasy shoulder, and then she saw old Davy. 
 Her hands came toward me, and so did her eyes, and 
 so did her lips, with great promise of kisses, such as 
 her father and mother perhaps might have been 
 mightily tempted by ; but nobody now to care for 
 them. 
 
 When Hezekiah, pretending to dandle this little
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. IS I 
 
 lady in a jaunty way, like one of his filthy low chil- 
 dren, was taking her towards that poor little corpse, 
 so white in the light of the window ; and when he 
 made her look at it, and said, " Is that ickle bother, 
 my dear ?" and she all the time was shivering and 
 turning her eyes away from it, and seeking for me to 
 help her, I got rid of the two men who held me, nor 
 hearkened I the Coroner, but gave Hezekiah such a 
 grip as he felt for three months afterwards, and with 
 Bardie on my left arm, kept my right fist ready. 
 
 Nobody cared to encounter this ; for I had hap- 
 pened to tell the neighbourhood how the Frenchman's 
 head came off at the time when he tried to injure me ; 
 and so I bore off the little one, till her chest began 
 to pant and her tears ran down my beard. And then 
 as I spoke softly to her and began to raise her fingers, 
 and to tickle her frizzy hair, all of a sudden she flung 
 both arms around my neck, and loved me. 
 
 " Old Davy, poor ickle Bardie not go to 'e back 
 pithole yet ?" 
 
 " No, my dear, not for ever so long. Not for eighty 
 years at least. And then go straight to heaven !" 
 
 "Ickle bother go to 'e back pithole? Does 'a 
 think, old Davy ?" 
 
 This was more than I could teU, though inclined 
 to think it very likely. However, before I could
 
 152 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 answer, some of the jury followed us, and behind 
 them the Coroner himself; they insisted on putting 
 a question to her, and so long as they did not force 
 her again to look at that which terrified her, I had 
 no right to prevent them. They all desired to speak 
 at once ; but the clerk of the Coroner took the lead, 
 having as yet performed no work toward the earning of 
 his salt or rum. An innocent old man he was, but 
 very free from cleanliness ; and the child being most 
 particular of all ever born in that matter, turned away 
 with her mite of a nose, in a manner indescribable. 
 
 He was much too dull to notice this ; but putting 
 back his spectacles, and stooping over her hair and 
 ears (which was all she left outside my beard), he 
 wanted to show his skill in babies, of which he 
 boasted himself a grandfather. And so he began to 
 whisper, — 
 
 " My little dear, you will be a good child — a very 
 good child ; won't you, now ? I can see it in your 
 little face. Such a pretty dear you are ! And all 
 good children always do as they are told, you know. 
 We want you to tell us a little thing about pretty 
 little brother. I have got a little girl at home not so 
 old as you are, and she is so clever, you can't think. 
 Everything she does and says ; everything we tell 
 her "
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I 53 
 
 " Take ayay 'e nasty old man. Take ayay 'e bad 
 old man ; or I never tis 'a again, old Davy." 
 
 She flashed up at me with such wrath, that I was 
 forced to obey her ; while the old man put down his 
 goggles to stare, and all the jury laughed at him. 
 And I was running away with her, for her little 
 breath was hot and short ; when the Coroner called 
 out, " Stop, man ; I know how to manage her." At 
 this I was bound to pull up, and set her to look at 
 him, as he ordered me. She sate well up in my 
 arms, and looked, and seemed not to think very 
 highly of him. 
 
 " Look at his Honour, my dear," said I, stroking 
 her hair as I knew she liked ; " look at his lordship, 
 you pretty duck." 
 
 " Little child," began his Honour, " you have a 
 duty to perform, even at this early period of your 
 very beginning life. We are most desirous to spare 
 your feelings, having strong reasons to believe that 
 you are sprung from a noble family. But in our 
 duty towards your lineage, we must require you, my 
 little dear — we must request you, my little lady — to 
 assist us in our endeavour to identify " 
 
 "I can say 'dentify,' old Dav}^; tell 'e silly old 
 man to say ' dentify ' same as I does." 
 
 She spread her little open hand with such contempt
 
 154 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 at the Coroner, that even his own clerk could not keep 
 his countenance from laughing. And his Honour, 
 having good reason to think her a baby of high posi- 
 tion before, was now so certain that he said, " God 
 bless her ! What a child she is ! Take her away, 
 old mariner. She is used to high society."
 
 155 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A VERDICT ON THE JURY. 
 
 As to the second inquest, I promised (as you may- 
 remember) to tell something also. But in serious 
 truth, if I saw a chance to escape it, without skulk- 
 ing watch, I would liefer be anywhere else almost — 
 except in a French prison. 
 
 After recording with much satisfaction our verdict 
 upon Bardie's brother — which nearly all of us were 
 certain that the little boy must be — the Coroner 
 bade his second jury to view the bodies of the live 
 young men. These were in the great dark hall, set 
 as in a place of honour, and poor young Walkin left 
 to mind them ; and very pale and ill he looked. 
 
 " If you please, sir, they are all stretched out, and 
 I am not afraid of them;" he said to me, as I went 
 to console him : " father cannot look at them ; but 
 mother and I are not afraid. They are placed ac- 
 cording to their ages, face after face, and foot after
 
 156 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 foot. And I am sure they never meant it, sir, when 
 they used to kick me out of bed : and oftentimes I 
 deserved it." 
 
 I thought much less of those five great corpses 
 than of the gentle and loving boy who had girt up 
 his heart to conquer fear, and who tried to think 
 evil of himself for the comforting of his brethren's 
 souls. 
 
 But he nearly broke down when the jurymen 
 came ; and I begged them to spare him the pain and 
 trial of going before the Coroner to identify the 
 bodies, which I could do, as well as any one ; and to 
 this they all agreed. 
 
 When we returned to the long oak parlour, we 
 found that the dignity of the house was maintained 
 in a way which astonished us. There had been 
 some little refreshment before, especially for his 
 Honour ; but now all these things were cleared 
 away, and the table was spread with a noble sight of 
 glasses, and bottles, and silver implements, fit for the 
 mess of an admiral. Neither were these meant for 
 show alone, inasmuch as to make them useful, there 
 was water cold and water hot, also lemons, and 
 sugar, and nutmeg, and a great black George of ale, 
 a row of pipes, and a jar of tobacco, also a middling 
 keg of Hollands, and an anker of old rum. At first
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 157 
 
 we could hardly believe our eyes, knowing how poor 
 and desolate, both of food and furniture, that old 
 grange had always been. But presently one of us 
 happened to guess, and Hezekiah confirmed it, that 
 the lord of the manor had taken compassion upon 
 his afflicted tenant, and had furnished these things 
 in a handsome manner, from his own great house 
 some five miles distant. But in spite of the custom 
 of the country, I was for keeping away from it all, 
 upon so sad an occasion. And one or two more were 
 for holding aloof, although they cast sheep's-eyes 
 at it. 
 
 However, the Crowner rubbed his hands, and sate 
 down at the top of the table, and then the foreman 
 sate down also, and said that, being so much upset, 
 he was half inclined to take a glass of something 
 weak. He was recommended, if he felt like that, 
 whatever he did, not to take it weak, but to think of 
 his wife and family ; for who could say what such a 
 turn might lead to, if neglected ? And this reflection 
 had such weight, that instead of mixing for himself, 
 he allowed a friend to mix for him. 
 
 The Crowner said, " Now, gentlemen, in the pre- 
 sence of such fearful trouble and heavy blows from 
 Providence, no man has any right to give the rein to 
 his own feelings. It is his duty, as a man, to con-
 
 158 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 trol his sad emotions ; and his duty, as a family- 
 man, to attend to his constitution," With these 
 words he lit a pipe, and poured himself a glass of 
 Hollands, looking sadly upward, so that the measure 
 quite escaped him. "Gentlemen of the jury," he 
 continued with such authority, that the jury were 
 almost ready to think that they must have begun to 
 be gentlemen — till they looked at one another; 
 "gentlemen of the jury, life is short, and trouble 
 long. I have sate upon hundreds of poor people 
 who destroyed themselves by nothing else than want 
 of self-preservation. I have made it my duty ofi&- 
 cially to discourage such shortcomings. Mr Fore- 
 man, be good enough to send the lemons this way ; 
 and when ready for business, say so." 
 
 Crowner Bowles was now as pleasant as he had 
 been grumpy in the morning ; and finding him so, 
 we did our best to keep him in that humour. 
 Neither was it long before he expressed himself in 
 terms which were an honour alike to his heart and 
 head. For he told us, in so many words — though I 
 was not of the jury now, nevertheless I held on to 
 them, and having been foreman just now, could not 
 be, for a matter of form, when it came to glasses, 
 cold-shouldered, — worthy Crowner Bowles, I say, 
 before he had stirred many slices of lemon, told us
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 59 
 
 all, in so many words — and the more, the more we 
 were pleased with them — that for a thoroughly- 
 honest, intelligent, and hard-working jury, commend 
 him henceforth and as long as he held his Majesty's 
 sign-manual, to a jury made of Newton parish and 
 of Kenfig burgesses ! 
 
 We drank his health with bumpers round, every 
 man upon his legs, and then three cheers for his 
 lordship ; until his clerk, who was rather sober, put 
 his thumb up, and said " Stop." And from the way 
 he went on jerking with his narrow shoulders, we 
 saw that he would recall our thoughts to the hall 
 that had no door to it. Then following his looks, 
 we saw the distance of the silence. 
 
 This took us all aback so much, that we had in 
 the witnesses — of whom I the head-man was there 
 already — and for fear of their being nervous, and so 
 confusing testimony, gave them a cordial after swear- 
 ing. Everybody knew exactly what each one of 
 them had to say. But it would have been very 
 hard, and might have done them an injury, not to 
 let them say it. 
 
 The Coroner, having found no need to charge 
 (except his rummer), left his men for a little while 
 to deliberate their verdict. 
 
 " Visitation of God, of course it must be," Strad-
 
 l60 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 ling Williams began to say; " visitation of Almighty 
 God." 
 
 Some of the jury took the pipes out of their 
 mouths and nodded at him, while they blew a ring 
 of smoke ; and others nodded without that trouble ; 
 and all seemed going pleasantly. When suddenly a 
 little fellow, whose name was Simon Edwards, a 
 brother of the primitive Christians, or at least of 
 their minister, being made pugnacious by ardent 
 spirits, rose, and holding the arm of his chair, thus 
 delivered his sentiments ; speaking, of course, in his 
 native tongue. 
 
 " Head-man, and brothers of the jury, I-I-I do 
 altogether refuse and deny the goodness of that judg- 
 ment. The only judgment I will certify is in the 
 lining of my hat, — ' Judgment of Almighty God, for 
 rabbiting on the Sabbath-day." Hezekiah Perkins, I 
 call upon thee, as a brother Christian, and a consistent 
 member, to stand on the side of the Lord with me." 
 
 His power of standing on any side was by this 
 time, however, exhausted ; and falling into his chair 
 he turned pale, and shrunk to the very back of it. 
 For over against him stood Evan Thomas, whom 
 none of us liad seen till then. It was a sight that 
 sobered us, and made the blood fly from our cheeks, 
 and forced us to set down the glass.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. l6l 
 
 The face of black Evan was ashy grey, and his 
 heavy square shoulders slouching forward, and his 
 hands hung by his side. Only his deep eyes shone 
 without moving ; and Simon backed further and 
 further away, without any power to gaze elsewhere. 
 Then Evan Thomas turned from him, without any 
 word, or so much as a sigh, and looked at us all* 
 and no man had power to meet the cold quiet- 
 ness of his regard. And not having thought much 
 about his troubles, we had nothing at all to say to 
 him. 
 
 After waiting for us to begin, and finding no one 
 ready, he spake a few words to us all in Welsh, and 
 the tone of his voice seemed different. 
 
 " Noble gentlemen, I am proud that my poor 
 hospitality pleases you. Make the most of the time 
 God gives ; for six of you have seen the white horse." 
 "With these words he bowed his head, and left us 
 shuddering in the midst of all the heat of cordials. 
 For it is known that men, when prostrate by a crush- 
 ing act of God, have the power to foresee the death 
 of other men that feel no pity for them. And to see 
 the white horse on the night of new moon, even 
 through closed eyehds, and without sense of vision, 
 is the surest sign of aU sure signs of death within 
 the twelvemonth. Therefore all the jury sate 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 t62 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 glowering at one another, each man ready to make 
 oath that Evan's eyes were not on him. 
 
 Now there are things beyond our knowledge, or 
 right of explanation, in which I have a pure true 
 faith — for instance, the " Flying Dutchman," whom 
 I had twice beheld already, and whom no man may 
 *fhree times see, and then survive the twelvemonth ; 
 in him, of course, I had true faith — for what can be 
 clearer than eyesight? Many things, too, which 
 brave seamen have beheld, and can declare ; but as 
 for landsmen's superstitions, I scarcely cared to laugh 
 at them. However, strange enough it is, all black 
 Evan said came true. Simon Edwards first went 
 off, by falling into Newton Wayn, after keeping it 
 up too late at chapel. And after him the other five, 
 all within the twelvemonth ; some in their beds, and 
 some abroad, but aU gone to their last account. And 
 heartily glad I was, for my part (as one after other 
 they dropped off thus), not to have served on that 
 second jury ; and heartily sorry I was also that 
 brother Hezekiah had not taken the luck to behold 
 the white horse. 
 
 Plain enough it will be now, to any one who 
 knows our parts, that after what Evan Thomas said, 
 and the way in which he withdrew from us, the only
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 63 
 
 desire the jury had was to gratify him with their 
 verdict, and to hasten home, ere the dark should fall, 
 and no man to walk by himself on the road. Ac- 
 cordingly, without more tobacco, though some took 
 another glass for strength, they returned the follow- 
 ing verdict : — 
 
 "We find that these five young and excellen* 
 men " — here came their names, with a Mister to each 
 — " were lost on their way to a place of worship, by 
 means of a violent storm of the sea. And the jury 
 cannot separate without offering their heartfelt pity " 
 — the Crowner's clerk changed it to 'sympathy' — 
 "to their bereaved and afiectionate parents. God 
 save the King ! " 
 
 After this, they all went home ; and it took good 
 legs to keep up with them along "Priest Lane," in 
 some of the darker places, and especially where a 
 white cow came, and looked over a gate for the 
 milking-time. I could not help laughing, although 
 myseK not wholly free from uneasiness ; and I 
 grieved that my joints were not as nimble as those 
 of Simon Edwards. 
 
 But while we frightened one another, like so many 
 children, each perceiving something which was worse 
 to those who perceived it not, Hezekiah carried on
 
 l64 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 as if we were a set of fools, and nothing ever could 
 frighten him. To me, who was the bravest of them, 
 this was very irksome ; but it happened that I knew 
 brother Perkins's pet belief. His wife had lived at 
 Longlands once, a lonely house between Nottage and 
 Newton, on the rise of a little hill. And they say 
 Tihat on one night of the year, all the funerals that 
 must pass from Nottage to Newton in the twelve- 
 month, go by in succession there, with all the 
 mourners after them, and the very h}Tiins that 
 they will sing passing softly on the wind. 
 
 So as we were just by Longlands in the early beat 
 of the stars, I managed to be at Perkins's side. 
 Then suddenly, as a bat went by, I caught the arm 
 of Hezekiah, and drew back, and shivered. 
 
 " Name of God, Davy ! what's the matter?" 
 
 " Can't you see them, you blind-eye ? There they 
 go ! there they go ! All the coflBns with palls to 
 them. And the names upon the head-plates : — 
 Evan, and Thomas, and Hopkin, and Piees, and 
 Jenkin, with only four bearers ! And the psalm 
 they sing is the thirty-fourth." 
 
 " So it is ! I can see them all. The Lord have 
 mercy upon my soul ! Oh Davy, Davy ! don't leave 
 me here."
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 65 
 
 He could not walk another step, but staggered 
 against the wall and groaned, and hid his face inside 
 his hat. We got him to Newton with much ado; 
 but as for going to Bridgend that night, he found 
 that our church-clock must be seen to, the very first 
 thing in the morning.
 
 1 66 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TRUTH LIES SOMETIMES IN A WELL. 
 
 The following morning it happened so that I did not 
 get up over early ; not, I assure you, from any undue 
 enjoyment of the grand Crowner's quests ; but partly 
 because the tide for fishing would not suit till the 
 afternoon, and partly because I had worked both 
 hard and long at the " Jolly Sailors : " and this in 
 fulfilment of a pledge from which there was no 
 escaping, when I promised on the niglit before, to 
 grease and tune my violin, and display the true 
 practice of hornpipe. Eash enough this promise 
 was, on account of my dear wife's memory, and the 
 things bad people would say of it. And but for the 
 sad uneasiness created by black Evan's prophecy, 
 and the need of lively company to prevent my see- 
 ing white horses, the fear of the parish might have 
 prevailed with me over all fear of the landlord. 
 Hence I began rather shyly; but when my first
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 167 
 
 tune had "been received with hearty applause from 
 all the room, how could I allow myself to be clapped 
 on the back, and then be lazy ? 
 
 Now Bunny was tugging and clamouring for her 
 bit of breakfast, almost before I was wide-awake, 
 when the latch of my cottage-door was lifted, and 
 in walked Hezekiah. Almost any other man would 
 have been more welcome ; for though he had not 
 spoken of it on the day before, he was sure to annoy 
 me, sooner or later, about the fish he had forced me 
 to sell him. When such a matter is over and done 
 with, surely no man, in common-sense, has a right 
 to reopen the question. The time to find fault with 
 a fish, in all conscience, is before you have bought 
 him. Having once done that, he is now your own ' 
 and to blame him is to find fault with the mercy 
 which gave you the money to buy him. A foolish 
 thing as well ; because you are running down your 
 own property, and spoiling your relish for him. 
 Conduct like this is below contempt ; even more 
 ungraceful and ungracious than that of a man who 
 spreads abroad the faults of his own wife. 
 
 Hezekiah, however, on this occasion, was not quite 
 so bad as that. His errand, according to his lights, 
 was of a friendly nature ; for he pried all round my 
 little room with an extremely sagacious leer, and
 
 l68 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 then gazed at me with a dark cock of his eye, and 
 glanced askance at Bunny, and managed to wink, 
 like the Commodore's ship beginning to light poop- 
 lanterns. 
 
 " Speak out, like a man," I said ; " is your wife 
 confined with a prophecy, or what is the matter with 
 you?" 
 
 " Hepzibah, the prophetess, is well ; and her 
 prophecies are abiding the fulness of their fulfil- 
 ment. I would speak with you on a very secret and 
 important matter, concerning also her revealings." 
 
 " Then I will send the child away. Here, Bunny, 
 run and ask mother Jones " 
 
 " That will not do ; I will not speak here. Walls 
 are thin, and walls have ears. Come down to the 
 well with me." 
 
 "But the well is a lump of walls," I answered, 
 "and children almost always near it." 
 
 " There are no children. I have been down. The 
 well is dry, and the children know it. No better 
 place can be for speaking." 
 
 Looking down across the churchyard, I perceived 
 that he was right ; and so I left Bunny to dwell on 
 her breakfast, and went with Hezekiah. Among the 
 sand-hills there was no one ; for fright had fallen 
 on everybody, since the sands began to walk, as the
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 169 
 
 general folk now declared of them. And nobody- 
 looked at a sand-hill now with any other feeling 
 than towards his grave and tombstone. 
 
 Even my heart was a little heavy, in spite of all 
 scientific points, when I straddled over the stone 
 that led into the sandy passage. After me came 
 Hezekiah, groping with his grimy hands, and calling 
 out for me to stop, until he could have hold of me. 
 However, I left him to follow the darkness, in the 
 wake of his own ideas. 
 
 A better place for secret talk, in a parish full of 
 echoes, scarcely could be found, perhaps, except the 
 old "Eed House" on the shore. So I waited for 
 Perkins to unfold, as soon as we stood on the bottom 
 step, with three or four yards of quicksand, but no 
 dip for a pitcher below us. The children knew that 
 the well was dry, and some of them perhaps were 
 gone to try to learn their letters. 
 
 What then was my disappointment, as it gradually 
 came out, that so far from telling me a secret, Heze- 
 kiah's object was to deprive me of my own ! How- 
 ever, if I say what happened, nobody can grumble. 
 
 In the first place, he manoeuvred much to get the 
 weather-gage of me, by setting me so that the light 
 that slanted down the grey slope should gather itself 
 upon my honest countenance. I, for my part, as a
 
 I/O THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 man unwarned how far it might become a duty to 
 avoid excess of accuracy, took the liberty to prefer a 
 less conspicuous position ; not that I had any lies to 
 tell, but might be glad to hear some. Therefore, I 
 stuck to a pleasant seat upon a very nice sandy slab, 
 where the light so shot and wavered, that a badly 
 inquisitive man might seek in vain for a flush or a 
 flickering of the most delicate light of all — that which 
 is cast by the heart or mind of man into the face of 
 man. 
 
 Upon the whole, it could scarcely be said, at least 
 as concerned Hezekiah, that truth was to be found, 
 just now, at the bottom of this well. 
 
 " Dear brother Dyo," he gently began, with the 
 most brotherly voice and manner ; " it has pleased 
 the Lord, who does all things aright, to send me to 
 you for counsel now, as well as for comfort, beloved 
 Dyo." 
 
 " All that I have is at your service," I answered 
 very heartily ; looking for something about his wife, 
 and always enjoying a thing of that kind among those 
 righteous fellows ; and we heard that Hepzibah had 
 taken up, under word of the Lord, with the Shakers.* 
 
 * These fine fellows are talked of now, as if we had found a 
 novelty. They came through South Wales on a " starring" tour, 
 thirty years agone, and they seemed to be on their last legs then. 
 Under the moon is there anything new ?
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 171 
 
 " Brother David, I have w^restled hard in the 
 night-season, about that which has come to pass. 
 My wife " 
 
 " To be sure," I said. 
 
 " My wife, who was certified seven times as a 
 vessel for the Spirit " 
 
 " To be sure — they always are ; and then they gad 
 about so " 
 
 " Brother, you understand me not ; or desire to 
 think evil. Hepzibah, since her last confinement, is 
 a vessel for the Spirit to the square of what she was. 
 Seven times seven is forty-nine, and requires no cer- 
 tificate. But these are carnal calculations." 
 
 All this took me beyond my depth, and I answered 
 him rather crustily; and my word ended with both 
 those letters which, as I learned from my Catechism, 
 belong to us by baptism. 
 
 " Unholy David, shun evil words. Pray without 
 ceasing, but swear not at all. In a vision of the 
 night, Hepzibah hath seen terrible things of thee." 
 
 " Why, you never went home last night, Hezekiah. 
 How can you tell what your wife dreamed ? " 
 
 " I said not when it came to pass. And how could 
 I speak of it yesterday before that loose assembly ?" 
 
 *' Well, well, out with it ! What was this wonder- 
 ful vision ? "
 
 1/2 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 " Hepzibah, the prophetess, being in a trance, and 
 deeply inspired of the Lord, beheld the following 
 vision: A long lonely sea was spread before her, 
 shining in the moonlight smoothly, and in places 
 strewed with gold. A man was standing on a low 
 black rock, casting a line, and drawing great fish out 
 almost every time he cast. Then there arose from 
 out the water, a dear little child all dressed in white, 
 carrying with both hands her cradle, and just like our 
 little maiden, Martha " 
 
 " Like your dirty Martha indeed !" I was at the 
 very point of saying, but snapped my lips, and saved 
 myself. 
 
 " This small damsel approached the fisherman, and 
 presented her cradle to him, with a very trustful 
 smile. Then he said, 'Is it gold?' And she said, 
 ' No, it is only a white lily.' Upon which he shouted, 
 ' Be off with you !' And the child fell into a desolate 
 hole, and groped about vainly for her cradle. Then 
 all the light faded out of the sea, and the waves and 
 the rocks began moaning, and the fishennan fell on 
 his knees, and sought in vain for the cradle. And 
 while he was moaning, came Satan himself, bearing 
 the cradle red-hot and crackling ; and he seized the 
 poor man by his blue woollen smock, and laid him in 
 the cradle, and rocked it, till his shrieks awoke Hep-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1/3 
 
 zibah. And Hepzibah is certain that you are the 
 man." 
 
 To bear all tbis in tbat sudden manner quite took 
 my breatb away for a minute, so tbat I fell back and 
 knocked my bead, purely innocent as I was. But 
 presently I began to hope tbat tbe propbetess migbt 
 be wrong tbis time ; and tbe more so because tbat 
 vile trance of bers migbt bave come from excessive 
 enjoyment of tbose good fisb of mine. And it grew 
 upon me more and more, tbe more I disUked ber pre- 
 diction about me, tbat if sbe bad sucb inspiration, 
 scarcely would sbe bave sent Hezekiab to buy ber 
 supper from my four-legged table. Therefore I spoke 
 witbout mucb loss of courage. 
 
 " Brother Hezekiab, there is something wrong with 
 Hepzibah. Send ber, I pray you, to Dr Ap-YoUup 
 before sbe prophesies anything more. No blue 
 woollen smock bave I worn tbis summer, but a can- 
 vas jacket only, and more often a striped jersey. It -fo 
 is Sandy Macraw she has seen in her dream, with tbe 
 devil both roasting and rocking him. Glory be to 
 the Lord for it !" 
 
 " Glory be to Him, Dyo, whichever of you two it 
 was ! I hope tbat it may have been Sandy. But 
 Hepzibah is always accurate, even among fishermen." 
 
 "Even fishermen," I answered (being a little
 
 174 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 touched with wrath), " know the folk that understood 
 them, and the folk that cannot. Even fishermen have 
 their right, especially when reduced to it, not to be 
 blasphemed in that way, even by a prophetess." 
 
 " Dyo, you are hot again. What makes you go on 
 so ? A friend's advice is such a thing, that I nearly 
 always take it ; unless I find big obstacles. Dyo, 
 now be advised by me." 
 
 " That depends on how I like it," was the best 
 thing I could say. 
 
 " David Llewellyn, the only chance to save thy 
 sinful soul is this. Open tliine heart to the chosen 
 one, to the favoured of the Lord. Confess to Hepzi- 
 bah the things that befell thee, and how the tempter 
 prevailed with thee. Especially bring forth, my bro- 
 ther, the accursed thing thou hast hid in thy tent, the 
 wedge of gold, and the shekels of silver, and the 
 Babylonish garment. Thou hast stolen, and dissem- 
 bled also ; and put it even among thine own stuff. 
 Cast it from thee, deliver it up, lay it before the ark 
 of the Lord, and Hepzibah shall fall down and pray, 
 lest thou be consumed and burnt with fire, like the 
 son of Carmi the son of Zabdi, and covered over with 
 a great heap of stones, even such as this is." 
 
 My wrath at this foul accusation, and daring at- 
 tempt to frighten me, was kindled so that I could not
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 75 
 
 speak ; and if this had happened in the open air, I 
 should have been certain to knock him down. How- 
 ever, I be<]ran to think, for Perkins was a litioiious 
 fellow ; and however strict a man's conduct is, he does 
 not want his affairs all exposed. Therefore I kept 
 my knit knuckles at home, but justly felt strong in- 
 dignation. Perkins thought he had terrified me, for 
 perhaps in that bad light I looked pale ; and so he 
 began to triumph upon me, which needs, as every- 
 body knows, a better man than Hezekiah. 
 
 " Come, come, brother Dyo," he said, in a voice 
 quite different from the Chapel-Scriptural style he 
 had used ; " you see, we know all about it. Two dear 
 children come ashore, one dead, and the other not 
 dead. You contrive to receive them both, with your 
 accustomed poaching skill. For everybody says that 
 you are always to be found everywhere, except in 
 your chapel, on Sabbath-day. Xow, David, what do 
 our good people, having families of their own, find 
 upon these children ? Not so much as a chain, or 
 locket, or even a gold pin. I am a jeweller, and I 
 know that children of high position always have 
 some trinket on them, when their mothers love them. 
 A child with a coronet, and no gold ! David, this is 
 wrong of wrong. And worse than this, you conceal 
 the trutl^ even from me your ancient friend. There
 
 176 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 must be a great deal to be made, either from those 
 who would hold them in trust, or from those in 
 whose way they stood. For the family died out, 
 very likely, in all male inheritance. Tliink what we 
 might make of it, by acting under my direction. 
 And you shall have half of it all, old Davy, by re- 
 lieving your mind, and behaving in a sensible and 
 religious manner." 
 
 This came home to my sense of experience more 
 than all Hepzibah's divine predictions or productions. 
 At the same time I saw that Hezekiah was all abroad 
 in the dark, and groping right and left after the 
 bodily truth. And what caU had he to cry shares 
 with me, because he had more reputation, and a higher 
 conceit of himself, of course ? But it crossed my 
 mind that this nasty feUow, being perhaps in front 
 of me in some little tricks of machinery, might be 
 useful afterwards in getting at the real truth, which 
 often kept me awake at night. Only I was quite 
 resolved not to encom'age roguery, by letting him into 
 partnership. Perceiving my depth of consideration 
 — for it suited my purpose to hear him out, and 
 learn how much he suspected — it was natural that 
 he should try again to impress me yet further by 
 boasting. 
 
 " Dyo, I have been at a Latin school for as much
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 177 
 
 as three months together. My father gave me a rare 
 education, and I made the most of it. None of your 
 ignorance for me ! I am up to the moods and the 
 tenses, the accidents and the proselytes. The present 
 I know, and the future I know ; the Peter-perfection, 
 and the hay-roost " 
 
 " I call that stuff gibberish. Talk plain English if 
 you can." 
 
 " Understand you then so much as this ? I speak 
 in a carnal manner now. I speak as a fool unto a 
 fool. I am up to snuff, good Dyo ; I can tell the 
 time of day." 
 
 " Then you are a devilish deal cleverer than any 
 of your clocks are. But now thou speakest no par- 
 ables, brother. Now I know what thou meanest. 
 Thou art up for robbing somebody ; and if I 
 would shun Satan's clutches, I must come and help 
 thee." 
 
 "Dyo, this is inconsistent, nor can I call it 
 brotherly. We wish to do good, both you and I, and 
 to raise a little money for works of love ; you, no 
 doubt, with a good end in view, to console you for 
 much tribulation ; and I with a single eye to the 
 advancement of the cause which I have at heart, to 
 save many brands from the burning. Then, Dyo, 
 y^hy not act together? Why not help one another, 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 178 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 dear brother ; thou with the good luck, and I with 
 the brains?" 
 
 He Laid his hand on my shoulder kindly, with a 
 yearning of his bowels towards me, such as true Non- 
 conformists feel at the scent of any money, 1 found 
 myseK also a little moved, not being certain how far 
 it was wise to throw him altogether over. 
 
 But suddenly, by what means I know not, except 
 the will of Providence, there arose before me that 
 foul wrong which the Mcodemus-Christian had com- 
 mitted against me some three years back. I had for- 
 borne to speak of it till now, wishing to give the man 
 fair play. 
 
 " Hezekiah, do you remember," I asked, with much 
 solemnity — " do you remember your twentieth wed- 
 ding-day?" 
 
 " Davy, my brother, how many times — never mind 
 talking about that now." 
 
 " You had a large company coming, and to whom 
 did you give a special order to catch you a turbot at 
 tenpence a-pound ? " 
 
 " Nay, nay, my dear friend Dyo ; shall I never get 
 that thing out of your stupid head ? " 
 
 " You had known me for twenty years at least as 
 the very best fisherman on the coast, and a man that 
 could be relied upon. Yet you must go and give that
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. ' 1 79 
 
 order, not to a man of good Welsh blood — with ten 
 Welshmen coming to dinner, mind — not to a man 
 that was bred and born within five miles of your 
 dirty house — not to a man that knew every cranny 
 and crinkle of sand where the turbots lie ; but to a 
 tag-rag Scotchman! It was spoken of upon every 
 pebble from Briton Ferry to Aberthaw. David 
 Llewellyn put under the feet of a fellow like Sandy 
 Macraw — a beggarly, interloping, freckled, bitter 
 weed of a Scotchman ! " 
 
 " AVell, Davy, I have apologised. How many 
 times more must I do it ? It was not that I doubted 
 your skill. You tell us of that so often, that none of 
 us ever question it. It was simply because — I feared 
 just then to come near your excellent and la- 
 mented " 
 
 " No excuses, no excuses, Mr Perkins, if you 
 please ! You only make the matter worse. As if a 
 man's wife could come into the question, when it 
 comes to business ! Yours may, because you don't 
 know how to manage her ; but mine " 
 
 " Well, now she is gone, Dyo ; and very good she 
 was to you. And in your heart, you know it." 
 
 Whether he said this roguishly, or from the feeling 
 which all of us have when it comes to one another, I 
 declare I knew not then, and I know not even now.
 
 l80 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 For I did not feel so sharply up to look to mine own 
 interest, with these recollections over me. I waited 
 for him to begin again, but he seemed to stick back 
 in the corner. And in spite of all that turbot busi- 
 ness, at the moment I could not help holding out my 
 hand to him. 
 
 He took it, and shook it, with as much emotion as 
 if he had truly been fond of my wife ; and I felt that 
 nothing more must be said concerning that order to 
 Sandy Macraw. It seemed to be very good reason 
 also, for getting out of that interview ; for I might 
 say things to be sorry for, if I allowed myself to go 
 on any more with my heart so open. Therefore I 
 called in my usual briskness, " Lo, the water is rising ! 
 The children must be at the mouth of the well. 
 "What will the good wife prophesy if she sees thee 
 coming up the stairs with thy two feet soaking wet, 
 Master Hezekiah ? "
 
 I8I 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 FOR A LITTLE CHANGE OF AIR. 
 
 On the very next day, I received sucli a visit as 
 never had come to my house before. For while I 
 was trimming my hooks, and wondering how to get 
 out of all this trouble with my conscience sound and 
 my pocket improved ; suddenly I heard a voice not 
 to be found anywhere. 
 
 " I 'ants to yalk, I tell 'a, Yatkin. Put me down 
 derekkerly. I 'ants to see old Davy." 
 
 " And old Davy wants to see you, you beauty," I 
 cried, as she jumped like a little wild kid, and took 
 all my house with a glance, and then me. 
 
 " Does 'a know, I yikes this house, and I yikes 'a, 
 and I yikes Yatkin, and ickle Bunny, and evelybody ?" 
 
 She pointed all round for everybody, with all ten 
 fingers spread everyway. Then Watkin came after 
 her, like her slave, with a foolish grin on his coun- 
 tenance, in spite of the undertaking business.
 
 1 82 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 " If you please, sir, Mr Llewellyn," he said, " we 
 was forced to bring her over ; she have been crying 
 ^ dreadful, and shivering about the black pit-hole 
 so. And M'hen the black things came into the house, 
 she was going clean out of her little mind, ever so 
 many times almost. No use it was at all to tell her 
 ever so much a-yard they was. ' I don't yike back, 
 and I 'on't have back. Yite I yikes, and boo I yikes ; 
 and my dear papa be so very angy, when I tells him 
 all about it.' She went on like that, and she did so 
 cry, mother said she must change the air a bit." 
 
 All the time he was telling me this, she watched 
 him with her head on one side and her lips kept 
 ready in the most comic manner, as much as to say, 
 " Now you tell any stories at my expense, and you 
 may look out." But Watkin was truth itself, and 
 she nodded, and said "Ness," at the end of his 
 speech. 
 
 " And, if you please, sir, Mr Llewellyn, whatever 
 is a ' belung,' sir ? All the way she have been asking 
 for belung, belung, belung.' And I cannot tell for 
 the life of me whatever is ' belung.' " 
 
 " Boy, never ask what is unbecoming," I replied, 
 in a manner which made him blush, according to 
 my intention. For the word might be English for 
 all I knew, and have something of high life in it.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I'S^ 
 
 However, I found, by-and-by, that it meant what 
 she was able to call ' Ummibella/ when promoted a 
 year in the dictionary. 
 
 But now anybody should only have seen her, who 
 wanted a little rousing up. My cottage, of course, 
 is not much to boast of, compared with castles, and 
 so on ; nevertheless there is something about it plea- 
 sant and good, like its owner. You might see ever 
 so many houses, and think them larger, and grander, 
 and so on, with more opportunity for sitting down, 
 and less for knocking your head perhaps ; and after 
 all you would come back to mine. Not for the sake 
 of the meat in the cupboard — because I seldom had 
 any, and far inferior men had more ; but because — 
 well, it does not matter. I never could make you 
 understand, unless you came to see it. 
 
 Only I felt that I had found a wonderful creature 
 to make me out, and enter almost into my own 
 views (of which the world is not capable) every time 
 I took this child up and down the staircase. She 
 would have jumps, and she made me talk in a man- 
 ner that quite surprised myself; and such a fine 
 feeling grew up between us, that it was a happy 
 thing for the whole of us, not to have Bunny in the 
 way just then. Mother Jones was giving her apple- 
 party ; as she always did when the red streaks came
 
 l84 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 upon her "Early Margarets." But I always think 
 the White Juneating is a far superior apple : and I 
 have a tree of it. My little garden is nothing grand, 
 any more than the rest of my premises, or even 
 myself, if it comes to that ; still you might go for a 
 long day's walk, and find very few indeed to beat it, 
 unless you were contradictory. For ten doors at 
 least, both west and east, this was admitted silently ; 
 as was proved by their sending to me for a cabbage, 
 an artichoke, or an onion, or anything choice for a 
 Sunday dinner. It may suit these very people now 
 to shake their heads and to run me down, but they 
 should not forget what I did for them, when it comes 
 to pronouncing fair judgment. 
 
 Poor Bardie appeared as full of bright spirit, and 
 as brave as ever, and when she tumbled fiwm jump- 
 ing two steps, what did she do but climb back and 
 jump three, which even Bunny was afraid to do. 
 But I soon perceived that this was only a sort of a 
 flash in the pan, as it were. The happy change from 
 the gloom of Sker House, from the silent corners and 
 creaking stairs, and long-faced people keeping watch, 
 and howling every now and then — also the sight of 
 me again (whom she looked upon as her chief pro- 
 tector), and the general air of tidiness belonging to 
 my dwelling — these things called forth all at once
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 85 
 
 the play and joyful spring of her nature. But when 
 she began to get tired of this, and to long for a little 
 coaxing, even the stupidest gaffer could see that she 
 was not the child she had been. Her little face 
 seemed pinched and pale, and prematurely grave 
 and odd ; while in the grey eyes tears shone ready 
 at any echo of thought to fall. Also her forehead, 
 broad and white, which marked her so from common 
 children, looked as if too much of puzzling and of 
 wondering had been done there. Even the gloss of 
 her rich brown poll was faded, with none to care for 
 it ; while the dainty feet and hands, so sensitive as 
 to a speck of dirt, were enough to bring the tears of 
 pity into a careful mother's eyes. 
 
 " Gardy la ! 'Ook 'e see, 'hot degustin' naily 
 pailies ! And poor Bardie nuffin to kean 'em with ! " 
 
 While I was setting this grief to rest (for which 
 she kissed me beautifully), many thoughts came 
 through my mind about this little creature. She 
 and I were of one accord, upon so many important 
 points ; and when she differed from me, perhaps she 
 was in the right almost: which is a thing that I 
 never knew happen in a whole village of grown-up 
 people. And by the time I had brushed her hair 
 and tied up the bows of her frock afresh, and when 
 she began to dance again, and to play every kind of
 
 1 86 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 trick with me, I said to myself, " I must have this 
 child. Whatever may come of it, I will risk — when 
 the price of butcher's-meat comes down." 
 
 This I said in real earnest ; but the price of 
 butcher's-meat went up, and I never have known it 
 come down again. 
 
 While I was thinking, our Bunny came in, full of 
 apples, raw and roasted, and of the things the chil- 
 dren said. But at the very first sight of Bardie, every- 
 thing else was gone from her. All the other children 
 were fit only to make dirt-pies of. Tliis confirmed 
 and held me steadfast in the opinions which I had 
 formed without any female assistance. 
 
 In spite of all her own concerns (of which she was 
 full enough, goodness knows), Bunny came up, and 
 pulled at her, by reason of something down her back, 
 which wanted putting to rights a little — a plait, or 
 a tuck, or some manner of gear ; only I thought it a 
 clever thing, and the little one approved of it. And 
 then, our Bunny being in her best, these children 
 took notice of one another, to settle which of them 
 was nearer to the proper style of clothes. And each 
 admired the other for anything which she had not 
 got herself. 
 
 " Come, you baby-chits," said I, being pleased at 
 their womanly ways, so early ; " aU of us want some
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 8/ 
 
 food, I think. Can we eat our dresses ? " The chil- 
 dren, of course, understood me not ; nevertheless, 
 what I said was sense. 
 
 And if, to satisfy womankind — for which I have 
 deepest regard and respect — I am forced to enter into 
 questions higher than reason of men can climb — of 
 washing, and ironing, and quilling, and gaufreing, and 
 setting up, and styles of transparent reefing, and all 
 our other endeavours to fetch this child up to her 
 station — the best thing I can do will be to have 
 mother Jones in to write it for me ; if only she can 
 be forced to spell. 
 
 However, that is beyond all hope ; and even I find 
 it hard sometimes to be sure of the royal manner. 
 Only I go by the Bible always, for every word that I 
 can find ; being taught (ever since I could read at all) 
 that his Majesty, James I., confirmed it. 
 
 Now this is not all the thing which I wanted to 
 put before you clearly ; because I grow like a tomb- 
 stone often, only fit to make you laugh, when I stand 
 on my right to be serious. My great desire is to tell 
 you what I did, and how I did it, as to the managing 
 of these children, even for a day or two, so as to keep 
 them from crying, or scorching, or spoiling their 
 clothes, or getting wet, or having too much victuals 
 or too little. Of course I consulted that good mother
 
 1 88 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Jones five or six times every day ; and she never was 
 weary of giving advice, though she said every time 
 that it must be the last. And a lucky thing it was 
 for me in all this responsibility to have turned enough 
 of money, through skilful catch and sale of fish, to 
 allow of my staying at home a little, and not only 
 washing and mending of clothes, but treating the 
 whole of the household to the delicacies of the season. 
 However, it is not my habit to think myself anything 
 wonderful ; that I leave to the rest of the world : and 
 no doubt any good and clever man might have done 
 a great part of what I did. Only if anything should 
 befall us, out of the reach of a sailor's skill and the 
 depth of Bunny's experience, mother Jones promised 
 to come straight in, the very moment I knocked at 
 the wall ; and her husband slept with such musical 
 sound that none could be lonely in any house near, 
 and so did all of her ten children who could crack a 
 lollipop. 
 
 Upon the whole, we passed so smoothly over the 
 first evening, with the two children as hard at play 
 as if they were paid fifty pounds for it, that having 
 some twenty-five shillings in hand after payment of all 
 creditors, and only ten weeks to my pension-day, 
 with my boat unknown to anybody, and a very good 
 prospect of fish running up from the Mumbles at the
 
 THE MAID OF SKER, 1 89 
 
 next full moon, I set the little one on my lap, after a 
 good bout of laughing at her very queer ins and outs 
 — for aU things seemed to be all alive with, as well 
 as to, her. 
 
 " Will you stay with me, my dear ?" I said, as bold 
 as King George and the Dragon ; " would you like 
 to live with old Davy and Bunny, and have ever so 
 many frocks washed, soon as ever he can buy them?" 
 For nothing satisfied her better than to see her one 
 gown washed. She laid her head on one side a little, 
 so that I felt it hot to my bosom, being excused of 
 my waistcoat ; and I knew that she had overworked 
 herself. 
 
 " Ness," she said, after thinking a bit. " Ness, I 
 live with 'a, old Davy, till my dear mama come for 
 me. Does 'e know, old Davy, 'hot I thinks ?" 
 
 " No, my pretty ; I only know tliat you are always 
 thinking," And so she was ; no doubt of it. 
 
 " I tell 'a, old Davy, 'hot I thinks. No— I can't 
 tell 'a ; only sompfin. 'Et me go for more pay with 
 Bunny." 
 
 " No, my dear, just stop a minute. Bunny has got 
 no breath left in her ; she is such a great fat Bunny. 
 What you mean to say is, that you don't know how 
 papa and mama could ever think of leaving you such 
 a long, long time away."
 
 190 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 She shook her curly pate as if each frizzle were a 
 puzzle ; and her sweet white forehead seemed a main- 
 sail full of memory ; and then gay presence was in 
 her eyes, and all the play which I had stopped broke 
 upon her mind again. 
 
 " Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor," she began, with her 
 beautiful fingers crawling, like white carnelian com- 
 passes, up the well-made buttons of my new smock- 
 guernsey ; for though I had begged my hot waistcoat 
 off, I never was lax of dress in her presence as I 
 would be in Bunny's — or, in short, with anybody except 
 this little lady. I myself taught her that " tinker, 
 tailor," and had a right to have it done to me. And 
 she finished it off with such emphasis upon button 
 No. 7, which happened to be the last of them, 
 "gentleman, ploughboy, fief," looking straight into 
 my eyes, and both of us laughing at the fine idea that 
 I could possibly be called a thief ! But fearing to 
 grow perhaps foolish about her, as she did these 
 charming things to me, I carried her up to bed with 
 Bunny, and sung them both away to sleep with a 
 melancholy dirge of sea. 
 
 Into whatever state of life it may please God to 
 call me — though I fear there cannot be many more 
 at this age of writing — it always will be, as it always 
 has been, my first principle and practice to do my
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I9I 
 
 very utmost (whicli is far less than it was, since the 
 doctor stopped my hornpipes) to be pleasant and 
 good company. And it is this leading motive which 
 has kept me from describing — as I might have done, 
 to make you tingle and be angry afterwards — the 
 state of Sker House, and of Evan Thomas, and Moxy 
 his wife, and all their friends, about those five poor rab- 
 biters. Also other darkish matters, such as the plight 
 of those obstinate black men when they came ashore 
 at last, three together, and sometimes four, as if they 
 had fought in the water. And, after all, what luck 
 they had in obtaining proper obsequies, inasmuch as, 
 by order of Crowner Bowles, a great hole in the sand 
 was dug in a little sheltered valley, and kept open 
 till it was fairly thought that the sea must have 
 finished with them ; and then, after being carefully 
 searched for anything of value, they were rolled in 
 all together, and kept down with stones, like the 
 parish mangle, and covered with a handsome mound 
 of sand. And not only this, but in spite of expense 
 and the murmuring of the vestry, a board well tarred 
 (to show their colour) was set up in the midst of it, 
 and their number " 35 " chalked up ; and so they 
 were stopped of their mischief awhile, after shame- 
 fully robbing their poor importer. 
 
 But if this was conducted handsomely, how much
 
 192 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 more so were the funerals of the five young white 
 men ! The sense of the neighbourhood, and the 
 stir, and the presence of the Coroner (who stopped a 
 whole week for sea air and freshness, after seeing so 
 many good things come in, and perceiving so many 
 ways home that night, that he made up his mind to 
 none of them) ; also the feeling (which no one 
 expressed, but all would have been disappointed of) 
 that honest black Evan, after knocking so many 
 men down in both parishes and the extra-parochial 
 manor, was designed, by this downright blow from 
 above, to repent and to entertain every one ; and 
 most of all, the fact that five of a highly respectable 
 family were to be buried at once, to the saving of 
 four future funerals, all of which must have been 
 fine ones, — these universal sympathies compelled 
 the house and the people therein to exert themselves 
 to the uttermost. 
 
 Enough that it gave satisfaction, not universal, but 
 general ; and even that last is a hard thing to do in 
 such great outbursts of sympathy. Though Moudlin 
 church is more handy for Sker, and the noble Port- 
 reeve of Kenfig stood upon his right to it, still there 
 •were stronger reasons why old Newton should have 
 the preference. And Sker being outside either parish, 
 Crowner Bowles, on receipt of a guinea, swore down
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 1 93 
 
 the Portreeve to his very vamps. For Moxy Thomas 
 was a Newton woman, and loved every scrape of a 
 shoe there; and her uncle, the clerk, would have 
 ended his days if the fees had gone over to Kenfig. 
 Our parson, as well, was a very fine man, and a match 
 for the whole of the service ; while the little fellow at 
 Moudlin always coughed at a word of three syllables. 
 
 There was one woman in our village who was 
 always right. She had been disappointed, three times 
 over, in her early and middle days ; and the effect of 
 this on her character was so lasting and so whole- 
 some, that she never spoke without knowing some- 
 thing. When from this capital female I heard that 
 our churchyard had won the victory, and when I 
 foresaw the demented condition of glory impending 
 upon our village (not only from five magnificent palls, 
 each with its proper attendance of black, and each 
 with fine hymns and good howling, but yet more than 
 that from the hot strength of triumph achieved over 
 vaunting Kenfig), then it came into my mind to steal 
 away with Bardie. 
 
 A stern and sad sacrifice of myself, I assured my- 
 self that it was, and would be ; for few even of our 
 oldest men could enjoy a funeral more than I did, 
 with its sad reflections and junketings. And I might 
 have been head-man of all that day, entitled not only 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 194 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 to drop the mould, but to make the speech afterwards 
 at the Inn. 
 
 But I abandoned all these rights, and braved once 
 more the opinions of neighbours (which any man 
 may do once too often) ; and when the advance of 
 sound came towards us, borne upon the western wind 
 from the end of Newton AVayn, slowly hanging 
 through the air, as if the air loved death of man — 
 the solemn singing of the people who must go that 
 way themselves, and told it in their melody; and 
 when the Clevice rock rung softly with the tolling 
 bell, as weU as with the rolling dirges, we slipped 
 away at the back of it — that is to say, pretty Bardie 
 and I. For Bunny was purer of Newton birth than 
 to leave such a sight without tearing away. And 
 desiring some little to hear all about it, I left her 
 with three very good young women, smelling strongly 
 of southernwood, who were beginning to weep already, 
 and promised to tell me the whole of it. 
 
 As we left this dismal business, Bardie danced 
 along beside me, like an ostrich-feather blown at. 
 In among the sand-hills soon I got her, where she 
 could see nothing, and the thatch of rushes deadened 
 every pulse of the funeral bell. And then a strange 
 idea took me, aU things being strange just now, that 
 it might prove a rich wise tiling to go for a quiet
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 195 
 
 cruise with Bardie. In that boat, and on the waves, 
 she might remember things recovered by the chance 
 of semblance. Therefore, knowing that all living 
 creatures five miles either way of us were sure to be 
 in Newton churchyard nearly all the afternoon, and 
 then in the public-houses, I scrupled not to launch 
 my boat and go to sea with the little one. For if we 
 steered a proper course no funeral could see us. And 
 so I shipped her gingerly. The glory of her mind 
 was such that overboard she must have jumped, ex- 
 cept for my Sunday neck-tie with a half-hitch knot 
 around her. And the more I rowed the more she 
 laughed, and looked at the sun with her eyes screwed 
 up, and at the water with all wide open. " 'Hare is 
 'a going, old Davy ? " she said, slipping from under 
 my Sunday splice, and coming to me wonderfully, 
 and laying her tiny hands on mine, which beat me 
 always, as she had found out ; " is 'a going to my dear 
 papa, and mama, and ickle bother ? " 
 
 " No, my pretty, you must wait for them to come. 
 We are going to catch some fish, and salt them, that 
 they may keep with a very fine smell, till your dear 
 papa brings your mama and all the family with 
 him ; and then what a supper we will have ! " 
 " '111 X" she said ; " and poor Bardie too ? " 
 But the distance of the supper-time was a very sad
 
 196 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 discappoiutment to her, and her bright eyes filled with 
 haze. And then she said " Ness " very quietly, 
 because she was growing to understand that she 
 could not have her own way now. I lay on my oars 
 and watched her carefully, while she was shaking her 
 head and wondering, with her little white shoulders 
 above the thwart, and her innocent and intelligent 
 eyes full of the spreading sky and sea. It was not 
 often one had the chance, through the ever-flitting 
 change, to learn the calm and true expression of that 
 poor young creature's face. Even now I could not 
 tell, except that her playful eyes were lonely, and her 
 tender lips were trembling, and a heartful of simple 
 love could find no outlet, and lost itself. These little 
 things, when thinking thus, or having thought flow 
 through them, never ought to be disturbed, because 
 their brains are tender. The unknown stream will 
 soon run out, and then they are fit again for play, 
 which is the proper work of man. We open the 
 world, and we close the world, with nothing more 
 than this ; and while our manhood is too grand (for 
 a score and a half of years, perhaps), to take things 
 but in earnest, the justice of our birth is on iis, — we 
 are fortune's plaything.
 
 197 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 PUBLIC APPROBATION. 
 
 If that child had no luck herself (except, of course, 
 in meeting me), at any rate she never failed to bring 
 me wondrous fortune. The air was smooth, and 
 sweet, and soft, the sky had not a wrinlde, and the 
 fickle sea was smiling, proud of pleasant manners. 
 Directly I began to fish at the western taU. of the 
 Tuskar, scarcely a fish forebore me. Whiting-pollacks 
 run in shoals, and a shoal I had of them ; and the 
 way I split and dried them made us long for break- 
 fast-time. And Bardie did enjoy them so. 
 
 The more I dwelled with that little child, the more 
 I grew wrapped up in her. Her nature was so odd 
 and loving, and her ways so pretty. ^Many men 
 forego their goodness, so that they forget the nature 
 of a little darling child. Otherwise, perhaps, we 
 might not, if we kept our hearts aright, so despise 
 the days of loving, and the time of holiness. Now
 
 198 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 this baby almost shamed me, and I might say Bunny 
 too, when, having undressed her, and put the coarse 
 rough night-gown on her, which came from Sker with 
 the funerals, my grandchild called me from up-stairs, 
 to meet some great emergency. 
 
 " Granny, come up with the stick dreckly moment, 
 granny dear ! Missy 'ont go into bed. Such a bad 
 wicked child she is." 
 
 I ran up-stairs, and there was Bunny all on fire 
 with noble wrath, and there stood Bardie sadly scrap- 
 ing the worm-eaten floor with her small white toes. 
 
 " I'se not a yicked shild," she said, " I'se a yae 
 good gal, I is ; I 'ont go to bed till I say my payers 
 to 'Mighty God, as my dear mama make me. She 
 be very angy with 'a. Bunny, 'hen she knows it." 
 
 Hereupon I gave Bunny a nice little smack, and 
 had a great mind to let her taste the stick which she 
 had invoked so eagerly. However, she roared enough 
 without it, because lier feelings were deeply hurt. 
 Bardie also cried for company, or, perhaps, at my 
 serious aspect, until I put her down on her knees and 
 bade her say her prayers, and have done with it. At 
 the same time it struck me how stupid I was not to 
 have asked about this before, inasmuch as even a 
 child's religion may reveal some of its history. 
 
 She knelt as prettily as could be, with her head
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. I99 
 
 thrown back, and her tiny palms laid together upon 
 her breast, and thus she said her simple prayer. 
 
 " Pay God bless dear papa, and mama, and ickle 
 bother. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, '00k upon a 
 ickle shild, and make me a good gal. Amen." 
 
 Then she got up and kissed poor Bunny, and was 
 put into bed as good as gold, and slept like a little 
 dormouse till morning. 
 
 Take it altogether now, we had a happy time of it. 
 Every woman in Newton praised me for my kindness 
 to the child ; and even the men who had too many 
 could not stand against Bardie's smUe. They made 
 up, indeed, some scandalous story, as might have 
 been expected, about my relationship to the baby, 
 and her sudden appearance so shortly after my poor 
 wife's death. However, by knocking three men 
 down, I produced a more active growth of charity in 
 our neighbourhood. 
 
 And very soon a thing came to pass, such as I 
 never could have expected, and of a nature to lift me 
 (even more than the free use of my pole) for a period 
 of at least six months, above the reach of libel, from 
 any one below the rank of a justice of the peace. 
 This happened just as follows: — One night the 
 children were snug in bed, and finding the evenings 
 long, because the days were shortening in so fast —
 
 200 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 which seemed to astonish everybody — it came into 
 my head to go no more than outside my own door, 
 and into the "Jolly Sailors." For the autumn 
 seemed to be coming on, and I like to express my 
 opinions upon that point in society ; never being sure 
 where I may be before ever another autumn. !More- 
 over, the landlord was not a man to be neglected 
 with impunity. He never liked his customers to 
 stay too long away from him, any more than our par- 
 son did ; and pleasant as he was when pleased, and 
 generous in the way of credit to people with any 
 furniture, nothing was more sure to vex him, than for 
 a man, without excuse, to pretend to get on without 
 him. 
 
 Now when I came into the room, where our little 
 sober proceedings are — a narrow room, and dark 
 enough, yet full of much good feeling, also with hard 
 wooden chairs worn soft by generations of sitting — a 
 sudden stir arose among the excellent people present. 
 They turned and looked at me, as if they had never 
 enjoyed that privilege, or, at any rate, had failed to 
 make proper use of it before. And ere my modesty 
 was certain whether this were for good or harm, they 
 raised such a clapping with hands and feet, and a 
 clinking of glasses in a line with it, that I felt my- 
 self worthy of some great renown. I stood there and
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 201 
 
 bowed, and made my "best leg, and took off my hat 
 in acknowledgment. Observing this, they were all 
 delighted, as if I had done them a real honour ; and 
 up they arose with one accord, and gave me three 
 cheers, with an Englishman setting the proper tune 
 for it. 
 
 I found myself so overcome all at once with my 
 own fame and celebrity, that I called for a glass of 
 hot nim-and-water, with the nipple of a lemon in it, 
 and sugar the size of a nutmeg. My order was taken 
 with a speed and deference hitherto quite unknown 
 to me ; and better than that, seven men opened purses, 
 and challenged the right to pay for it. Entering into 
 so rare a chance of getting on quite gratis, and know- 
 ing that such views are quick to depart, I called for 
 six oz. of tobacco, with the Bristol stamp (a red 
 crown) upon it. Scarce had I tested the draught of 
 a pipe — which I had to do sometimes for half an 
 hour, with aU to blow out, and no drawing in — ^when 
 the tobacco was at my elbow, served with a saucer, 
 and a curtsey. " "Well," thought I, " this is real 
 glory." And I longed to know how I had earned it. 
 
 It was not likely, with all those people gazing so 
 respectfully, that I would deign to ask them coarsely, 
 what the deuce could have made them do it. I had 
 always felt myself unworthy of obscure position, and
 
 202 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 had dreamed, for many years, of having my merits 
 perceived at last. And to ask the reason would have 
 been indeed a degradation, although there was not a 
 fibre of me but quivered to know all about it. 
 Herein, however, I overshot the mark, as I found out 
 afterwards ; for my careless manner made people say 
 that I must have written the whole myseK — a thing 
 so very far below me, that I scorn to answer it. But 
 here it is ; and then you can judge from the coarse 
 style, and the three-decked words, whether it be work 
 of mine. 
 
 Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, Saturday, July 24, 
 1782. — " Shipwreck and loss of all hands — Heroism 
 of a British tar. — We hear of a sad catastrophe from 
 the coast of Glamorganshire. The season of great 
 heat and drought, from which our readers must have 
 suffered, broke up, as they may kindly remember, 
 with an almost unprecedented gale of wind and 
 thunder, on Sunday, the 11th day of this month. 
 In the height of the tempest a large ship was descried, 
 cast by the fury of the elements upon a notorious reef 
 of rocks, at a little place called Sker, about twenty 
 miles to the east of Swansea. Serious apprehensions 
 were entertained by the spectators for the safety of 
 the crew, which appeared to consist of black men. 
 Their fears were too truly verified, for in less than an
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 203 
 
 hour the ill-fated bark succumbed to her cruel ad- 
 versaries. No adult male of either colour appears to 
 have reached the shore alive, although a celebrated 
 fishermau, and heroic pensioner of our royal navy, 
 whose name is David Llewellyn, and who traces his 
 lineage from the royal bard of that patronymic, per- 
 formed prodigies of valour, and proved himself utterly 
 regardless of his own respectable and blameless life, 
 by plunging repeatedly into the boiling surges, and 
 battling with the raging elements, in the vain hope 
 of extricating the sufferers from a watery grave. 
 With the modesty which appears to be, under some 
 inscrutable law of nature, inseparable from courage 
 of the highest order, this heroic tar desires to remain 
 in obscurity. This we could not reconcile with our 
 sense of duty ; and if any lover of our black brethren 
 finds himself moved by this narration, we shall be 
 happy to take charge of any remittance marked ' D. 
 L.' It grieves us to add that none escaped except an 
 intelligent young female, who clung to the neck of 
 Llewellyn. She states that the ship was the Anda- 
 lusia, and had sailed from Appledore, which is, we 
 believe, in Devonshire. The respected Coroner 
 Bowles held an inquest, wliich afforded universal 
 satisfaction." 
 
 Deeply surprised as I was to find how accurately,
 
 204 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 upon the whole, this paper had got the story of it 
 — for not much less than half was true — it was at 
 first a puzzle to me how they could have learned so 
 much about myself, and the valiant manner in which 
 I intended to behave, but found no opportunity. 
 Until I remembered that a man, possessing a very 
 bad hat, had requested the honour of introducing 
 himself to me, in my own house, and had begged 
 me by all means to consider myself at home, and to 
 allow him to send for refreshment, which I would 
 not hear of twice, but gave him what I thought up 
 to his mark, according to manners and appearance. 
 And very likely he made a mistake between my de- 
 scription of what I was ready, as well as desirous, to 
 carry out, and what I bodily did go through, ay, and 
 more, to the back of it. However, I liked this 
 account very much, and resolved to encourage yet 
 more warmly the next man who came to me with a 
 bad hat. What, then, was my disgust at perceiving, 
 at the very foot of that fine description, a tissue of 
 stuff like the following ! 
 
 " Another account [from a highly-esteemed corres- 
 pondent]. — The great invasion of sand, which has for 
 so many generations spread such wide devastation, 
 and occasioned such grievous loss to landowners on 
 the western coast of Glamorganshire, made another
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 205 
 
 great stride in the storm of Sabbath-day, Jul}- 11. 
 A vessel of considerable burthen, named the Anda- 
 lusia, and laden with negroes, most carefully shipped 
 for conversion among the good merchants of Bristol, 
 appears to have been swallowed up by the sand ; 
 and our black fellow-creatures disappeared. It is to 
 be feared, from this visitation of an ever-benign 
 Providence, that few of them had been converted, 
 and that the burden of their sins disabled them from 
 swimming. If one had been snatched as a brand 
 from the burning, gladly would we have recorded it, 
 and sent him forward prayerfully for sustenance on 
 his way to the Lord. But the only eyewitness 
 (whose word must never be relied upon when mam- 
 mon enters into the conflict), a worn-out but well- 
 meaning sailor, who fattens upon the revenue of an 
 overburdened country — this man ran away so fast 
 tliat he saw hardly anything. The Lord, however, 
 knoweth His own in the days of visitation. A little 
 child came ashore alive, and a dead child bearing 
 a coronet. IMany people have supposed that the 
 pusillanimous sailor aforesaid knows much more 
 than he will tell. It is not for us to enter into that 
 part of the question. Duty, however, compels us to 
 say, that any one desiring to have a proper compre- 
 hension of this heavy but righteous judgment — for
 
 206 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 He doeth all things well — cannot do better than 
 apply to the well-known horologist of Bridgend, 
 Hezekiah Perkins, also to the royal family." 
 
 The above yam may simply be described as a 
 gallow's-rope spun by Jack Ketch himself from all 
 the lies of all the scoundrels he has ever hanged, 
 added to all that his own vile heart can invent, with 
 the devil to help him. The cold-blooded, creeping, 
 and crawling manner in which I myself was alluded 
 to — alt^jough without the manliness even to set my 
 name down — as well as the low hypocrisy of the 
 loathsome white-livered syntax of it, made me, — 
 well, I will say. no more — the filthiness reeks with- 
 out my stirring, and, indeed, no honest man should 
 touch it ; only, if Hezekiah Perkins had chanced to 
 sneak into the room just then, his wife might have 
 prophesied shroudi?and weeds. 
 
 For who else was capable of such lies, slimed with 
 so much sanctimony, like cellar-slugs, or bilge-hole 
 rats, rolling in Angelica, while all their entrails are 
 of brimstone, such as Satan would scorn to vomit ? 
 A bitter pain went up my right arm, for the weak- 
 ness of my heart, when that miscreant gave me in- 
 sult, and I never knocked him down the well. And 
 over and over again I have found it a thorough mis- 
 take to be always forgiving. However, to have done
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 20/ 
 
 witli reflections wMcli must suggest themselves to 
 any one situated like me — if, indeed, any one ever 
 was — after containing myself, on account of the 
 people who surrounded me, better than could have 
 been hoped for, I spoke, because they expected 
 it. 
 
 " Truly, my dear friends, I am thankful for your 
 goodwill towards me. Also to the unknown writer, 
 who has certainly made too much of my poor un- 
 aided efforts. I did my best ; it was but little : and 
 who dreams of being praised for it ? Again, I am 
 thankful to this other writer, who has overlooked me 
 altogether. For the sake of poor Sandy Macraw, we 
 must thank him that he kindly forbore to make 
 public the name." 
 
 You should have seen the faces of all the folk 
 around the table when I gave them this surprise. 
 
 " Why," said one, " we thought for sure that it was 
 you he was meaning, Dyo dear. And in our hearts 
 we were angry to him, for such falsehoods large and 
 black. Indeed and indeed, true enough it may be of 
 a man outlandish such as Sandy !Macraw is." 
 
 " Let us not hasten to judge," I replied ; " Sandy 
 is brave enough, I daresay, and he can take his own 
 part well. I will not believe that he ran away ; 
 very likely he never was there at all. If he was, he
 
 208 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 deserves high praise for taking some little care of 
 himself. I should not have been so stiff this night, 
 if I had only had the common-siense to follow his 
 example." 
 
 All our people began to rejoice ; and yet they re- 
 quired, as all of us do, something more than strongest 
 proof. 
 
 " "What reason is to show then, Dyo, that this man 
 of letters meant not you, but Sandy Macraw, to run 
 away so ?" 
 
 " Hopkin, read it aloud," I said ; " neither do I 
 know, nor care, what the writer's meaning was. 
 Only I thought there was something spoken about 
 his Majesty's revenue. Is it I, or is it Sandy, that 
 belongs to the revenue ?" 
 
 This entirely settled it. All our people took it up, 
 and neglected not to tell one another. So that in 
 less than three days' time, my name was spread far 
 and wide for the praise, and the Scotcliman's for the 
 condemnation. I desired it not, as my friends well 
 knew ; but what use to beat to windward, against 
 the breath of the whole of the world ? Therefore I 
 was not so obstinate as to set my opinion against the 
 rest ; but left it to Mr Macraw to rebut, if he could, 
 his pusillanimity. 
 
 As for Hezekiah Perkins, all his low creations fell
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 209 
 
 upon the head from which they sprang. I spoke to 
 our rector about his endeavour to harm a respectable 
 Newton man — for you might call IMacraw that by 
 comparison, though he lived at Porthcawl, and was 
 not respectable — and everybody was struck with my 
 kindness in using such handsome terms of a rival. 
 The result was that Perkins lost our church-clock, 
 which paid him as well as a many two others, having 
 been presented to the parish, and therefore not likely 
 to go without pushing. For our rector was a peppery 
 man, except when in the pulpit, and what he said to 
 Hezekiah was exactly this. 
 
 " "SMiat, PerkiQS ! another great bill again ! ' To 
 repair of church-clock, seven-and-sixpence ; to ten 
 miles' travelling, at threepence per nule,' — and so on, 
 and so on ! Why, you never came further than my 
 brother the Colonel's, the last three times you have 
 charged for. Allow me to ask you a little question : 
 to whom did you go for the keys of the church ?" 
 
 " As if I should want any keys of the church ! 
 There is no church-lock in the county that I cannot 
 open, as soon as whistle." 
 
 " Indeed ! So you pick our lock. Do you ever 
 open a church-door honestly, for the purpose of wor- 
 shipping the Lord ? I have kept my eye upon you, 
 su', because I hear that you have been reviling my 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 210 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 parishioners. And I happen to know that you never 
 either opened the lock of our church or picked it, for 
 the last three times you have charged for. But one 
 thing you have picked for many years, and that is 
 the pocket of my ratepayers. Be off, sir — be off with 
 your trumpery bill ! We will have a good church- 
 man to do our clock — a thoroughly honest seaman, 
 and a regular church-goer," 
 
 " Do you mean that big thief, Davy Llewellyn ? 
 Well, well, do as you please. But I will thank you 
 to pay my bill first." 
 
 " Thank me when you get it, sir. You may fall 
 down on your canting knees, and thank the Lord for 
 one thing," 
 
 " AVhat am I to thank the Lord for ? For allowing 
 you to cheat me thus V 
 
 "For giving me self-command enough not to knock 
 you down, sir," With that the rector came so nigh 
 him, that brother Perkins withdrew in haste ; for the 
 parson had done that sort of thing to people who ill- 
 used him ; and the sense of the parish was always 
 with liim. Hence the management of the church- 
 clock passed entirely into my hands, and I kept it 
 almost always going, at less than half Hezekiah's 
 price ; and this reunited me to the Church (from 
 which my poor wife perhaps had led me astray some
 
 THE MAID OF SKEE. 211 
 
 little), by a monthly arrangement which reflected 
 equal credit on either party. 
 
 And even this was not the whole of the blessings 
 that now rolled down upon me, for the sake, no 
 doubt, of little Bardie, as with the ark in the Bible. 
 For this fine Felix Farley was the only great author 
 of news at that time prevalent among us. It is true 
 that there was another journal nearer to us, at Here- 
 ford, and a highly good one, but for a very clear 
 reason it failed to have command of the public- 
 houses. For the customers liked both their pipes 
 and their papers to be of the same origin, and go 
 together kindly. And Hereford sent out no tobacco ; 
 while Bristol was more famous for the best Virginian 
 birdseye, than even for rum, or intelligence. 
 
 Therefore, as everybody gifted with the gift of 
 reading came to the public-houses gradually, and to 
 compare interpretation over those two narratives, 
 both of which stirred our county up, my humble 
 name was in their mouths as freely and approvingly 
 as the sealing-wax end of their pipe-stems. Unani- 
 mous consent accrued (when all had said the same 
 thing over, fifty times in different manners, and with 
 fine-drawn argument) that after all, and upon the 
 whole, David Llewellyn was an honour to county 
 and to country.
 
 212 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 After that, for at least a fortnight, no more dogs 
 were set at me. When I showed myself over a 
 gentleman's gate, in the hope of selling fish to him, 
 it used to be always, "At him, Pincher !" "Into 
 his legs. Growler, boy !" so that I was compelled 
 to carry my conger-rod to save me. Now, however, 
 and for a season till my fame grew stale, I never 
 lifted the latch of a gate without hearing grateful 
 utterance, " Towser, down, you son of a gun ! Yelp 
 and Vick, hold your stupid tongues, will you 1 " The 
 value of my legs was largely understood by gentle- 
 men. As for the ladies and the housemaids, if con- 
 ceit were in my nature, what a run it would have 
 had ! Always and always the same am I, and above 
 even women's opinions. But I know no other man 
 whose head would not have been turned with a day 
 of it. For my rap at the door was scarcely given 
 (louder, perhaps, than it used to be) before every 
 maid in the house was out, and the lady looking 
 through the blinds. I used to dance on the step, 
 and beat my arms on my breast, with my basket 
 down between my legs, and tremble almost for a 
 second rap ; and then it was, "Like your imperence!" 
 " None of your stinking stuff ! " and so on. But now 
 they ran down beautifully, and looked up under 
 their eyelids at me, and left me to show them what
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 2I3 
 
 I liked, and never beat down a halfpenny, and even 
 accepted my o^v^l weight. Such is the grand effect 
 of glory ; and T might have kissed every one of them, 
 and many even of the good plain cooks, if I could 
 have reconciled it with my sense of greatness.
 
 214 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A CRAFT BEYOND THE LAW. 
 
 Colonel Lougher, of Candleston Court, was one of 
 the finest and noblest men it was ever my luck to 
 come across. He never would hear a word against 
 me, any more than I would against him; and no 
 sooner did I see him upon the Bench than I ceased 
 to care what the evidence was. If they failed to 
 prove their falsehoods (as nearly always came to 
 pass), he dismissed them with a stern reprimand for 
 taking away my character; and if they seemed to 
 establish anything by low devices against me, what 
 did he say ? Why, no more than this : " David, if 
 what they say be true, you appear to have forgotten 
 yourself in a very unusual manner. You have pro- 
 mised me always to improve ; and I thought that 
 you were doing it. This seems to be a trilling charge 
 — however, I must convict you. The penalty is one 
 shilling, and the costs fifteen."
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 215 
 
 " May it please your worship," I always used to 
 answer, "is an honest man to lose his good name, 
 and pay those who have none for stealing it ?" 
 
 Having seen a good deal of the world, he always 
 felt the force of this, but found it difficult to say so 
 with prejudiced men observing him. Only I knew 
 that my fine and costs would be slipped into my 
 hand by-and-by, with a glimpse of the Candleston 
 livery. 
 
 This was no more than fair between us ; for not 
 more than seven generations had passed since Griffith 
 Llewellyn, of my true stock, had been the proper 
 and only bard to the great Lord Lougher of Coity, 
 whence descended our good ColoneL There had been 
 some little mistake about the departure of the title, 
 no doubt through extremes of honesty, but no lord 
 in the county came of better blood than Colonel 
 Lougher. To such a man it was a hopeless thing for 
 the bitterest enemy — if he had one — to impute one 
 white hair's breadth of departure from the truth. A 
 thoroughly noble man to look at, and a noble man 
 to hearken to, because he knew not his own kind- 
 ness, but was kind to every one. Xow this good 
 man had no child at all, as generally happens to 
 very good men, for fear of mankind improving much. 
 And the great king of Israel, David, from whom our
 
 2.l6 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 family has a tradition — yet without any Jewish 
 blood in us — he says (if I am not mistaken) that it 
 is a sure mark of the ungodly to have children at 
 their desire, and to leave the rest of their substance 
 to ungodly infants. 
 
 Not to be all alone, the Colonel, after the death 
 of his excellent wife, persuaded his only sister, the 
 Lady Bluett, widow of Lord Bluett, to set up with 
 him at Candleston. And this she was not very 
 loath to do, because her eldest son, the present Lord 
 Bluett, was of a wild and sporting turn, and no 
 sooner became of age but that he wanted no mother 
 over him. Therefore she left him for a while to his 
 own devices, hoping every month to hear of his sud- 
 denly repenting. 
 
 Now this was a lady fit to look at. You might 
 travel all day among people that kept drawing- 
 rooms, and greenhouses, and the new safe of music, 
 well named from its colour " grand paeony," and you 
 might go up and down Bridgend, even on a fair-day, 
 yet nobody would you set eyes on fit to be looked at 
 as a lady on the day that you saw Lady Bluett. 
 
 It was not that she pretended anything ; that 
 made all the difference. Only she felt such a thor- 
 ough knowledge that she was no more than we 
 mio-ht have been, except for a width of accidents.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 21/ 
 
 And nothing ever parted her from any one with 
 good in him. For instance, the first time she saw 
 me again (after thirty years, perhaps, from the season 
 of her beauty-charm, when I had chanced to win all 
 the prizes in the sports given at Candleston Court, 
 for the manhood of now Colonel Lougher), not only 
 did she at once recognise me, in spite of all my bat- 
 tering, but she held out her beautiful hand, and said, 
 " How are you, Mr Llewellyn ? " Nobody had ever 
 called me " Mr Llewellyn " much till then ; but, by 
 good luck, a washerwoman heard it and repeated it ; 
 and since that day there are not many people (leav- 
 ing out clods and low enemies) with the face to 
 accost me otherwise. 
 
 However, this is not to the purpose, any more 
 than it is worthy of me. How can it matter what 
 people call me when I am clear of my fish-basket ? 
 as, indeed, I always feel at the moment of unstrap- 
 ping. No longer any reputation to require my fist 
 ready. I have done my utmost, and I have received 
 the money. 
 
 These are the fine perceptions which preserve a 
 man of my position from the effects of calumny. 
 And, next to myself, the principal guardian of my 
 honour was this noble Colonel Lougher. Moreover, 
 a fine little chap there was, Lady Bluett's younger
 
 2l8 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 son, Honourable Eodney Bluett by name ; for his 
 father had served under Admiral Eodney, and been 
 very friendly with him, and brought him to church 
 as a godfather. This young Eodney Bluett was 
 about ten years old at that time, and the main 
 delight of his life was this, to come fishing with old 
 Davy. The wondrous yarns I used to spin had such 
 an effect on his little brain, that his prospects on 
 dry land, and love of his mother, and certain inherit- 
 ance from the Colonel, were helpless to keep him 
 from longing always to see the things which I had 
 seen. With his large blue eyes upon me, and his 
 flaxen hair tied back, and his sleeves tucked up for 
 paddling, hour by hour he would listen, when the 
 weather was too rough to do much more than look 
 at it. Or if we went out in a boat (as we did when 
 he could pay for hiring, and when his mother was 
 out of the way), many and many a time I found 
 him, when he should have been quick with the bait, 
 dwelling upon the fine ideas which my tales had 
 bred in him. I took no trouble in telling them, 
 neither did I spare the truth when it would come in 
 clumsily (like a lubber who cannot touch his hat), 
 but they all smelled good and true, because they had 
 that character. 
 
 However, he must bide his time, as every one of
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 219 
 
 US has to do, before I make too mucli of him. And 
 just at the period now in hand he was down in my 
 black books for never coming near me. It may have 
 been that he had orders not to be so much with me, 
 and very likely that was wise ; for neither his mother 
 nor his uncle could bear the idea of his going to sea, 
 but meant to make a red herring of him, as we call 
 those poor land-soldiers. Being so used to his pretty 
 company, and his admiration, also helping him as I 
 did to spend his pocket-money, I missed liim more 
 than I could have believed; neither could I help sor- 
 rowing at this great loss of opportunity; for many an 
 honest shilling might have been turned ere winter by 
 the hire of my boat to him when he came out with 
 me fisliing. I had prepared a scale of charges, very 
 little over Captain Bob's, to whom he used to pay 4d. 
 an hour, when I let him come after the whiting with 
 me. And now, for no more than Gd. an hour, he 
 should have my very superior boat, and keep her 
 head by my directions, for he understood a rudder, 
 and bait my hooks, and stow my fish, and enjoy (as 
 all boys should) the idea of being useful. 
 
 For, as concerns that little bai'kie, I had by tliis 
 time secured myself from any further uneasiness, or 
 troublesome need of concealment, by a bold and 
 spirited facing of facts, which deserve the congi-atu-
 
 220 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 lation of all honest fishermen. The boat, like her 
 little captain, was at first all white — as I may have 
 said — but now, before her appearance in public, I 
 painted her gunwale and strakes bright blue, even 
 down to her water-mark ; and then, without meddling 
 with her name, or rather that of the ship she be- 
 longed to, I retraced very lightly, but so that any 
 one could read it, the name of the port from which 
 she hailed, and which (as I felt certain now, from 
 what I had seen on the poor wrecked ship) must 
 have been San Salvador ; and the three last letters 
 were so plain, that I scarcely had to touch them. 
 
 Now this being done, and an old worn painter 
 shipped instead of the new one, which seemed to 
 have been chopped off with an axe, I borrowed a 
 boat and stood off to sea from Porthcawl Point, 
 where they beach them, having my tackle and bait 
 on board, as if for an evening off the Tuskar, where 
 turbot and whiting-pollack are. Here I fished until 
 dusk of the night, and as long as the people ashore 
 could see me ; but as soon as all was dark and quiet, 
 I just pulled into Newton Bay, and landed opposite 
 the old " Eed house," where my new boat lay in 
 ordinary, snug as could be, and all out of sight. 
 For the ruins of this old " Eed house " had such a 
 repute for being haunted, ever since a dreadful mur-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 221 
 
 der cast a ban around it, that even I never wished 
 to stop longer than need be there at night ; and once 
 or twice I heard a noise that went to the marrow of 
 my back; of which, however, I will say no more, 
 until it comes to the proper place. Enough that no 
 man, woman, or chUd, for twenty miles round, except 
 myself, had a conscience clear enough to go in there 
 after dark, and scarcely even by daylight. My little 
 craft was so light and handy, that, with the aid of the 
 rollers ready, I led her down over the beach myself, 
 and presently towed her out to sea, with the water 
 as smooth as a duck-pond, and the tide of the neap 
 very silent. The weather was such as I could not 
 doubt, being now so full of experience. Therefore, I 
 had no fear to lie in a very dangerous berth indeed, 
 when any cockle of a sea gets up, or even strong 
 tides are running. This was the west-end fork of 
 the Tuskar, making what we call "callipers;" for 
 the back of the Tuskar dries at half-ebb, and a won- 
 derful ridge stops the run of the tide, not only for 
 weeds but for fish as well. Here with my anchor 
 down, I slept, as only a virtuous man can sleep. 
 
 In the grey of the morning, I was up, ere the 
 waning moon was done with, and found the very 
 thing to suit me going on delightfully. The heavy 
 dew of autumn, rising from the land by perspiration,
 
 222 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 spread a cloud along the shore. A little mist was 
 also crawling on the water here and there ; and 
 having slept with a watch-coat and tarpaulin over 
 me, I shook myself up, without an ache, and like a 
 good bee at the gate of the hive, was brisk for mak- 
 ing honey. 
 
 Hence I pulled away from land, with the heaYj 
 boat towing the light one, and even Sandy IMacraw 
 unable to lay his gimlet eye on me. And thus I 
 rowed, until quite certain of being over three miles 
 from land. Then with the broad sun rising nobly, 
 and for a moment bowing, till the white fog opened 
 avenues, I spread upon my pole a shirt wliich mother 
 Jones had washed for me. It was the time when 
 Sandy Macraw was bound to be up to his business ; 
 and I had alwa5'^s made a point of seeing that he did 
 it. To have a low fellow of itchy character, and no 
 royal breed about him, thrust by a feeble and reck- 
 less government into the berth that by natui'e was 
 mine, and to find him not content with this, but even 
 in his hours of duty poaching, both day and night, 
 after my fish ; and when I desired to argue with 
 him, holding his tongue to irritate me, — satisfaction 
 there could be none for it ; the only alleviation left 
 me was to rout up this man right early, and allow 
 him no chance of napping.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 223 
 
 Therefore, I challenged him with my shirt, thus 
 early in the morning, because he was bound to be 
 watching the world, if he acted up to his nasty busi- 
 ness, such as no seaman would deign to ; and after a 
 quarter of an hour perhaps, very likely it was his 
 wife that answered. At any rate there was a signal 
 up, and through my spy-glass I saw that people 
 wanted to launch a boat, but failed. Therefore I 
 made a great waving of shirt, as much as to say, 
 " extreme emergency ; have the courage to try 
 again." Expecting something good from this, they 
 laid their shoulders, and worked their legs, and pre- 
 sently the boat was bowing on the gently-fluted sea. 
 
 Now it was not that I wanted help, for I could 
 have managed it all well enough ; but I wanted 
 witnesses. For never can I bear to seem to set at 
 nought legality. And these men were sure, upon 
 half-a-crown, to place the facts before the public in 
 an honest manner. So I let them row away for the 
 very lives of them, as if the salvage of the nation 
 himg upon their thumbs and elbows ; only I dowsed 
 my shirt as soon as I found them getting eager. 
 And I thought that they might as well hail me first, 
 and slope off disappointment. 
 
 " Hoy there ! Boat ahoy ! Wliat, old Davy Ue- 
 weUyn ! "
 
 224 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 What man had a right to call me " old " ? 
 There I was as fresh as ever. And I felt it the 
 more that the man who did it was grey on the 
 cheeks with a very large family, and himself that 
 vile old Sandy ! Nevertheless I preserved good 
 manners. 
 
 " Ship your starboard oars, yon lubbers. Do you 
 want to run me dowTi ? What the devil brings you 
 here, at this time of the morning ? " Hereupon these 
 worthy fellows dropped their oars, from wonder ; 
 until I showed them their mistake, and begged them 
 to sheer off a little. For if I had accepted rope, 
 such as they wished to throw me, they might have 
 put in adverse claims, and made me pay for my own 
 boat ! 
 
 " When a poor man has been at work all night," 
 said I, to break off their officiousness ; " while all 
 you lazy galley-rakers were abed and snoring, can't 
 he put his shirt to dry, without you wanting to 
 plunder him?" 
 
 To temper off what might appear a little rude, 
 though wholesome, I now permitted them to see a 
 stoneware gallon full of beer, or at least I had only 
 had two pints out. Finding this to be the case, and 
 being hot with rowing so rapidly to my rescue, they 
 were well content to have some beer, and drop all
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 225 
 
 further claims. And as I never can bear to be 
 mean, I gave them the two and sixpence also. 
 
 Sandy Macraw took all this money ; and I only 
 hope that he shared it duly ; and then, as he never 
 seemed at all to understand my contempt of him, he 
 spoke in that dry drawl of his, which he always 
 droned to drive me into very dreadful words, and 
 then to keep his distance. 
 
 " I am heartily glad, ma men, to see the loock ye 
 have encoontered. Never shall ye say agin that I 
 have the advantage of ye. The boit stud me in 
 mickle siller ; but ye have grappit a boit for nort." 
 
 I cannot write down his outlandish maimer of pro- 
 nouncing English ; nor will I say much more about 
 it ; because he concealed his jealousy so, that I had 
 no enjoyment of it, except when I reasoned with my- 
 self. And I need have expected nothing better from 
 such a self-controlling rogue. But when we came to 
 Porthcawl Point — where some shelter is from wind, 
 and two public-houses, and one private — the whole 
 affair was so straightforward, and the distance of my 
 boat from shore, at time of capture, so established 
 and so witnessed, that no steward of any manor durst 
 even cast sheep's-eyes at her. A paper was drawn 
 up and signed ; and the two public-houses, at my 
 expense, christened her " Old Davy." And indeed, 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 226 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 for a little spell, I had enough to do with people, 
 who came at all hours of the day, to drink the health 
 of my boat and me ; many of whom seemed to fail to 
 remember really who was the one to pay. And 
 being still in cash a little, and so generous always, I 
 found a whole basket of whiting, and three large 
 congers, and a lobster, disappear against chalk-marks, 
 whereof I had no warning, and far worse, no flavour. 
 But what I used to laugh at was, that when we ex- 
 plained to one another how the law lay on this 
 question, and how the craft became legally mine, as 
 a derelict from the Andalusia, drifting at more than 
 a league from land, — all our folk being short and 
 shallow in the English language, took up the word, 
 and called my boat, all over the parish, my "relict ; " 
 as if, in spite of the Creator's wisdom, I were dead 
 and my wife alive !
 
 227 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CONFIDENTIAL INTERCOURSE. 
 
 But everybody must "be tired of all this trouble about 
 that boat. It shows what a state of things we live 
 in, and what a meddlesome lot we are, that a good 
 man cannot receive a gift straight into his hands 
 from Providence, which never before rewarded him, 
 though he said his prayers every night almost, and 
 did his very best to cheat nobody ; it proves, at least 
 to my mind, something very rotten somewhere, when 
 a man of blameless character must prove his right to 
 what he finds. However, I had proved my right, and 
 cut in Colonel Lougher's woods a larger pole than 
 usual, because the law would guarantee me, if at all 
 assaulted. 
 
 And truly, after all my care to be on the right 
 side of it, such a vile attack of law was now im- 
 pending on me, that with all my study of it, and 
 perpetual attempts to jam its helm up almost into
 
 228 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 the very eye of reason, my sails very nearly failed to 
 draw, and left me shivering in the wind. But first 
 for what comes foremost. 
 
 At that particular moment all things seemed to be 
 most satisfactory. Here was my property duly 
 secured and most useful to me, here was a run of fish 
 up from the Mumbles of a very superior character, 
 here was my own reputation spread by the vigilance 
 of the public press, so that I charged three farthings 
 a-pound more than Sandy Mac did, and here was my 
 cottage once more all alive with the mirth of our 
 Bunny and Bardie. To see them playing at hide- 
 and-seek with two chairs and a table ; or " French 
 and English," which I taught them ; or " come and 
 visit my grandmother; " or making a cat of the kettle- 
 holder, with a pair of ears and a tail to it ; or giving 
 a noble dinner-party with cockles and oyster-shells, 
 and buttons, and apple-peel chopped finely ; or, what 
 was even a grander thing, eating their own dinners 
 prettily with their dolls beside them, — scarcely any 
 one would have believed that these little ones had 
 no mothers. 
 
 And yet they did not altogether seem to be for- 
 getful, or to view the world as if there were no serious 
 side to it. Very grave discourse was sometimes held 
 between their bouts of play, and subjects of great
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 229 
 
 depth and wonder introduced by doll's clothes. For 
 instance : — 
 
 " Hasn't 'a got no mama, poor Bunny, to thread 
 'e needle ? " 
 
 " No, my dear," I answered, for my grandchild 
 looked stupid about it ; " poor Bunny's mother is 
 gone to heaven." 
 
 " My mama not gone to heaven. My mama 
 come demorrow-day. I'se almost tired of yaiting, 
 old Davy, but she sure to come demorrow-day." 
 
 But as the brave little creature spoke, I saw that 
 " the dust was in her eyes." This was her own ex- 
 pression always, to escape the reproach of crying, 
 when her lonely heart was working with its misty 
 troubles, and sent the tears into her eyes, before the 
 tongue could tell of them. " Demorrow-day, demor- 
 row-day/' all her loss was to be recovered always on 
 " demorrow-day." 
 
 Not even so much as a doll had been saved from 
 the total wreck of her fortunes ; and when I beheld 
 her wistful eyes set one day upon Bunny's doll — 
 although only fit for hospital, having one arm and 
 one leg and no nose, besides her neck being broken, 
 I set to at once and sharpened my knife upon a piece 
 of sandstone. Then I sought out a piece of abele, 
 laid by from the figure-head of a wrecked Dutchman,
 
 230 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 and in earnest I fell to, and shaped such a carving of 
 a doll as never was seen before or since. Of course 
 the little pet came, and stood, and watched every 
 chip as I sliced it along, with sighs of deep expect- 
 ancy, and a laugh when I got to the tail of it ; and 
 of course she picked up every one, not only as neatest 
 of the neat, but also accounting them sacred offsets 
 of the mysterious doll unborn. I could not get her 
 to go to bed ; and it was as good as a guinea to me 
 to see the dancing in her eyes, and the spring of her 
 body returning. 
 
 " 'E can make a boofely doll, old Davy ; but 'e 
 doesn't know the yay to dess a dolL" 
 
 " You are quite wrong there," said I, perceiving 
 that I should go up, or down, according to my asser- 
 tion ; and it made her open her eyes to see me cut 
 out, with about five snips, a pair of drawers quite 
 good enough for any decent woman. And she went 
 to bed hugging the doll in that state, and praying to 
 have her improved to-morrow. 
 
 At breakfast-time mother Jones dropped in, for she 
 loved a good salt-herring, and to lay down the law 
 for the day almost ; as if I knew scarce anything. 
 And I always let her have her talk, and listened to 
 it gravely ; and clever women, as a rule, shoujd not 
 be denied of this attention ; for if they are, it sours
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 23 1 
 
 them. While she was sucking the last of the tail, 
 and telling me excellent scandal, my little lady 
 marched in straight, having finished her breakfast 
 long ago, and bearing her new doll pompously. The 
 fly-away colour in her cheeks, which always made 
 her beautiful, and the sparkle of her gleeful eyes, 
 were come again with pleasure, and so was the lovely 
 pink of her lips, and the proper aspect of her nose. 
 Also she walked with such motherly rank, throwing 
 her legs with a female jerk — it is enough for me to 
 say that any newly-married woman would have kissed 
 her all round the room. 
 
 Now, mother Jones, having ten fine children (five 
 male and five female) going about with clothes up to 
 their forks, need not have done what she did, I think, 
 and made me so bashful in my own house. For no 
 sooner did she see this doll, than she cried, "Oh, my! " 
 and covered up her face. The little maid looked up 
 at me in great wonder, as if 1 were leading her astray ; 
 and I felt so angry with Mrs Jones, after all the things 
 I had seen abroad, and even in English churches, 
 that I would not trust myself to speak. However, 
 to pay her out for that, I begged her to cure the mis- 
 chief herself, which she could not well decline ; and 
 some of the green blind still remaining, Dolly became 
 a most handsome sight, with a crackle in front and
 
 232 ■ THE MAID OF SKER, 
 
 a sweeping tehind, so that our clerk, a good-natured 
 man, was invited to christen her; and "Patty Green" 
 was the name he gave : and Bunny's doll was no- 
 body. Such a baby-like thing might seem almost 
 below my dignity, and that of all the rest of us ; only 
 this child had the power to lead us, as by a special 
 enchantment, back to our own childhood. Moreover, 
 it was needful for me to go through with this doll's 
 birth (still more so with her dress, of course, having 
 her a female), because through her I learned a great 
 deal more of Bardie's history than ever our Bunny 
 could extract. 
 
 Everybody who has no patience with the ways of 
 childhood, may be vexed, and must be vexed, with 
 our shipwrecked maid for knowing many things, but 
 not the right ; but I think she was to blame, only 
 for her innocence. In her tiny brain was moving 
 some uncertain sense of wrong ; whether done by 
 herseK, or to her, was beyond her infant groping. If 
 she could have made her mind up, in its little milky 
 shell, that the evil had befallen without harm on her 
 part, doubtless she had done her best to let us know 
 the whole of it. Her best, of course, woidd be but 
 little, looking at her age and so on ; and perhaps from 
 some harsh word or frown, stamped into the tender 
 flux of infantile memory, a heavy dread both dark-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 233 
 
 ened and repressed much recollection. Hence, if one 
 tried to examine her, in order to find out who she 
 ■was, she would shake her head, and say, " No ! somp- 
 fin ;" as she always did when puzzled or unable to 
 pronounce a word. The only chance of learning 
 even any little things she knew, was to leave her to 
 her own way, and not interrupt her conversation 
 with wooden or crockery playmates. All of these 
 she endowed with life, having such power of 
 life herself, and she reckoned them up for good 
 behaviour, or for bad, as the case might be. And 
 often was I touched at heart, after a day of bitter 
 fighting with a world that wronged me, by hearing 
 her in baby -prattle tell her playthings of their 
 unkindness to a little thing with none to love her. 
 
 But when I had finished Patty's face up to com- 
 plete expression, with two black buttons for her 
 eyes, and a cowry for her mouth, and a nose of 
 coral, also a glorious head of hair of crinkled sea- 
 weed growing out of a shell (toothed like an ivory 
 comb almost), the ecstasy of the child was such, 
 that I obtained, as well as deserved, some valuable 
 information. 
 
 " Patty Geen, 'e's been aye good," I heard her say 
 in my window-place, one morning after breakfast ; 
 " and 'e is the most boofely doll ever seen, and I tell
 
 234 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 'a sompfin ; only 'e mustn't tell anybody, tiU my dear 
 mama comes. Nat wasn't ickle bother, Patty." 
 
 "How do you know, Miss?" Patty inquired by 
 means of my voice in the distance, and a little art I 
 had learned abroad of throwing it into corners. 
 
 " I tell 'a, Patty, I tell 'a. I 'ouldn't tell 'e nasty 
 man, but I tell old Davy some day. Ickle bother 
 not like nat at all. Ickle bother not so big enough, 
 and only two ickle teeth in front, and his hair all 
 gone ayay it is, but mama say soon come back 
 again." 
 
 "And what is little brother's name?" said Patty, 
 in a whisper ; " and what is your name and 
 papa's ?" 
 
 " Oh 'e silly Patty Geen ! As if 'e didn't know 
 I'se Bardie, ever since I was anyfin. And papa, is 
 papa, he is. Patty, I'se kite ashamed of 'a. 'E's such 
 a silly ickle fin !" 
 
 "Well, I know I am not very clever. Miss. But 
 tell me some more things you remember." 
 
 " I teU 'a, if 'e stop kiet. ' I 'ish 'a many happy 
 turns of the day. Miss Bardie. Many happy turns 
 of the day to 'a !' And poor Bardie get off her stool, 
 and say what her dear papa tell. * Gentleyums, and 
 yadies, I'se aye much obiged to 'a.' And then have 
 boofely appledies, and carbies, and a ickle dop of
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 235 
 
 good yiney-piney. Does 'e know 'hot that means, 
 poor Patty?" 
 
 " No, my dear, how should I know 1 " 
 
 " 'E mustn't call me ' my dear,' I teU 'a. 'E must 
 know 'a's pace in yife. Why, 'e's only a doll, Patty, 
 and Bardie's a young yady, and a 'streamly 'cocious 
 gal I is, and the gentleyums all say so. Ickle bother 
 can't say nuffin, without me to sow him the yay of 
 it. But Bardie say almost anyfin ; anyfin, when I 
 yikes to ty. Bardie say ' Pomyoleanian dog ! " 
 
 This cost her a long breath, and a great effort ; but 
 Patty expressed intense amazement at such power of 
 diction, and begged to know something more about 
 that extraordinary animal. 
 
 " Pomyoleanian dog is yite, yite all over 'sept his 
 collar, and his collar's boo. And he's got hair that 
 long, Patty, ever so much longer than yours. And he 
 yun yound and yound, he does. Oh, 1 do so yant 
 my Pomyoleanian dog !" 
 
 Patty waited for two great tears to run quietly 
 down two little cheeks ; and then she expressed 
 some contempt of the dog, and a strong desire to 
 hear some more about the happy turns of the day. 
 
 "Don't 'e be jealous, now, Patty, I tell 'a. 'E 
 ickle yite dog can eat, but 'e can't. And happy turns 
 of the day is yen a geat big gal is two years old
 
 236 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 with a ickle bother. And he can't say nuffin, 'cos he 
 grow too strong enough, and 'e young yady must 
 repy ; and ayebody yooks at 'a, and yaffs, and put 'e 
 gasses up, and say, ''Hot a 'cocious ickle fin !' And 
 my dear papa say, * 'Hot a good gal !' and mama 
 come and tiss 'a all over a'most, and then 'e all have 
 some more puddeny-pie !" 
 
 Overcome with that last memory, she could go no 
 further; and being unable to give her pies, I felt 
 myself bound to abandon any more inquiries. For 
 that child scarcely ever roared, so as to obtain relief; 
 but seemed with a kind of self-control — such as 
 unlucky people form, however early in their lives — 
 to take her troubles inwardly, and to be fuU to the 
 very lip of them, without the power of spilling. This, 
 though a comfort to other people, is far worse for 
 themselves, I fear. And I knew that she did love 
 pastry rarely; for one day, after a fine pair of 
 soles, I said to the two children, " Now, put your 
 little hands together, and thank God for a good 
 dinner." Bunny did this in a grateful manner, but 
 Bardie said, " No, I 'ont, old Davy ; I'll thank God 
 when I gets puddeny-pie." 
 
 Upon the whole, I concluded thus, that the little 
 creature was after aU (and as might have been ex- 
 pected with any other child almost) too young, in the
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 237 
 
 third year of her age, to maintain any clear ideas of 
 place, or time, or names, or doings, or anything that 
 might establish from her own words only, whence she 
 came or who she was. However, I now knew quite 
 enough, if the right people ever came to seek for her, 
 to " 'dentify " her, as she expressed it to that stupid 
 Coroner. 
 
 Moxy Thomas came to fetch her back to Sker, in 
 a few days' time. I was now resolved to keep lier, 
 and she resolved to stay with me — and doubtless I 
 had first right to her. But when I saw poor Moxy's 
 face, and called to mind her desolation, and when 
 she kissed my fishy hand to let her have this com- 
 fort, after all the Lord had taken from her, I could 
 not find it in my heart to stand to my own interest. 
 It came across me too that Bardie scarcely throve on 
 so much fish ; and we never had any butcher's-meat, 
 or meat of any kind at all, unless I took shares in a 
 pig, after saving up money for Christmas, or contrived 
 to defend myself against the hares that would run at 
 me so, when I happened to come through a gate at 
 night. 
 
 So with a clearly-pronounced brave roar, having 
 more music than Bunny's in it, and enough to wash 
 a great deal of " dust " out of her woefully lingering 
 eyes, away she went in Moxy's arms, with Patty
 
 238 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Green in her own looking likely to get wet through. 
 And Bunny stuck her thumbs into my legs, which 
 she had a knack of doing, especially after sucking 
 them ; so thus we stood, at our cottage-door, looking 
 after Bardie ; and I took off my hat, and slie spread 
 her hand out, in the intervals of woe: and little 
 thought either of us, I daresay, of the many troubles 
 in store for us both. 
 
 Only before that grievous parting, she had done a 
 little thing which certainly did amaze me. And if 
 anybody knows the like, I shall be glad to hear of 
 it. I had a snug and tidy locker very near the fire- 
 place, wherein I kept some little trifles; such as 
 Bunny had an eye for, but was gradually broken into 
 distant admiration. One morning I came suddenly 
 in from looking to my night-lines, and a pretty scene 
 I saw. The door of my cupboard was wide open, and 
 there stood little Bardie giving a finishing lick to her 
 fingers. Bunny also in the corner, with her black 
 eyes staring, as if at the end of the world itself. 
 However, her pinafore was full. 
 
 No sooner did my grandchild see me, than she 
 rushed away with shrieks, casting down aU stolen 
 goods in agony of conscience. I expected Bardie to 
 do the same ; but to my great wonderment up she 
 walked and faced me.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 239 
 
 " Must I beat poor Patty Geen ? " The tears 
 were in her eyes at having to propose so sad a thing. 
 And she stroked the doll, to comfort her. 
 
 " Beat poor Patty ! " said I, in amazement. "Why, 
 what harm has Patty done ? " 
 
 " Nare she have heen, all 'e time, stealing 'a soogar, 
 old Davy ! " And she looked at me as if she had 
 done a good turn by the information. I scarcely 
 knew what to do, I declare ; for her doll was so truly 
 alive to her, that she might and perhaps did believe 
 it. However, I shut her in my little bedroom, until 
 her heart was almost broken ; and then I tried to 
 reason with her, on the subject of telling lies ; but 
 she could not understand what they were ; until I 
 said what I was forced to do, when I went among 
 bad people. 
 
 That evening, after she was gone, and while I was 
 very dull about it, finding poor Bunny so slow and 
 stupid, and nothing to keep me wide awake — there I 
 was bound to be wide awake, more than at Petty 
 Sessions even, when mine enemies throng against 
 me. For almost before I had smoked two pipes, or 
 made up my mind what to do with myself, finding a 
 hollow inside of me, the great posting-coach from 
 Bridgend came up, with the sun setting bright on its 
 varnish, and at my very door it stopped. Next to
 
 240 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 the driver sat a constable who was always unjust to 
 me ; and from the inside came out first Justice 
 Anthony Stew of Pen Coedd, as odious and as med- 
 dlesome a justice of the peace as ever signed a war- 
 rant ; and after him came a tall elderly gentleman, 
 on whom I had never set eyes before, but I felt that 
 he must be a magistrate.
 
 241 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 CROSS-EXAMINATION. 
 
 Those justices of the peace, although appointed by 
 his Majesty, have never been a comfort to me, saving 
 only Colonel Lougher. They never seem to under- 
 stand me, or to make out my desires, or to take me 
 at my word, as much as I take them at theirs. My 
 desire has always been to live in a painfully loyal 
 manner, to put up with petty insults from customers 
 who know no better, leaving them to self-reflection, 
 and if possible to repentance, while I go my peace- 
 ful way, nor let them hear their money jingle, or 
 even spend it in their sight. To be pleased and 
 trustful also with the folk who trust in me, and 
 rather to abandon much, and give back twopence in 
 a shilling, than cause any purchaser self-reproach for 
 having sworn falsely before the bench, — now if all 
 this would not do, to keep me out of the session- 
 books, can any man point out a clearer proof of the 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 242 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 vicious administration of what they call "justice" 
 around our parts? And when any trumpery case 
 was got up, on purpose to worry and plague me, the 
 only chance left me, of any fair-play, was to throw 
 up my day's work, and wear out my shoes in trudg- 
 ing to Candleston Court, to implore that good Colonel 
 Lougher to happen to sit on the bench that day. 
 
 When those two gentlemen alighted from that 
 rickety old coach, and ordered that very low constable 
 to pace to and fro at the door of my house, boldly I 
 came out to meet them, having injured no man, nor 
 done harm of any sort that I could think of, lately. 
 Stew came first, a man of no lineage, but pushed on 
 by impudence ; " Anthony Stew can look you 
 through," an English poacher said of him ; and this 
 he tried always to do with me, and thoroughly wel- 
 come he was to succeed. 
 
 I will not say that my inner movements may not 
 have been uneasy, in spite of all my rectitude ; how- 
 ever, I showed their two worships inside, in the very 
 best style of the quarter-deck, such as I had gathered 
 from that coroneted captain, my proud connection 
 with whom, perhaps, I may have spoken of ere this, 
 or at any rate ought to have done so, for I had the 
 honour of swabbing his pumps for him almost every 
 morning ; and he was kind enough to call me "Davy."
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 243 
 
 Every Briton, in his own house, is bound to do his 
 utmost ; so I touched my grey forelock, and made two 
 good hows, and set a chair for each of them, happen- 
 ing to have no more just now, though with plenty of 
 money to buy them. Self-controlled as I always am, 
 many things had tried me, of late, almost to the 
 verge of patience ; such imputations as fall most 
 tenderly on a sorrowful widower ; and my pure ad- 
 miration of Bardie, and certainty of her lofty birth, 
 had made me the more despise such foulness. So it 
 came to pass that two scandalous men were given 
 over by the doctors (for the pole I had cut was a 
 trifle too thick), nevertheless they recovered bravely, 
 and showed no more gratitude towards God, than to 
 take out warrants against me ! But their low de- 
 ^dces were frustrated by the charge beijig taken before 
 Colonel Lougher. And what did that excellent 
 magistrate do ? He felt himself compelled to do 
 something. Therefore he fined me a shilling per 
 head, for the two heads broken, with 10s. costs 
 (which he paid, as usual), and gave me a very severe 
 reprimand. 
 
 " Llewellyn," he said, " the time is come for you 
 to leave off this course of action, I do not wonder 
 that you felt provoked ; but you must seek for satis- 
 faction in the legal channels. Suppose these men
 
 244 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 had possessed thin heads, why you might have been 
 guilty of murder! Make out his commitment to 
 Cardiff Gaol, in default of immediate payment." 
 
 All this was good, and sustained one's faith in the 
 efficacy of British law ; and trusting that nothing 
 might now be amiss in the minds of these two magis- 
 trates, I fetched the block of sycamore, whereupon 
 my fish were in the habit of having their fins and 
 tails chopped off ; and there I sate down, and pre- 
 sented myself both ready and respectful On the 
 other hand, my visitors looked very grave and silent ; 
 whether it were to prolong my doubts, or as having 
 doubts of their own, perhaps. 
 
 " Your worships," I began at last, in fear of grow- 
 ing timorous, with any longer waiting — " your wor- 
 ships must have driven far." 
 
 " To see you, Llewellyn," Squire Stew said, with a 
 nasty snap, hoping the more to frighten me. 
 
 " Not only a pleasure to me, your worships, but a 
 very great honour to my poor house. What will 
 your worships be pleased to eat ? Butcher's meat I 
 would have had, if only I had known of it. But one 
 thing I can truly say, my cottage has the best of fish." 
 
 " That I can believe," said Stew ; " because you 
 sell all the worst to me. Another such a trick, 
 Llewellyn, and I have you in the stocks."
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 245 
 
 This astonished me so much — for his fish had 
 never died over four days — that nothing but my 
 countenance could express my feelings. 
 
 " I crave your pardon, Justice Stew," said the tall 
 grey gentleman with the velvet coat, as he rose in 
 a manner that overawed me, for he stood a good foot 
 over Anthony Stew, and a couple of inches over me ; 
 " may we not enter upon the matter which has led 
 us to this place ?" 
 
 "Certainly, Sir Philip, certainly," Stew replied, 
 with a style which proved that Sir Philip must be of 
 no small position ; " all I meant. Sir Philip, was just 
 to let you see the sort of fellow we have to deal 
 with." 
 
 " My integrity is well known," I answered, turn- 
 ing from him to the gentleman ; " not only in this 
 parish, but for miles and miles round. It is not my 
 habit to praise myself ; and in truth, I find no ne- 
 cessity. Even a famous newspaper, so far away as 
 Bristol, the celebrated ' Felix Parley's Journal ' " 
 
 " Just so," said the elder gentleman ; " it is that 
 which has brought us here ; although, as I fear, on a 
 hopeless errand." 
 
 With these words he leaned away, as if he had 
 been long accustomed to be disappointed. To me it 
 was no small relief to find their business peaceable,
 
 246 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 and that neither a hare which had rushed at nie like 
 a lion through a gate by moonlight, nor a stupid 
 covey of partridges (nineteen in number, which gave 
 me no peace while excluded from my dripping-pan), 
 nor even a pheasant cock whose crowing was of the 
 most insulting tone, — that none of these had been 
 complaining to the bench emboldened me, and re- 
 newed my sense of reason. But I felt that Justice 
 Stew could not be trusted for a moment to take 
 this point in a proper light. Therefore I kept 
 my wits in the chains, taking soundings of them 
 both. 
 
 "Now, Llewellyn, no nonsense, mind!" began 
 Squire Stew, with his face like a hatchet, and scol- 
 lops over his eyebrows : " what we are come for is 
 very simple, and need not unsettle your conscience, 
 as you have allowed it to do, I fear. Keep your 
 aspect of innocent wonder for the next time you are 
 brought before me. I only wish your fish were as 
 bright and slippery as you are." 
 
 " May I humbly ask what matter it pleases your 
 worship to be thinking of?" 
 
 " Oh, of course, you cannot imagine, Davy. But 
 let that pass, as you were acquitted, by virtue of your 
 innocent face, in the teeth of all the evidence. If 
 you had only dropped your eyes, instead of wonder-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 24/ 
 
 ing SO much — but never mind, stare as you may, 
 some day we shall be sure to have you." 
 
 Now, I will put it to anybody whether this was 
 not too bad, in my own house, and with the Bench 
 seated on my own best chairs ! However, knowing 
 what a man he was, and how people do attribute to 
 me things I never dreamed of, and what little chance 
 a poor man has if he takes to contradiction, all I did 
 was to look my feelings, which were truly virtuous. 
 Kor were they lost upon Sir Philip. 
 
 " You will forgive me, good sir, I hope," he said 
 to Squire Anthony ; " but unless we are come with 
 any charge against this — Mr Llewellyn, it is hardly 
 fair to reopen any awkward questions of which he 
 has been acquitted. In his own house, moreover, 
 and when he has offered kind hospitality to us — in 
 a word, I wiU say no more." 
 
 Here he stopped, for fear perhaps of vexing the 
 other magistrate; and I touched my grizzled curl 
 and said, " Sir, I thank you for a gentleman." This 
 was the way to get on with me, instead of driving 
 and bullying ; for a gentleman or a lady can lead me 
 to any extremes of truth ; but not a lawyer, much 
 less a justice. And Anthony Stew had no faith 
 in truth, unless she came out to his own corkscrew. 
 
 " British tar," he exclaimed, with his nasty sneer ;
 
 248 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 " now for some more of your heroism ! You look as 
 if you were up for doing something very glorious. I 
 have seen that colour in your cheeks when you sold 
 me a sewin that shone in the dark. A glorious ex- 
 ploit ; wasn't it now ?" 
 
 " That it was, your worship, to such a customer as 
 you." 
 
 While Anthony Stew was digesting this, which 
 seemed a puzzle to him, the tall grey gentleman, 
 feeling but little interest in my commerce, again de- 
 sired to hurry matters. " Forgive me again, I be- 
 seech you, good sir ; but ere long it will be dark, and 
 as yet we have learned nothing." 
 
 " Leave it all to me. Sir Philip ; your wisest plan 
 is to leave it to me. I know all the people around 
 these parts, and especially this fine fellow. I have 
 made a sort of study of him, because I consider him 
 what I may call a thoroughly typical character." 
 
 " I am not a typical character," T answered, over- 
 hastily, for I found out afterwards what he meant. 
 " I never tipple ; but when I drink, my rule is to 
 go through with it." 
 
 Squire Stew laughed loud at my mistake, as if he 
 had been a great scholar himself; and even Sir 
 Philip smiled a little in his sweet and lofty manner. 
 No doubt but I was vexed for a moment, scenting
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 249 
 
 (though I could not see) error on my own part. But 
 now I might defy them both, ever to write such a 
 book as this. For vanity has always been so foreign 
 to my nature, that I am sure to do my best, and, 
 after all, think nothing of it, so long as people praise 
 me. And now, in spite of all rude speeches, if Sir 
 Philip had only come without that Squire Anthony, 
 not a thing of all that happened would I have re- 
 tained from him. It is hopeless for people to say 
 that my boat crippled speech on my part. Tush ! I 
 would have pulled her plug out on the tail of the 
 Tuskar rather than one moment stand against the 
 light for Bardie. 
 
 Squire Stew asked me all sorts of questions having 
 no more substance in them than the blowing-hole at 
 the end of an egg, or the bladder of a skate-fish. All 
 of these I answered boldly, finding his foot outside 
 my shoes. And so he came back again, as they do 
 after trying foolish excursions, to the very point he 
 started with. 
 
 " Am I to understand, my good fellow, that the 
 ship, which at least you allow to be wrecked, may 
 have been or might have been something like a 
 foreigner ?" 
 
 " Therein lies the point whereon your worship can- 
 not follow me, any more than could the coroner.
 
 ZSO THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Neither he, nor his clerk, nor the rest of the jury, 
 would listen to common-sense about it. That ship 
 no more came from Appledore than a whale was 
 hatched from a herring's egg." 
 
 " I knew it ; I knew it," broke in Sir Philip. 
 " They have only small coasters at Appledore. I 
 said that the newspaper must be wrong. However, 
 for the sake of my two poor sons, I am bound to leave 
 no clue unfollowed. There is nothing more to be 
 done, Mr Stew, except to express my many and great 
 obligations for your kindness." Herewith he made a 
 most stately bow, and gave even me a corner of it. 
 
 " Stay, Sir Philip ; one moment more. This fellow 
 is such a crafty file. Certain I am that he never 
 would look so unnaturally frank and candid unless he 
 were in his most slippery mood. You know the old 
 proverb, I daresay, ' Put a Taffy on his mettle, he'll 
 boil Old Nick in his own fish-kettle.' Dyo, where 
 did your boat come from?" 
 
 This question he put in a very sudden, and I might 
 well say vicious, manner, darting a glance at me like 
 the snake's tongues in the island of Das Cobras. I 
 felt such contempt that I turned my back, and gave 
 him a view of the " boofely buckens " admired so 
 much by Bardie. 
 
 " Well done !" he cried. " Your resources, Dyo,
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 25 1 
 
 are an infinite credit to you. And, do you know, 
 when I see your back, I can almost place some faith 
 in you. It is broad and flat and sturdy, Dyo. Ah ! 
 many a fine hare has swung there head downwards. 
 Nevertheless, we must see this boat." 
 
 Nothing irritates me more than what low English- 
 men call " chaff." I like to be pleasant and jocular 
 upon other people ; but I don't like that sort of thing 
 tried upon me when I am not in the humour for it. 
 Therefore I answered crustily, 
 
 " Your worship is welcome to see my boat, and go 
 to sea in her if you please, with the plug out of her 
 bottom. Under Porthcawl Point she lies ; and all 
 the people there know all about her. Only, I will 
 beg your worship to excuse my presence, lest you 
 should have low suspicions that I came to twist their 
 testimony." 
 
 " Well said, David ! well said, my fine fellow ! 
 Almost I begin to believe thee, in spite of all experi- 
 ence. Now, Sir Philip." 
 
 " Your pardon, good sir ; I follow you into the 
 carriage." 
 
 So off they set to examine my boat ; and I hoped 
 to see no more of them, for one thing was certain — to 
 wit, that their coachman never would face the sand- 
 hills, and no road ever is, or ever can be, to Porth-
 
 252 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 cawl ; so that these two worthy gentlemen needs 
 must exert their noble legs for at least one-half of the 
 distance. And knowing that Squire Stew's soles were 
 soft, I thought it a blessing for him to improve the 
 only soft part about him.
 
 253 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ANOTHER DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 Highly pleased with these reflections, what did I do 
 but take a pipe, and sit like a lord at my own door- 
 way, having sent poor Bunny with a smack to bed, 
 because she had shown curiosity : for this leading 
 vice of the female race cannot be too soon discouraged. 
 But now I began to fear almost that it would be 
 growing too dark very soon for me to see what be- 
 came of the carriage returning with those two wor- 
 ships. Moreover, I felt that I had no right to let 
 them go so easily, without even knowing Sir Philip's 
 surname, or what might be the especial craze which 
 had led them to honour me so. And sundry other con- 
 siderations slowly prevailed over me ; until it would 
 have gone sore with my mind, to be kept in the dark 
 concerning them. So, when heavy dusk of autumn 
 drove in over the notch of sandhills from the far-away 
 of sea, and the green of grass was gone, and you
 
 254 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 hardly could tell a boy from a girl among the children 
 playing, unless you knew their mothers ; I, rejoicing 
 in their pleasures, quite forgot the justices. For all 
 our children have a way of letting out their liveliness, 
 such as makes old people feel a longing to be in with 
 them. Not like Bardie, of course ; but still a satis- 
 factory feeling. And the better my tobacco grew, 
 the sweeter were my memories. 
 
 Before I had courted my wife and my sweethearts 
 (a dozen and a-half perhaps, or at the outside say two 
 dozen) anything more than twice a-piece, in the 
 gentle cud of memory ; and with very quiet sighs 
 indeed, for echoes of great thumping ones ; and just 
 as I wondered what execution a beautiful child, with 
 magnificent legs, would do when I lay in the church- 
 yard — all of a heap I was fetched out of dreaming 
 into common-sense again. There was the great yellow 
 coach at the corner of the old grey wall that stopped 
 the sand ; and all the village children left their " hide- 
 and-seek " to whisper. Having fallen into a different 
 mood from that of curiosity, and longing only for 
 peace just now, or tender styles of going, back went I 
 into my own cottage, hoping to hear them smack whip 
 and away. Even my hand was on the bolt — for a 
 bolt I had now on account of the cats, who under- 
 stand every manner of latch, wherever any fish
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 255 
 
 be — and perhaps it is a pity that I did not shoot 
 it. 
 
 But there came three heavy knocks ; and I scarcely 
 had time to unbutton my coat, in proof of their great 
 intrusion, before I was forced to show my face, and 
 beg to know their business. 
 
 " Now, Dyo, Dyo," said that damned Stew [saving 
 your presence, I can't call him else] ; " this is a little 
 too bad of you ! Eetiring ere dusk ! Aha ! aha ! 
 And how many hours after midnight will you keep 
 your hornpipes up, among the 'jolly sailors !' Great 
 Davy, I admire you." 
 
 I saw that it was not in his power to enter into my 
 state of mind : nor could I find any wit in his jokes, 
 supposing them to be meant for such. 
 
 " "Well, what did your worships think of Porth- 
 cawl ?" I asked, after setting the chairs again, while 
 I bustled about for my tinder-box : " did you happen 
 to come across the man whose evil deeds are always 
 being saddled upon me ?" 
 
 " We found a respectable worthy Scotchman, whose 
 name is Alexander Macraw ; and who told us more 
 in about five minutes than we got out of you in an 
 hour or more. He has given us stronger reason to 
 hope that we may be on the right track at last 
 to explain a most painful mystery, and relieve
 
 256 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Sir Philip from the most cruel suspense and an- 
 xiety." 
 
 At these words of Squire Anthony, the tall grey 
 gentleman with the velvet coat bowed, and would 
 fain have spoken, but feared perhaps that his voice 
 would tremble. 
 
 " Macraw thinks it highly probable," Justice Stew 
 continued, "that the ship, though doubtless a 
 foreigner, may have touched on the opposite coast for 
 supplies, after a long ocean voyage : and though Sir 
 Philip has seen your boat, and considers it quite a 
 stranger, that proves nothing either way, as the boat 
 of course would belong to the ship. But one very 
 simple and speedy way there is of settling the ques- 
 tion. You thought proper to conceal the fact that 
 the Coroner had committed to your charge as foreman 
 of the jury — and a precious jury it must have been 
 — so as to preserve near the spot, in case of any 
 inquiry, the dress of the poor child washed ashore. 
 This will save us the journey to Sker, which in the 
 dusk would be dangerous. David Llewellyn, pro- 
 duce that dress, under my authority." 
 
 "That I will, your worship, with the greatest 
 pleasure. I am sure I would have told you all 
 about it, if I had only thought of it." 
 
 "Ahem!" was all Squire Stew's reply, for a hor-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 257 
 
 ribly suspicious man hates such downright honesty. 
 But without taking further notice of him, I went to 
 my locker of old black oak, and thence I brought that 
 upper garment something like a pinafore, the sight of 
 which had produced so strong an effect upon the 
 Coroner. It was made of the very finest linen, and 
 perhaps had been meant for the child to wear in lieu 
 of a frock in some hot climate. As I brought this 
 carefully up to the table, Squire Stew cried, " Light 
 another candle," just as if I kept the village shop ! 
 This I might have done at one time, if it had only 
 happened to me, at the proper period, to marry the 
 niece of the man that lived next door to the chapel, 
 where they dried the tea-leaves. She took a serious 
 liking to me, with my navy trousers on ; but I was 
 fool enough to find fault with a little kink in her 
 starboard eye. I could have carried on such a trade, 
 with my knowledge of what people are, and descrip- 
 tion of foreign climates — however it was not to be, 
 and I had to buy my candles. 
 
 As soon as we made a fine strong light, both the 
 gentlemen came nigh, and Sir Philip, who had said 
 so little, even now forbore to speak. I held the poor 
 dress, tattered by much beating on the points of rocks; 
 and as I unrolled it slowly, he withdrew his long 
 white hands, lest we should remark their quivering. 
 
 VOL. I. £
 
 258 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 " You are not such fools as I thought," said Stew ; 
 " it is a coronet beyond doubt, I can trace the lines 
 and crossings, though the threads are frayed a little. 
 And here in the corner, a moneygrum— ah ! you 
 never saw that, you stupes — do you know the mark, 
 sir ?" 
 
 " I do not," Sir Philip answered, and seemed 
 unable to fetch more words ; and then like a strong 
 man turned away, to hide all disappointment. Even 
 Anthony Stew had the manners to feel that here was 
 a sorrow beyond his depth, and he covered his sense 
 of it, like a gentleman, by some petty talk with me. 
 And it made me almost respect him to find that he 
 dropped all his banter, as out of season. 
 
 But presently the tall grey gentleman recovered 
 from his loss of hope, and with a fine brave face 
 regarded us. And his voice was firm and very 
 sweet, 
 
 " It is not right for me to cause you pain by my 
 anxieties ; and I fear that you will condemn me for 
 dwelling upon them overmuch. But you, Mr Stew, 
 already know, and you my friend have a right to 
 know, after your kind and ready help, that it is not 
 only the piteous loss of two little innocent children, 
 very dear ones both of them, but also the loss of fair 
 repute to an honourable family, and the cruel suspi-
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 259 
 
 cion cast upon a fine brave fellow, who would scorn, 
 sir, who would scorn, for the wealth of all this king- 
 dom, to hurt the hair of a baby's head." 
 
 Here Sir Philip's voice was choked with indignation 
 more than sorrow, and he sate down quickly, and 
 waved his hand, as much as to say, " I am an old 
 fool, I had much better not pretend to talk." And 
 much as I longed to know aU about it, of course it 
 was not my place to ask. 
 
 " Exactly, my dear sir, exactly," Squire Anthony 
 went on, for the sake of saying something ; " I 
 understand you, my dear sir, and feel for you, and 
 respect you greatly for your manly fortitude undei- 
 this sad calamity. Trust in Providence, my dear sir ; 
 as indeed I need not tell you." 
 
 " I will do my best ; but this is now the seventh 
 disappointment we have had. It would have been a 
 heavy blow, of course, to have found the poor little 
 fellow dead. But even that, with the recovery of the 
 other, would have been better than this dark mystery, 
 and, above all, would have freed the living from these 
 maddening suspicions. But as it is, we must try to 
 bear it, and to say, ' God's will be done.' But I am 
 thinking too much about ourselves. Mr Stew, I am 
 very ungrateful not to think more of your convenience. 
 You must be longing to be at home."
 
 26o THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 " At your service, Sir Philip — quite at your service. 
 My time is entirely my own." 
 
 This was simply a bit of brag ; and I saw that he 
 was beginning to fidget ; for, bold as his worship was 
 on the bench, we knew that he was but a coward at 
 board, where Mrs Stew ruled with a rod of iron : 
 and now it was long past dinner-time, even in the 
 finest houses. 
 
 " One thing more, then, before we go," answered 
 Sir Philip, rising ; " according to the newspaper, and 
 as I hear, one young maiden was really saved from 
 that disastrous shipwreck. I wish we could have 
 gone on to see her ; but I must return to-morrow 
 morning, having left many anxious hearts behind. 
 And to cross the sands in the dark, they say, is 
 utterly impossible." 
 
 " Not at all, Sir Philip," said I, very firmly, for I 
 honestly wished to go through with it ; " although 
 the sand is very deep, there is no fear at all, if 
 one knows the track. It is only the cowardice of 
 these people ever since the sand-storm. I would 
 answer to take you in the darkest night, if only I 
 had ever learned to drive." But Anthony Stew 
 broke in with a smile, 
 
 " It would grieve me to sit behind you, Dyo, and I 
 trow that Sir Philip would never behold Appledore
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 261 
 
 again. There is nothing these sailors will not at- 
 tempt." 
 
 Although I could sit the bowthwart of a cart very- 
 well, with a boy to drive me, and had often advised 
 the hand at the tiller, and sometimes as much as 
 held the whip, all this, to my diffidence, seemed too 
 little to warrant me in navigating a craft that carried 
 two horses. 
 
 Sir Philip looked at me, and perhaps he thought 
 that I had not the cut of a coachman. However, all 
 he said was this : 
 
 "In spite of your kindness, Mr Stew, and your 
 offer, my good sir" — this was to me, with much 
 dignity — " I perceive that we must not think of it. 
 And of what use could it be except to add new 
 troubles to old ones? Sir, I have trespassed too 
 much on your kindness ; in a minute I will follow 
 you." Anthony Stew, being thus addressed, was 
 only too glad to skip into the carriage. " By, by, 
 Dyo," he cried ; " mend your ways, if you can, my 
 man. I think you have told fewer lies than usual ; 
 knock off one every time of speaking, and in ten 
 years you %vill speak the truth." 
 
 Of this low rubbish I took no heed any more than 
 any one would who knows me, especially as I beheld 
 Sir Philip signalling with liis purse to me, so that
 
 262 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Stew might not be privy to it. Entering into the 
 spirit of this, I had some pleasant memories of 
 gentlemanly actions done by the superior classes 
 towards me, but longer agone than I could have 
 desired. And now being out of the habit of it, I 
 showed some natural reluctance to begin again, 
 unless it were really worth my while. Sir Philip 
 understood my feelings, and I rose in his esteem, so 
 that half- guineas went back to his pocket, and 
 guineas took the place of them. 
 
 " Mr Llewellyn, I know," he said, " that you have 
 served your country well ; and it grieves me to think 
 that on my account you have met with some harsh 
 words to-day." 
 
 " If your worship only knew how little a thing 
 of that sort moves me when I think of the great 
 injustice. But I suppose it must be expected by a 
 poor man such as I am. Justice Stew is spoiled 
 by having so many rogues to deal with. I always 
 make allowance for him ; and of course I know that 
 he likes to play with the lofty character I bear. If 
 I had his house and his rich estate — but it does not 
 matter — after all, what are we ? " 
 
 "Ah, you may well say that, Llewellyn. Two 
 months ago I could not have believed — but who are 
 we to find fault with the doings of our Maker?
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 263 
 
 All will be right if we trust in Him, although it is 
 devilish hard to do. But that poor maid at that 
 wretched place — what is to become of her?" 
 
 " She has me to look after her, your worship, and 
 she shall not starve while I have a penny." 
 
 "Bravely said, Llewellyn! My son is a sailor, 
 and I understand them. I know that I can trust 
 you fully to take charge of a trifle for her." 
 
 "1 love the maid," I answered truly; "I would 
 sooner rob myself than her." 
 
 "Of course you would, after saving her life. I 
 have not time to say much to you, only take this 
 trifle for the benefit of that poor thing." 
 
 From a red leathern bag he took out ten guineas, 
 and hastily plunged them into my hand, not wishing 
 Stew to have knowledge of it. But I was desirous 
 that everybody should have the chance to be witness 
 of it, and so I held my hand quite open. And just 
 at that moment our Bunny snored. 
 
 " What ! have you children yourself, Llewellyn ? 
 I thought that you were an old bachelor." 
 
 " An ancient widower, your worship, with a little 
 grandchild ; and how to keep her to the mark, with 
 father none and mother none, quite takes me off my 
 head sometimes. Let me light your honour to your 
 carriage."
 
 264 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 " Not for a moment, if you please ; I wish I had 
 known all this before. Mr Stew never told me a 
 word of this." 
 
 " It would have been strange if he had," said I ; 
 " he is always so bitter against me, because he can 
 never prove anything." 
 
 "Then, Llewellyn, you must oblige me. Spend 
 this trifle in clothes and things for that little snorer." 
 
 He gave me a little crisp affair, feeling like a 
 child's caul dried, and I thought it was no more than 
 that. However, I touched my brow and thanked 
 him as he went to the carriage-steps ; and after con- 
 sulting all the village, I found it a stanch pledge 
 from the Government for no less than five pounds 
 sterling.
 
 26s 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 INTO GOOD SOCIETY. 
 
 In spite of all that poor landsmen say about equi- 
 noctial gales and so on, we often have the loveliest 
 weather of all the year in September. If this sets 
 in, it lasts sometimes for three weeks or a mouth 
 together. Then the sky is bright and fair, with a 
 firm and tranquil blue, not so deep of tint or gentle 
 as the blue of spriugtide, but more truly staid and 
 placid, and far more trustworthy. The sun, both 
 when he rises over the rounded hills behind the 
 cliffs, and when he sinks into the level of the width 
 of waters, shines with ripe and quiet lustre, to com- 
 plete a year of labour. As the eastern in the morn- 
 ing, so at sunset the western heaven glows with an 
 even flush of light through the entire depth pervad- 
 ing, and unbroken by any cloud. Then at dusk the 
 dew fog wavers in white stripes over the meadow- 
 land, or in winding combes benighted pillows down,
 
 266 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 and leaves its impress a sparkling path for the sun's 
 return. To my mind no other part of the year is 
 pleasanter than this end of harvest, with golden 
 stubble, and orchards gleaming, and the hedgerows 
 turning red. Then fish are in season, and fruit is 
 wholesome, and the smell of sweet brewing is rich 
 on the air. 
 
 This beautiful weather it was that tempted Colonel 
 Lougher and Lady Bluett to take a trip for the day 
 to Sker. The distance from Candleston Court must 
 be at least two good leagues of sandy road, or rather 
 of sand without any road, for a great part of the 
 journey. Therefore, instead of their heavy coach, 
 they took a light two-wheeled car, and a steady- 
 going pony, which was very much wiser of them. 
 Also, which was wiser still, they had a good basket 
 of provisions, intending to make a long sea-side day, 
 and expecting a lively appetite. I saw them pass 
 through Newton, as I chanced to be mending my 
 nets by the well; and I touched my hat to the 
 Colonel of course, and took it off to the lady. The 
 Colonel was driving himself, so as not to be cum- 
 bered with any servant ; and happening to see such 
 a basket of food, I felt pretty sure there would be 
 some over, for the quality never eat like us. Then 
 it came into my memory that they could not bear
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 267 
 
 Evan Thomas, and it struck me all of a sudden that 
 it might be well worth my while to happen to meet 
 them upon their return, before they passed any poor 
 houses, as well as to happen to be swinging an 
 empty basket conspicuously. It was a provident 
 thought of mine, and turned out as well as its fore- 
 sight deserved. 
 
 They passed a very pleasant day at Sker (as I was 
 told that evening), pushing about among rocks and 
 stones, and routing out this, that, and the other, of 
 shells and sea-weed and star-fish, and all the rest of 
 the rubbish, such as amuses great gentry, because 
 they have nothing to do for their living. And 
 though money is nothing to them, they always seem 
 to reckon what they find by money -value. Not 
 Colonel Lougher, of course, I mean, and even less 
 Lady Bluett. I only speak of some grand people 
 who come raking along our beach. And of all of 
 these there was nobody with the greediness Anthony 
 Stew had. A crab that had died in changing his 
 shell would hardly come amiss to him. Let that 
 pass — who cares about him ? I wish to speak of 
 better people. The Colonel, though he could not 
 keep ill-will against any one on earth, did not 
 choose to be indebted to Sker-grange for even so 
 much as a bite of hay for his pony. Partly, perhaps.
 
 268 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 that he might not appear to play false to his own 
 tenantry ; for the Nottage farmers, who held of the 
 Colonel, were always at feud with Evan Thomas. 
 Therefore he baited the pony himself, after easing 
 off some of the tackle, and moored him to an ancient 
 post in a little sheltered hollow. Their rations also 
 he left in the car, for even if any one did come by, 
 none would ever think of touching this good magis- 
 trate's property. 
 
 Quite early in the afternoon, their appetites grew very 
 brisk by reason of the crisp sea-breeze and sparkling 
 freshness of the waves. Accordingly, after consulta- 
 tion, they agreed that the time was come to see what 
 Grumpy, their honest old butler, had put into the 
 basket. The Colonel held his sister's hand to help 
 her up rough places, and breasting a little crest of 
 rushes, they broke upon a pretty sight, which made 
 them both say " hush," and wonder. 
 
 In a hollow place of sand, spread with dry white 
 bones, skates' pouches, blades of cuttle-fish, sea-snail 
 shells, and all the other things that storm and sea 
 drive into and out of the sands, a very tiny maid was 
 sitting, holding audience all alone. She seemed to 
 have no sense at all of loneliness or of earthly trouble 
 in the importance of the moment and the gravity of 
 play. Before her sat three little dolls, arranged
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 269 
 
 according to their rank, cleverly posted in chairs of 
 sand. The one in the middle was " Patty Green," 
 the other two strange imitations fashioned by young 
 "Watkin's knife. Each was urging her claim to shells, 
 which the mistress was dispensing fairly, and with 
 good advice to each, then laughing at herself and 
 them, and trying to teach them a nursery-song, which 
 broke down from forgetfulness. And all the while 
 her quick bright face, and the crisp grain of her 
 attitudes, and the jerk of her thick short curls, were 
 enough to make any one say, " What a queer little 
 soul !" Therefore it is not to be surprised at that 
 Colonel Lougher could not make her out, or that 
 while he was feeling about for his eyeglass of best 
 crystal, his sister was (as behoves a female) rasher to 
 express opinion. For she had lost a little girl, and 
 sometimes grieved about it still. 
 
 " What a queer little, dear little thing, Henry ! I 
 never saw such a child. Where can she have dropped 
 from 1 Did you see any carriage come after us ? It 
 is useless to teU me that she can belong to any of tlie 
 people about here. Look at her forehead, and look 
 at her manners, and how she touches everything ! 
 Now did you see that 1 What a wonderful child ! 
 Every movement is grace and delicacy. Oh, you 
 pretty darling !"
 
 270 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Her ladyship could wait no longer for the Colonel's 
 opinion (which he was inclined to think of ere he 
 should come out with it), and she ran down the 
 sand-hill almost faster than became her dignity. 
 But if she had been surprised before, how was she 
 astonished now at Bardie's reception of her ? 
 
 " Don'e tush. Knee tushy paAV, see voo pay. All 
 'e dollies is yae good; just going to diuny, and 'e 
 mustn't 'poil their appeties." 
 
 And the little atom arose and moved Lady Bluett's 
 skirt out of her magic circle. And then, having saved 
 her children, she stood scarcely up to the lady's 
 knee, and looked at her as much as to ask, " Are you 
 of the quality?" And being well satisfied on that 
 point, she made what the lady declared to be the 
 most elegant curtsy she ever had seen. 
 
 Meanwhile the Colonel was coming up, in a digni- 
 fied manner, and leisurely, perceiving no cause to 
 rush through rushes, and knowing that his sister was 
 often too quick. This had happened several times 
 in the matter of beggars and people on crutches, and 
 skin-collectors, and suchlike, who cannot always be 
 kept out of the way of ladies \ and his worship the 
 Colonel had been compelled to endeavour to put a 
 stop to it. Therefore (as the best man in the world 
 cannot in reason be expected to be in a moment
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 27 1 
 
 abreast witli tlie sallies of even the best womankind, 
 but likes to see to the bottom of it) the Colonel came 
 up crustily. 
 
 " Eleanor, can you not see that the child does not 
 wish for your interference ? Her brothers and sisters 
 are sure to be here from Kenfig most likely, or at any 
 rate some of her relations, and busy perhaps with our 
 basket." 
 
 " No," said the child, looking up at him, " I'se got 
 no 'lations now ; all gone ayae ; but all come back 
 de-morrow day." 
 
 " Why, Henry, what are we thinking of ? This 
 must be the poor little girl that was wrecked. And 
 I wanted you so to come down and see her; but 
 you refused on account of her being under the care 
 of Farmer Thomas." 
 
 " No, my dear, not exactly that, but on account of 
 the trouble in the house I did not like to appear to 
 meddle." 
 
 " Whatever your reason was," answered the lady, 
 " no doubt you were quite right ; but now I must 
 know more of this poor little thing. Come and have 
 some dinner with us, my darling ; I am sure you 
 must be hungry. Don't be afraid of the Colonel. 
 He loves little children when they are good." 
 
 But poor Bardie hung down her head and was
 
 272 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 shy, which never happened to her with me or any of 
 the common people ; she seemed to know, as if by 
 instinct, that she was now in the company of her 
 equals. Lady Bluett, however, was used to children, 
 and very soon set her quite at ease by inviting her 
 dolls, and coaxing them and listening to their his- 
 tories, and all the other little turns that unlock the 
 hearts'of innocence. So it came to pass that the cast- 
 away dined in good society for the first time since her 
 great misfortune. Here she behaved so prettily, and 
 I might say elegantly, that Colonel Lougher (who 
 was of all men the most thoroughly just and upright) 
 felt himself bound to confess his error in taking 
 her for a Kenfig nobody. Now, as it happened 
 to be his birthday, the lady had ordered Mr Grumpy, 
 the butler, to get a bottle of the choicest wine, and 
 put it into the hamper without saying anything to the 
 Colonel, so that she might drink his health, and per- 
 suade him to do himself the like good turn. Having 
 done this, she gave the child a drop in the bottom 
 of her own wine-glass, which the little one tossed 
 off most fluently, and with a sigh of contentment 
 said — 
 
 " I'se not had a dop of that yiney-piney ever since 
 — sompfin." 
 
 " Why, what wine do you call it, my little dear ?"
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 273 
 
 the Colonel asked, being mucli amused with her air 
 of understanding it. 
 
 " Doesn't a know ?" she replied, with some pity ; 
 " nat's hot I calls a dop of good Sara Paine." 
 
 " Give her some more," said the Colonel ; " upon 
 my word she deserves it. Eleanor, you were right 
 about her ; she is a wonderful little thing." 
 
 All the afternoon they kept her with them, being 
 more and more delighted with her, as she began to 
 explain her opinions ; and Watty, who came to look 
 after her, was sent home with a shilling in his pocket. 
 And some of the above I learned from him, and some 
 from Mr Crumpy (who was a very great friend of 
 mine), and a part from little Bardie, and the rest 
 even from her good ladyship, except what trifles I 
 add myself, being gifted with power of seeing things 
 that happen in my absence. 
 
 This power has been in my family for upwards of 
 a thousand years, coming out and forming great bards 
 sometimes, and at other times great story-tellers. 
 Therefore let no one find any fault or doubt any 
 single thing I tell them concerning some people who 
 happen just now to be five or six shelves in the world 
 above me, for I have seen a great deal of the very 
 highest society when I cleaned my Earl's pumps and 
 epaulettes, and waited upon him at breakfast ; and I 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 274 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 know well how those great people talk, not from 
 observation only, but by aid of my own fellow-feeling 
 for them, which, perhaps, owes its power of insight 
 not to my own sagacity only, but to my ancestors' 
 lofty positions, as poets to royal families. Now al- 
 though I may have mentioned this to the man of the 
 Press — whose hat aj)peared to have undergone Press 
 experience — I have otherwise kept it quite out of 
 sight, because every writer should hold himself en- 
 tirely round the corner, and discover his hand, but not 
 his face, to as many as kindly encourage him. Of 
 late, however, it has been said — not by people of our 
 own parish, who have seen and heard me at the well 
 and elsewhere, but by persons with no more right than 
 power to form opinions — that I cannot fail of breaking 
 down when I come to describe great people. To these 
 my answer is quite conclusive. Prom my long con- 
 nection with royalty, lasting over a thousand years, 
 I need not hesitate to describe the Prince of Wales 
 himself ; and inasmuch as His Eoyal Highness is not 
 of pure ancient British descent, I verily doubt whether 
 he could manage to better my humble style to my 
 liking. 
 
 Enough of that. I felt doubts at beginning, but I 
 find myself stronger as I get on. You may rely upon 
 me now to leave the question to your own intelligence.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 2^5 
 
 The proof of the pudding is in the eating ; and if any- 
 one fears that I cannot cook it, I only beg him to 
 wait and see. 
 
 Lady Bluett was taken so much with my Bardie, 
 and the Colonel the same — though he tried at first to 
 keep it under — that nothing except their own warm 
 kindness stopped them from making off with her. 
 The lady had vowed that she would do so, for it would 
 be so much for the little soul's good ; and of course, 
 so far as legality went, the Chief-Justice of the neigh- 
 bourhood had more right to her than a common 
 rough farmer. But Watty came down, being sent by 
 Moxy, after he went home with that shilling, and 
 must needs make show of it. He came down shyly^ 
 from habit of nature, to the black eyebrows of the tide, 
 where the Colonel and Bardie were holding grand 
 play, with the top of the spring running up to them. 
 She was flying at the wink of every wave, and trying 
 to push him back into it; and he was laughing with 
 all his heart at her spry ways and audacity, and the 
 quickness of her smiles and frowns, and the whole of 
 her nature one whirl of play, till he thought nothing 
 more of his coat-tails. 
 
 " What do you want here, boy ? " the Colonel asked, 
 being not best pleased that a man of his standing 
 should be cau'dit in the middle of such antics.
 
 276 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Watkin opened his great blue eyes, and opened 
 his mouth as well, but could not get steerage-way on 
 his tongue, being a boy of great reverence. 
 
 " Little fellow, what are you come for ? " with these 
 words he smiled on the boy, and was vexed with 
 himself for frightening him. 
 
 " Oh sir, oh sir, if you please, sir, mother says as 
 Miss Delushy must come home to bed, sir." 
 
 " 'E go ayay now, 'e bad Yatkin ! I 'ants more pay 
 with my dear Colonel Yucca." 
 
 " I am not at all sure/' said the Colonel, laughing, 
 "that I shall not put her into my car, and drive 
 away with her, "Watkin." 
 
 " You may go home, my good boy, and tell your 
 mother that we have taken this poor little dear to 
 Candleston." This, of course, was Lady Bluett. 
 
 You should have seen Watkin's face, they told me, 
 when I came to hear of it. Betwixt his terror of 
 giving offence, and his ignorance how to express his 
 meaning, and the sorrow he felt on his mother's 
 account, and perhaps his own pain also, not a word 
 had he to say, but made a grope after the baby's hands. 
 Then the little child ran up to him, and flung both 
 arms around his leg, and showed the stanchness of her 
 Wed. Could any one, even of six years old, better 
 enter into it ?
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 277 
 
 " I yoves Yatkin. Yatkin is aye good and kiud. 
 And I yoves poor Moky. I 'ont go ayay till my dear 
 papa and my dear mamma comes for me." 
 
 Lady Bluett, being quick and soft, could not keep 
 her tears from starting ; and the Colonel said, " It 
 must be so. We might have done a great wrong, my 
 dear. Consider all " — and here he whispered out of 
 Watkin's hearing, and the lady nodded sadly, having 
 known what trouble is. But the last words he spoke 
 bravely, " God has sent her for a comfort where He 
 saw that it was needed. "We must not give way to a 
 passing fancy against a deep affliction ; only we will 
 keep our eyes upon this little orphan darling."
 
 2/8 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SOUND INVESTMENTS. 
 
 The spring-tides led me to Sker the next day, and 
 being full early for the ebb, I went in to see what 
 the Colonel had done. For if he should happen to 
 take up the child, she would pass out of my hands 
 altogether, which might of course be a serious injury, 
 as well as a very great hardship. For of jNIoxy's claim 
 I had little fear if it came to a question of title, inas- 
 much as I had made her sign a document prepared 
 and copied by myself, clearly declaring my prior right 
 in virtue of rescue and providential ordinance. But 
 as against Colonel Lougher I durst not think of 
 asserting my claims, even if the law were with me ; 
 and not only so ; but I felt all along that the matter 
 was not one for money to heal, but a question of the 
 deepest feelings. 
 
 And now the way in which Moxy came out, while 
 Bardie was making much of me (who always saw
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 2/9 
 
 everything first, of course), and the style of her 
 meddling in between us, led me to know that a man 
 has no chance to be up to the tricks of a female. 
 For the dialogue going on between us was of the 
 very simplest nature, as you may judge by the 
 following : — 
 
 " Hy'se 'a been so long, old Davy, afore 'a come to 
 see poor Bardie ? " 
 
 " Because, my pretty dear, I have been forced to 
 work, all day long almost." 
 
 " Hasn't 'a had no time to pay ? " 
 
 " No, my dear, not a moment to play. Work, work, 
 work ! IMoney, money, money ! Till old Da\7' is 
 quite worn out." 
 
 I may have put horns to the truth in this. But at 
 any rate not very long ones. And the child began to 
 ponder it. 
 
 '•■ I tell 'a, old Davy, 'hot to do, Susan say to me 
 one day, kite yell, I amember, ickle Bardie made of 
 money ! Does 'a sink so ? " 
 
 " I think you are made of gold, you beauty ; and of 
 diamonds, and the Eevelations." 
 
 " Aye yell ! Then I tell 'a 'hot to do. Take poor 
 Bardie to markiss, old Davy ; and 'e get a great big 
 money for her." 
 
 She must have seen some famous market ; for
 
 280 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 acting everything as she did (by means of working 
 face, arms, and legs), she put herself up like a fowl 
 in a basket, and spread herself, making the most of 
 her breast, and limping her neck, as the dead 
 chickens do. Before I could begin to laugh, Moxy 
 was upon us. 
 
 " Dyo ! Why for you come again ? Never you 
 used to come like this. Put down Delushy, directly 
 moment. No fish she is for you to catch. When 
 you might have had her, here you left her through 
 the face of everything. And now, because great 
 Evan's staff is cloven, by the will of God, who takes 
 not advantage of him ? I thought you would have 
 known better, Dyo. And this little one, that he 
 dotes upon " 
 
 " It is enough," I answered, with a dignity which 
 is natural to me, when females wound my feelings ; 
 "Madame Thomas, it is enough. I will quit your 
 premises." With these words I turned away, and 
 never looked over my shoulder even, though the 
 little one screamed after me ; until I felt Watty hard 
 under my stern, and like a kedge-anchor dragging. 
 Therefore, I let them apologise ; till my desire was 
 to forgive them. And after they brought forth pro- 
 per things, I denied all evil will, and did my best to 
 accomplish it.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 281 
 
 Mrs Thomas returning slowly to her ancient style 
 with me, as I relaxed my dignity, said that now the 
 little maid was getting more at home with them. 
 Mr Thomas, after what had happened in the neigh- 
 bourhood — this was the death of her five sons — felt 
 naturally low of spirit ; and it was good for liim to 
 have a lively child around him. He did not seem 
 quite what he was. And nothing brought liim to 
 himself so much as to watch this shadow of life ; 
 although she was still afraid of him. 
 
 Every word of this was clear to me. It nleant ten 
 times what it expressed. Because our common 
 people have a "height of kindness," some would say, 
 and some a "depth of superstition," such as leads 
 them delicately to slope off their meaning. But in 
 my blunt and sailor fashion, I said that black Evan 
 must, I feared, be growing rather shaky. I had better 
 have kept this opinion quiet ; for Moxy bestowed on 
 me such a gaze of pity mingled with contempt, that 
 knowing what sort of a man he had been, I felt aU 
 abroad about everything. All I could say to myself 
 was this, that the only woman of superior mind I ever 
 had the luck to come across, and carefully keep clear 
 of, had taken good care not to have a husband, sup- 
 posing there had been the occasion. And I think 
 I made mention of her befoi'c ; because she had
 
 282 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 been thrice disappointed ; and all she said was true 
 almost. 
 
 However, Sker-house might say just what it 
 pleased, while I had my written document, and 
 " Delusliy " herself (as they stupidly called her by 
 corruption of Andalusia) was not inclined to abandon 
 me. And now she made them as jealous as could be, 
 for she clung to me fast with one liand, while she 
 spread the beautiful tiny fingers of the other to Moxy, 
 as much as to say, " Interrupt me not ; I have such 
 a lot of things to tell old Davy." 
 
 And so she had without any mistake : and the vast 
 importance of each matter lost nothing for want of 
 emphasis. Patty Green had passed through a multi- 
 tude of most surprising adventures, some of them even 
 transcending her larceny of my sugar. Watty had 
 covered himself with glory, and above all little 
 "Dutch," the sheep-dog, was now become a most 
 benevolent and protecting power. 
 
 "'Hots 'a think, old Davy? Patty Geen been 
 yecked, she has." 
 
 " ' Yecked ! ' I don't know what that is, my 
 dear." 
 
 " Ness, I said, ' yecked,' old Davy ; yecked down 
 nare, same as Bardie was." 
 
 It was clear that she now had taken up with the
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 283 
 
 story which everybody told ; and she seemed rather 
 proud of having been wrecked. 
 
 " And Patty," she went on, quite out of breath ; 
 " Patty 'poiled all her boofely cothes : such a mess 'e 
 never see a'most ! And poor Patty go to 'e back pit- 
 hole, till 'e boofely Dush yun all into 'e yater." 
 
 " Oh, and Dutch pulled her out again, did she ? " 
 
 "Ness, and her head come kite out of her neck. 
 But Yatty put 'e guepot on, and make it much better 
 than ever a'most." 
 
 " Now, Delushy, what a child you are ! " cried Mrs 
 Thomas, proudly; "you never told Mr Llewellyn that 
 you ran into the sea yourself, to save your doll ; and 
 drownded you must have been, but for our Watkin." 
 
 " Bardie 'poil her cothes," she said, looking rather 
 shy about it : " Bardie's cothes not boofely now, not 
 same as they used to be." 
 
 But if she regretted her change of apparel, she had 
 ceased by this time, Moxy said, to fret much for her 
 father and mother. For "Watkin, or some one, had 
 inspired her with a most comforting idea — to wit, 
 that her parents had placed her there for the purpose 
 of growing faster ; and that when she had done her 
 best to meet their wishes in this respect, they would 
 suddenly come to express their pride and pleasure at 
 her magnitude. Little brother also would appear in
 
 284 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 state, and so would Susan, and find it needful to 
 ascend tlie dairy-stool to measure her. As at present 
 her curly head was scarcely up to the mark of that 
 stool, the duty of making a timely start in this grand 
 business of growing became at once self-evident. To 
 be "a geat big gal" was her chief ambition ; inasmuch 
 as " 'hen I'se a geat big gal, mama and papa be so 
 peased, and say, 'hot a good gal 'e is. Bardie, to do as 
 Itell'a!" 
 
 Often when her heart was heav}' in the loneliness 
 of that house, and the loss of all she loved, and with 
 dirty things around her, the smile would come back 
 to her thoughtful eyes, and she would open her mouth 
 again for the coarse but wholesome food, which was to 
 make a " big gal " of her. Believing herself now well 
 embarked toward this desired magnitude, she had 
 long been making ready for the joy it would secure. 
 " 'E come and see. Old Davy. I sow 'a sompfin," she 
 whispered to me, when she thought the others were 
 not looking, so I gave a wink to Moxy Thomas, whose 
 misbehaviour I had overlooked, and humouring the 
 child, I let her lead me to her sacred spot. 
 
 This was in an unused passage, with the end door 
 nailed to jambs, and black oak-panelling along it, 
 and a floor of lias stone. None in the house durst 
 enter it except this little creature ; at least unless
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 28$ 
 
 there were three or four to hearten one another, and 
 a stronij sun shining. The Abbot's Walk was its 
 proper name ; because a certain Abbot of Neath, 
 who had made too much stir among the monks, re- 
 ceived (as we say) his quietus there during a winter 
 excursion ; and in spite of all the masses said, could 
 not keep his soul at rest. Therefore his soul came 
 up and down ; and that is worse than a dozen 
 spirits ; for the soul can groan, but the spirit is 
 silent. 
 
 Into this dark lonely passage I was led by a little 
 body, too newly inhabited by spirit to be at all afraid 
 of it. And she came to a cupboard door, and tugged, 
 and made a face as usual, when the button was hard 
 to move. But as for allowing me to help her, — not 
 a bit of it, if you please. With many grunts and 
 jerks of breath, at last she fetched it outward, having 
 made me promise first not to touch, however grand 
 and tempting might be the scene disclosed to me. 
 
 What do you think was there collected, and ar- 
 ranged in such a system that no bee could equal it ? 
 Wliy, every bit of everything that every one who 
 loved her (which amounts to everybody) ever had 
 bestowed upon her, for her own sweet use and plea- 
 sure, since ashore she came to us. Not a lollipop 
 was sucked, not a bit of " taffy " tasted, not a play-
 
 286 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 thing had been used, but just enough to prove it ; all 
 were set in portions four, two of which were double- 
 sized of wliat the other two were. Nearly half these 
 things had come, I am almost sure, from Newton; 
 and among the choicest treasures which were stored 
 in scollop shells, I descried one of my own buttons 
 which I had honestly given her, because two eyelets 
 had run together ; item, a bowl of an unsmoked pipe 
 (which had snapped in my hand one evening) ; item, 
 as sure as I am alive, every bit of the sugar which 
 the Dolly had taken from out my locker. 
 
 Times there are wlien a hardy man, at sense of 
 things (however childish), which liave left their fibre 
 in him, finds himself, or loses self, in a sudden soft- 
 ness. So it almost was with me (though the bait on 
 my hooks all the time was drying), and for no better 
 reason than the hopeless hopes of a very young 
 child. I knew what all her storehouse meant be- 
 fore she began to tell me. And her excitement 
 while she told me scarcely left her breath to speak. 
 
 " 'Nat for papa, with 'e kean pipe to 'moke, and 
 'nat for mamma with 'e boofely bucken for her coke, 
 and 'nat for my dear ickle bother, because it just fit 
 in between his teeth, and 'nis with 'e 'ooking-gass 
 for Susan, because she do her hair all day yong." 
 
 She held up the little bit of tin, and mimicked
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 287 
 
 « 
 
 Susan's self-adornment, making such a comic face, 
 and looking so conceited, that I felt as if I should 
 know her Susan, anywhere in a hundred of women, if 
 only she should turn up so. And I began to smile 
 a little ; and she took it up tenfold. 
 
 "'E make me yaff so, I do decare, 'e silly old 
 Davy; I doesn't know 'hat to do a'most. But 'e 
 mustn't tell anybody." 
 
 This I promised, and so went a-fishing, wondering 
 what in the world would become of the queerest fish 1 
 had ever caught, as well as the highest-flavoured one. 
 It now seemed a toss-up whether or not something 
 or other might turn up, in the course of one's life, 
 about her. At any rate she was doing well, with 
 her very bright spirits to heli) her, and even Black 
 Evan, so broken down as not to be hard upon any 
 one. And as things fell out to take me from her, 
 without any warning, upon the whole it was for the 
 best to find the last sight comfortable. 
 
 And a man of my power must not always be pok- 
 ing after babies, even the best that were ever born. 
 Tush, what says King David, who was a great-grand- 
 father of mine ; less distant than Llewellyn Harper, 
 but as much respected ; in spite of his trying to con- 
 tribute Jewish blood to the lot of us in some of his 
 rasher moments ? But ancestor thou<di we acknow-
 
 288 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 ledge him (when our neighbourhood has a revival), 
 I will not be carried away by his fame to copy, so 
 much as to barken him. 
 
 The autumn now grew fast upon us, and the beach 
 was shifting; and neither room nor time remained 
 for preaching under the sandhills, even if any one 
 could be found with courage to sit under them. 
 And as the nights turned cold and damp, everybody 
 grumbled much ; which was just and right enough, 
 in balance of their former grumbling at the summer 
 drought and heat. And it was mainly this desire 
 not to be behind my neighbours in the comfort and 
 the company of grumbling and exchanging grumbles, 
 which im^olved me in a course of action highly 
 lowering to my rank and position in society, but 
 without which I could never have been enabled to 
 tell this story. And yet before entering on that 
 subject, everybody will want to know how I dis- 
 charged my important and even arduous duties as 
 trustee through Sir Philip's munificence for both 
 those little children. In the first place, I felt that 
 my position was strictly confidential, and that it 
 would be a breach of trust to disclose to any person 
 (especially in a loquacious village) a matter so purely 
 of private discretion. Three parties there were to be 
 considered, and only three, whatever point of view
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 289 
 
 one cliose to take of it. The first of these was Sir 
 Philip, the second the two children, and the third of 
 course myself. To the first my duty was gratitude 
 (which I felt and emitted abundantly), to the second 
 both zeal and integrity ; and for myself there was 
 one course only (to which I am naturally addicted), 
 namely, a lofty self-denial. This duty to myself I 
 discharged at once, by forming a stern resolution not 
 to charge either of those children so much as a single 
 farthing for taking care of her property until she was 
 twenty-one years of age. Then as regards the second 
 point, I displayed my zeal immediately, by falling 
 upon Bunny soon after daylight, and giving her a 
 small-tooth-combing to begin with, till the skin of 
 her hair was as bright as a prawn ; after which, 
 without any heed whatever of roars, or even kicks, I 
 took a piece of holy-stone, and after a rinsing of soda 
 upon her, I cleaned down her planking to such a 
 degree that our admiral might have inspected her. 
 She w^s clean enough for a captain's daughter be- 
 fore, and dandy-trimmed more than need have been 
 for a little craft built to be only a coaster. But now 
 when her yelling had done her good, and her Sunday 
 frock was shipped, and her black hair spanked with 
 a rose-coloured ribbon, and the smiles flowed into her 
 face again with the sense of all this smartness, Sir 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 290 TPIE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Philip himself would have thought her consistent 
 with the owner of five pounds sterling. 
 
 And as touching the money itself, and the honesty 
 rightly expected from me, although the sum now in 
 my hands was larger than it ever yet had pleased 
 the Lord to send me, for out and out my own, never- 
 theless there was no such thing as leading me astray 
 about it. And this M^as the more to my credit, be- 
 cause that power of evil, who has more eyes than all 
 the angels put together, or, at any rate, keeps them 
 wider open, he came aft, seeing how the wind was, 
 and planted his hoof within half a plank of the tiller 
 of my conscience. But I heaved him overboard at 
 once, and laid my course with this cargo of gold, 
 exactly as if it were shipper's freight, under bond 
 and covenant. Although, in downright common- 
 sense, having Bunny for my grandchild, I also pos- 
 sessed beyond any doubt whatever belonged to 
 Bunny ; just as the owner of a boat owns the oars 
 and rudder also. And the same held true, as most 
 people would think, concerning Bardie's property; 
 for if I had not saved her life, how could she have 
 owned any? 
 
 So far, however, from dealing tlms, I not only 
 kept all their money for them, but invested it in the 
 manner which seemed to be most for their interest.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 29I 
 
 To this inteut I procured a book for three halfpence 
 (paid out of mine own pocket), wherein I declared a 
 partnership, and established a fishing association, 
 under the name, style, and description of "Bardie, 
 Bunny, Llewellyn, and Co." To this firm I contri- 
 buted not only my industry and skill, but also nets, 
 tackle, rods and poles, hooks and corks, and two 
 kettles for bait, and a gridiron fit to land and cook 
 with ; also several well-proven pipes, and a perfectly 
 sound tobacco-box. Every one of these items, and 
 many others, I entered in the ledger of partnership ; 
 and Mother Jones, being strange to much writing, 
 recorded her mark at the bottom of it (one stroke 
 with one hand and one Avith the other), believing 
 it to be my testament, with an Amen coming after 
 it. 
 
 But knowing what the tricks of fortune are, and 
 creditors so unreasonable, I thought it much better to 
 keep my boat outside of the association. If the firm 
 liked, they might hire it, and have credit until distri- 
 bution-day, which I fixed for the first day of every 
 three months. ]\Iy partners had nothing to provide, 
 except just an anchor, a mast, and a lug-sail, a 
 new net or two, because mine were wearing, and one 
 or two other triHes perhaps, scarcely worth describing. 
 For after all, who could be hard upon them, when all
 
 292 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 they contributed to the firm was fifteen pounds and 
 ten shillings ? 
 
 It was now in the power of both my partners 
 to advance towards fortune ; to permit very little 
 delay before they insisted on trebling their capital ; 
 and so reinvest it in the firm ; and hence at the age 
 of twenty-one, be fit to marry magistrates. And 
 I made every preparation to carry their shares of the 
 profits over. Nevertheless, things do not always 
 follow the line of the very best and soundest calcula- 
 tions. The fish that were running up from the 
 Mumbles, fast enough to wear their fins out, all of a 
 sudden left off altogether, as if they had heard of the 
 association. Not even a twopenny glass of grog did 
 I ever take out of our capital, nor a night of the 
 week did I lie a-bed, when the lines required attend- 
 ance. However, when fish are entirely absent, the 
 very best fishermen in the world cannot manage to 
 create them ; and therefore our partnership saw the 
 wisdom of declaring no dividends for the first quarter.
 
 293 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A LONG GOOD-BYE. 
 
 It is an irksome task for a man who has always 
 stood upon his position, and justified the universal 
 esteem and respect of the neighbourhood, to have to 
 recount his own falling off, and loss of proper station, 
 without being able to render for it any cause or 
 reason, except indeed his own great folly, with fortune 
 too ready to second it. However, as every downfall 
 has a slope which leads towards it, so in my case 
 small downhills led treacherously to the precipice. 
 In the first place, the dog-fish and the sting-rays 
 (which alone came into the nets of our new associa- 
 tion) set me swearing very hard; which, of course, 
 was a trifling thing, and must have befallen St Peter 
 himself, whose character I can well understand. 
 But what was wrong in me was this, that after it 
 went on for a fortnight, and not even a conger turned 
 up, I became proud of my swearing with practice.
 
 294 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 instead of praying to be forgiven, wliich I always 
 feel done to me, if desired. For my power of words 
 began to please me — which was a bait of the devil, 
 no doubt — as every tide I felt more and more that 
 married life had not deprived me of my gift of 
 language ; or, at any rate, that widowership had 
 restored my vigour promptly. 
 
 After this, being a little exhausted, for two days 
 and two nights I smoked pipes. Not in any mood 
 soever unfit for a Christian ; quite the contrary, and 
 quite ready to submit to any discipline ; being 
 ordered also to lay by, and expect a sign from 
 heaven. And at this time came several preachers ; 
 although I had very little for them, and was grieved 
 to disappoint their remembrance of the ham that my 
 wife used to keep in cut. And in so many words I 
 said that now I was bound to the Church by a 
 contract of a shilling a-week, and if they waited long 
 enough, they might hear the clock strike — some- 
 thins. This, combined with a crab whose substance 
 had relapsed to water, and the sign of nothing in my 
 locker except a pint of peppermint, induced these 
 excellent pastors to go ; and if they shook off (as 
 they declared) the dirt of their feet at me, it must 
 have been much to their benefit. This trifle, how- 
 ever, heaped up my grievance, although I thought
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 295 
 
 scorn to think of it ; and on the back of it there 
 came another wrong far more serious. Tidings, to 
 wit, of a wretched warrant being likely to issue 
 against me from that low tyrant Anthony Stew, on a 
 thoroughly lying information by one of his own 
 gamekeepers. It was true enough that I went 
 through his wood, with a couple of sailors from 
 Porthcawl; by no means with any desire to harm, 
 but to see if his game was healthy. Few things 
 occur that exalt the mind more than natural history; 
 and if a man dare not go into a wood, how can he be 
 expected to improve his knowledge ? The other 
 men perhaps employed their means to obtain a more 
 intimate acquaintance with the structure and methods 
 of various creatures, going on two legs, or going on 
 four ; but as for myself, not so much as a gun did 
 any one see in my hands that day. 
 
 At first I thought of standing it out on the 
 strength of all my glory ; but knowing what testi- 
 mony is, when it gets into the mouths of game- 
 keepers, and feeling my honour concerned, to say 
 nothing of the other fellows (who were off to sea), 
 also cherishing much experience of the way Stew 
 handled me, upon the whole I had half a mind to let 
 the 'neighbourhood and the county learn to feel tlie 
 want of me.
 
 296 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Also what Joe Jenkins said perhaps had some 
 effect on me. This was a young fellow of great zeal, 
 newly appointed to Zoar Chapel, instead of the steady 
 Nathaniel Edwards, who had been caught sheep- 
 stealing ; and inasmuch as the chapel stood at the 
 western end of the village, next door to the " Welcome 
 to Town, my Lads," all the maids of Newton ran 
 mightily to his doctrine. For he happened to be a 
 smart young fellow, and it was largely put abroad that 
 an uncle of his had a butter-shop, without any chil- 
 dren, and bringing in four pounds a-week at Chep- 
 stow. 
 
 There is scarcely a day of my life on which I do 
 not receive a lesson : and the difference betwixt me 
 and a fool is that I receive, and he scorns it. And a 
 finer lesson I have rarely had than for letting Joe 
 Jenkins into my well-conducted cottage, for no better 
 reason than that the " Welcome to ToM-n " was out of 
 beer. I ought to have known much better, of course, 
 with a fellow too young to shave himself, and myself a 
 good hearty despiser of schism, and above all having 
 such a fine connection with the Church of England. 
 But that fellow had such a tongue — they said it must 
 have come out of the butter. I gave him a glass of 
 my choicest rum, when all he deserved was a larrup- 
 ing. And I nearly lost the church-clock through it.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 297 
 
 When I heard of this serious consequence, I began 
 to call to mind, too late, what the chaplain of the 
 Spitfire — 32-gun razy — always used to say to us ; 
 and a finer fellow to stand to his guns, whenever it 
 came to close quarters, I never saw before or since. 
 " Go down, parson, go down," we said ; " sir, this is 
 no place for your cloth." " Sneaking schismatics may 
 skulk," he answered, with the powder-mop in his 
 hand ; for we had impressed a Methody, who bolted 
 below at exceeding long range ; " but if my cloth is 
 out of its place, I'll fight the de\il naked." This won 
 over to the side of the Church every man of our crew 
 that was gifted witli any perception of reasoning. 
 
 However, I never shall get on if I tell all the fine 
 things I have seen. Only I must set forth how I 
 came to disgrace myself so deeply that I could not 
 hope for years and years to enjoy the luxury of 
 despising so much as a lighterman again. The folk 
 of our parish could hardly believe it ; and were it to 
 be done in any way consistent with my story, I would 
 not put it on paper now. But here it is. Make the 
 worst of it. You wull find me redeem it afterwards. 
 The famous David Llewellyn, of His Majesty's Royal 
 Navy, took a berth in a trading-schooner, called the 
 "Rose of Devon!" 
 
 After sucli a fall as this, if I liappened to speak
 
 298 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 below my mark, or not describe the gentry well, 
 everybody must excuse me : for I went so low in my 
 own esteem, that I could not have knocked even 
 Anthony Stew's under-keeper down ! I was making 
 notes, here and there, already, concerning the matters 
 at Sker House, and the delicate sayings of Bardie, not 
 with any view to a story perfect and clear as this is, 
 but for my own satisfaction in case of anything worth 
 going on with. And but for this forethought, you 
 could not have learned both her sayings and doings 
 so bright as above. And now being taken away from 
 it, I tried to find some one with wit enough to carry 
 it on in my absence. In a populous neighbourhood 
 this might have been ; but the only man near us who 
 had the conceit to try to carry it on a bit, fell into 
 such a condition of mind that his own wife did not 
 know him. But in spite of the open state of his head, 
 he held on very stoutly, trying to keep himself up to 
 the mark with ale, and even hollands ; until it pleased 
 God that his second child should fall into the chicken- 
 pox ; and then all the neighbours spoke up so much 
 — on account of his being a tailor — that it came to 
 one thing or the other. Either he must give up his 
 trade, and let his apprentice have it — to think of 
 which was worse than gall and wormwood to his wife 
 — or else he must give up all meddling with pen and
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 299 
 
 ink and the patterns of chicken-pox. How could he 
 hesitate, when he knew that the very worst tailor can 
 make in a day as much as the best writer can in a 
 month ? 
 
 Upon the whole I was pleased with this ; for I 
 never could bear that rogue of a snip, any more than 
 he could put up with me for making my own clothes 
 and Bunny's. I challenged him once on a button- 
 hole, for I was his master without a thimble. And 
 for this ninth part of a man to think of taking up 
 my pen ! 
 
 The name of our schooner, or rather ketch — for she 
 was no more than tliat (to tell truth), though 1 
 wished her to be called a " schooner " — was, as I said, 
 the " Eose of Devon," and the name of her captain 
 was " Fuzzy." Not a bad man, I do believe, but one 
 who almost drove me wicked, because I never could 
 make him out. A tender and compassionate interest 
 in the affairs of everybody, whom it pleases Provid- 
 ence that we should even hear of, has been (since our 
 ancestors baffled the Flood, without consulting Noah) 
 one of the most distinct and noblest national traits of 
 Welshmen. I'ious also ; for if tlie Lord had not meant 
 us to inquire, He never would have sent us all those 
 fellow-creatures to arouse unallayed disquietude. 
 But this man " Fuzzy," as every one called him,
 
 300 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 although his true name was " Bethel Jose," seemed 
 to be sent from Devonshire for the mere purpose of 
 distracting us. Concerning the other two " stone- 
 captains" (as we call those skippers who come for 
 limestone, and steal it from Colonel Lougher's rocks), 
 we knew as much as would keep us going whenever 
 their names were mentioned ; but as to Fuzzy, though 
 this was the third year of his trading over, there was 
 not a woman in Newton who knew whether he had a 
 wife or not ! And the public eagerness over this 
 subject grew as the question deepened ; until there 
 were seven of our best young women ready to marry 
 him, at risk of bigamy, to find out the matter and to 
 make it known. 
 
 Therefore, of course, he rose more and more in 
 public esteem, voyage after voyage ; and I became 
 jealous, perhaps, of his fame, and resolved to expose 
 its hollow basis, as compared with that of mine. 
 Accordingly, when it came to pass that my glory, 
 though still in its prime, was imperilled by that Irish 
 Stew's proceedings — for he must have been Irish by 
 origin — having my choice (as a matter of course) 
 among the three stone-captains, I chose that very hard 
 stone to crack ; and every one all through the village 
 rejoiced, though bitterly grieved to lose me, and 
 dreadiug the price there would be for fish, with that
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 3OI 
 
 extortionate Sandy Macraw left alone to create a 
 monopoly. There was not a man in all Newton that 
 feare^ to lay half-a-crown to a sixpence that I brought 
 back the whole of old Fuzzy's concerns : but the 
 women, having tried Skipper Jose with everything 
 they could think of, and not understanding the odds 
 of betting, were ready to lay a crooked sixpence on 
 Fuzzy, whenever they had one. 
 
 To begin wnth, he caught me on the hop ; at a 
 moment of rumours and serious warnings, and thor- 
 oughly pure indignation on my part. At the moment, 
 I said (and he made me sign) that I was prepared to 
 ship with him. After which he lield me fast, and 
 frightened me with the land-crabs, and gave me no 
 chance to get out of his jaws. I tried to make him 
 laugh with some of the many jokes and stories, which 
 everybody knows of mine, and likes them for long 
 acquaintance' sake. However, not one of them moved 
 him so much as to fetch one squirt of tobacco-juice. 
 This alone enabled him to take a strong lead over 
 me. Every time that he was bound to laugh, accord- 
 ing to human nature, and yet had neither a wag in 
 his nose, nor a pucker upon his countenance, nor 
 even so much as a gleam in his eye, so many times I 
 felt in my heart that this man was the wise man, 
 and that laughter is a folly. And I had to bottle
 
 302 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 down the laughs (which always rise inside of uie, 
 ■whenever my joke has the cream on it) until I could 
 find some other fellow fit to understand me ; bQcause 
 I knew that my jokes were good. 
 
 When I found no means of backing out from that 
 degrading contract, my very first thought was to do 
 strict justice to our association, and atone for the loss 
 of my services to it. Therefore, in case of anything 
 undesirable befalling me — in short, if I should be 
 ordered aloft wdth no leave to come down again — 
 there I made my will, and left my property to estab- 
 lish credit, for a new start among them. Chairs and 
 tables, knives and forks, iron spoons, brought into 
 the family by my wife's grandfather, several pairs of 
 duds of my own, and sundry poles, as before described, 
 also nets to a good extent — though some had gone 
 under usury — bait-kettles, I forget how many, and 
 even my character in a silk-bag ; item, a great many 
 sundry things of almost equal value ; the whole of 
 which I bravely put into my will, and left them. 
 And knowing that the proper thing is to subscribe a 
 codicil, therein I placed a set of delf, and after that 
 my blessing. Eighteenpence I was compelled to pay 
 for this pious document to a man who had been 
 turned out of the law because he charged too little. 
 And a better shilling-and-sixpence worth of sense,
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 303 
 
 with heads and tails to it, his lordship the Bishop of 
 Llandaff will own that he never set seal upon; unless 
 I make another one. Only I felt it just to leave my 
 boat entire to Bardie. 
 
 Having done my duty thus, I found a bracing 
 strength upon me to go through with ever}"thing. 
 No man should know how much I felt my violent 
 degradation from being captain of a gun, to have to 
 tread mercantile boards ! Things have changed since 
 then so much, through the parsimony of Government, 
 that our very best sailors now tail off into the Mer- 
 chant service. But it was not so, when I was young; 
 and even when I was turned of fifty, we despised the 
 traders. Even the largest of their vessels, of four or 
 as much as five hundred tons, we royal tars regarded 
 always as so many dust-bins with three of the clothes- 
 props hoisted. And now, as I looked in the glass, I 
 beheld no more than the mate of a fifty-ton ketch, 
 for a thirty-mile voyage out of Newton bay ! 
 
 However, I had lived long enough then to be 
 taught one simple thing. AVhatever happens, one 
 may descry (merely by using manly aspect) dawning 
 glimpses of that light which the will of God intended 
 to be joy for all of us ; but so scattered now and 
 vapoured by our own misdoings, still it will come 
 home some time, and then we call it " comfort."
 
 304 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 Accordingly, though so deeply fallen in my own 
 regard, I did not find that people thought so very 
 much the less of me. Nay, some of them even drove 
 me wild, by talking of my " rise in life," as if I had 
 been a pure nobody ! But on the whole we learned 
 my value, when T was going away from us. For all 
 the village was stirred up with desire to see the last 
 of me. My well-known narratives at the well would 
 be missed all through the autumn ; and those who 
 had dared to call them " lies," were the foremost to 
 feel the lack of them. Especially the children cried 
 " Old Davy going to be drownded ! No more stories 
 at the well ! " Until I vowed to be back almost 
 before they could fill their pitchers. 
 
 These things having proved to me, in spite of in- 
 ordinate modesty, that I had a certain value, I made 
 the very best of it ; and let everybody know how 
 much I wished to say " Good-bye" to them, although 
 so short of money. From " Felix Farley" I had re- 
 ceived no less than seven-and-tenpence — for saving 
 the drowned black people — under initials " D. L." at 
 the office ; accruing to a great extent from domestic 
 female servants. Some of these craved my candid 
 opinion as to accepting the humble addresses of 
 coloured gentlemen in good livery, and whether it 
 made so much difference. And now I thought that
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 305 
 
 Newton might have a mark of esteem prepared for 
 me. 
 
 But though they failed to think of that — purely 
 from want of experience — ever}i;hing else was done 
 that could be done for a man who had no money, by 
 his neighbours who had less ; and sixpence never 
 entered twice into the thoughts of any one. Eichard 
 ^latthews, the pilot, promised to mind the church- 
 clock for me, without even handling my salary. As 
 for Bunny, glorification is the shortest word I know. 
 A young man, who had never paid his bill, put her 
 into two-inch ribbon from the Baptist preacher's 
 shop. Also a pair of shoes upon her, which had 
 right and left to them, although not marked by 
 nature. And upon tlie front of her bosom, lace that 
 made me think of smuggling ; and such as that 
 young man never could have expected to get booked 
 to him, if he had felt himself to be more than a 
 month converted. 
 
 Moreover, instead of Mother Jones (who was very 
 well in her way, to be sure), the foremost folk in all 
 the village, and even Master Charles Morgan himself, 
 carpenter and churchwarden, were beginning to vie, 
 one with the other, in desire to entertain her, with- 
 out any word of her five-pound note. In short, many 
 kind things were said and done ; enough to make 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 306 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 any unbashful man desire to represent them. But I, 
 for my part, was quite overcome, and delivered my 
 speech with such power of doubt concerning my own 
 worthiness, that they had to send back to the inn 
 three times, before they could properly say " Good- 
 bye."
 
 307 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 BRAUNTON BURROWS. 
 
 The weather was still as fair as could be, with a 
 light wind from the east -north -east; and as our 
 course lay west by south, and the ebb was running, 
 we slipped along at the rate of six or seven knots an 
 hour, though heavily-laden with the Colonel's rocks ; 
 and after rounding Porthcawl Point we came abreast 
 of the old Sker House a little after sunset. Skipper 
 Jose would never have ventured inside the Sker- 
 weathers, only that I held the tiller, and knew every 
 vein of sand and rock. And I kept so close in -shore, 
 because one of the things that vexed me most in all 
 this sudden departure, was to run away without 
 proper ceremony from Bardie. She was certain to 
 feel it much, and too young to perceive the necessity ; 
 and fried pudding had been promised her at my 
 table come the very next Sunday. 
 
 The windows of the old grey mansion gleamed in
 
 308 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 the fading western light, but we descried no smoke 
 or movement, neither any life or variance, only a 
 dreary pile of loneliness in the middle of yellow 
 sauds. Then I rigged out my perspective glass, and 
 levelled it on the cuddy chimney — for the ketch 
 was a half-decker — to spy if the little one might so 
 chance to be making her solitary play, as she was 
 used to do all day, and most of all ere bedtime. 
 And if she should so happen, I knew how wild her 
 delight would be to discover a vessel so near the 
 shore ; because whenever a sail went by, even at two 
 or three leagues of distance, there was no containing 
 her. Out she would rush with her face on fire, and 
 curly hair all jogging, and up would go two little 
 hands, spread to the sky and the vast wide sea. 
 " Mammy dear, I 'ants 'a so. Dear papa, I has 
 yaited so yong. Ickle bother, such a lot of things 
 Bardie's got to tell 'a." And thus she would run on 
 the brink of the waves with hope and sadness fluc- 
 tuating on her unformed countenance, until the sail 
 became a speck. However, now I saw no token of 
 this little rover, unless it were some washed clothes 
 flapping on the rushen tufts to dry ; and Jose called 
 me back to my spell at the helm before I had finished 
 gazing. And in less than half an hour the landmark 
 of the ancient house was fading in the dew-fog.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 309 
 
 Our ship's company amounted to no less than 
 four, all hands told — viz., Captain Bethel Jose, alias 
 Fuzzy ; Isaac Hutchings, the mate ; my humble self 
 (who found it my duty to supersede Ikey and ap- 
 point myself) ; and a boy of general incapacity, and 
 of the name of " Bang." 
 
 Making fine weather as we did, and with myself 
 at the helm all night, and taking command (as 
 my skill required), we slanted across Channel very 
 sweetly ; and when the grey of morning broke, 
 Lundy Isle was on our lee-bow. Hereupon I gave 
 the helm to old Ike, for beyond this was unknown 
 to me, and Providence had never led me over 
 Barnstaple bar as yet. So I tumbled in, and turned 
 up no more until we were close on the bar itself, 
 about ten o'clock of the forenoon. This is a 
 thoroughly dangerous place, a meeting of treacherous 
 winds and waters, in amongst uncertain shoaling, 
 and would be worse than our Sker-weathers if it lay 
 open to south-west gales. We waited for the tide, 
 and then sHpped over very cleverly, with Hartland 
 Point on our starboard beam ; and presently ^ve 
 found ourselves in a fine broad open water, with 
 plenty of grey stretch going along it, and green 
 hills tufting away from it. Everything looked so 
 mild and handsome, that I wondered whether these
 
 3IO THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 men of Devonshire miglit not be such fools for 
 bragging after all, wlien tested. 
 
 Because, when I found no means to escape this 
 degrading voyage to Devonshire, I had said to my- 
 self that at any rate it would enable me to peg down 
 tliose people for the future. Not that they boasted, 
 so to speak, but that they held their tongues at our 
 boasts ; as much as to say, " You may talk if you 
 please ; it does you good; and our laud is such that 
 we never need contradict you." 
 
 But now when I saw these ins and outs, and ups 
 and downs, and cornering places, and the wrinkles 
 of the valleys, and the cheeks of the very rocks, set 
 with green as bright and lively (after a burning 
 summer) as our own country can show in May, I 
 began to think — though I would not say it, through 
 patriotic unwillingness — that the people who lived 
 in such land as this could well afford to hold their 
 tongues, and hearken our talk with pleasure. Cap- 
 tain Fuzzy said no word, to show that he was home 
 again ; neither did lie care to ask my opinion about 
 the look of it. And old Ike treating me likewise, 
 though he ought to have known much better, there I 
 found myself compelled by my natural desire to know 
 all about my fellow-creatures, to carry on what must 
 have been a most highly flattering patronage towards
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 3II 
 
 the boy who' did our slop-work, and whose name was 
 " Bang," because everybody banged him. 
 
 This boy, forgetting the respect which is due to 
 the mate of a ship of commerce — for I now assumed 
 that position legally, over the head of old Ikey, who 
 acknowledged my rank when announced to him — 
 this ignorant boy had the insolence to give me a 
 clumsy nudge, and inquire — 
 
 " Du 'e knaw thiccy peart over yanner ? Them 
 down-plasses, and them zandy backs ? " 
 
 " My boy," I replied, " I have not the honour of 
 knowing anything about them. Very likely you 
 think a good deal of them." 
 
 " Whai, thee must be a born vule. Them be 
 Braunton Burrusses ! " 
 
 " Be them indeed ? Take this, my boy, for such 
 valuable information." And I gave him a cuff of 
 an earnest nature, such as he rarely obtained, per- 
 haps, and well calculated to be of timely service to 
 him. He howled a good bit, and attempted to kick ; 
 whereupon I raised him from his natural level, and 
 made his head accLuainted with the nature of the 
 foremast, preserving my temper quite admirably, but 
 bearing in mind the great importance of impressing 
 discipline at an early age. And I reaped a well-de- 
 served reward in his life-long gratitude and respect.
 
 312 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 While Bang went below to complete his weeping, 
 and to find some plaster, I began to take accurate 
 observation of these Braunton Burrows, of which I 
 had often heard before from the Devonshire men, who 
 frequent our coast for the purpose of stealing coal or 
 limestone. An up-and-down sort of a place it ap- 
 peared, as I made it out with my spyglass ; and I 
 could not perceive that it beat our sands, as those 
 good people declared of it. Only I noticed that these 
 sand-hills were of a different hue from ours. Xot so 
 bare and yellow-faced, not so swept by western 
 winds, neither with their tops thrown up like the 
 peak of a new volcano. Eushes, spurge, and goose- 
 foot grasses, and the rib-leafed iris, and in hollow 
 places cat's-mint, loose-strife, and low eye-bright — 
 these and a thousand other plants seemed to hold 
 the flaky surface so as not to fly like ours. Ike 
 broke silence, which to him was worse than breaking 
 his own windows, and said that all for leagues around 
 was full of giants and great spectres. Moreover, that 
 all of it long had been found an unkid and unlioly 
 place, bad for a man to walk in, and swarming with 
 great creatures, striped the contrary way to all good- 
 luck, and having eight legs every side, and a great 
 horn crawling after them. And their food all night 
 was known to be travellers' skulls and sailors' bones.
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 313 
 
 Having seen a good deal of land-crabs, I scarcely 
 dared to deny the story, and yet I could hardly make 
 it out. Therefore, without giving vent to opinions 
 of things which might turn out otherwise, I levelled 
 my spy-glass again at the region of which I had 
 heard such a strange account. And suddenly here I 
 beheld a man of no common appearance, wandering 
 in and out the hollows, as if he never meant to stop; 
 a tall man with a long grey beard, and wearing a 
 cocked-hat like a colonel. There was something about 
 him that startled me, and drew my whole attention. 
 Therefore, with my perspective glass not long ago 
 cleaned, and set ship-shape by a man who understood 
 the bearings — after that rogue of a Hezekiah had 
 done his best to spoil it — with this honest magnifier 
 (the only one that tells no lies) I carefully followed 
 up and down the figure, some three cables'-lengths 
 away, of this strange walker among the sand-hills. 
 We were in smooth water now, gliding gently up the 
 river, with the mainsail paying over just enough for 
 steerage-way ; and so I got my level truly, and could 
 follow eveiy step. 
 
 It was a fine old-fashioned man, tall and very up- 
 right, with a broad ribbon upon his breast, and some- 
 thing of metal shining ; and his Hessian boots flashed 
 now and then as he passed along with a stately stride.
 
 314 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 His beard was like a streak of silver, and his forehead 
 broad and white ; but all the rest of his face was 
 dark, as if from foreign service. His dress seemed 
 to be of a rich black velvet, very choice and costly, 
 and a long sword hung at his side, although so many 
 gentlemen now have ceased to carry even a rapier. 
 I like to see them carry their swords — it shows that 
 they can command themselves ; but what touched 
 me most with feeling was his manner of going on. 
 He seemed to be searching, ever searching, up the 
 hills and down the hollows, through the troughs and 
 on the breastlands, in the shadow and the sunlight, 
 seeking for some precious loss. 
 
 After watching this figure some little time, it was 
 natural that I should grow desirous to know some- 
 thing more about him ; especially as I obtained an 
 idea, in spite of the distance and different dress, that 
 I had seen some one like this gentleman not such a 
 very long time ago. But I could not recall to my 
 mind who it was that was hovering on the skirts of 
 it ; therefore I looked around for help. Ike Hutch- 
 ings, my under-mate, was at the tiller, but I durst 
 not lend hiia my glass, because he knew not one end 
 from the other ; so I shouted aloud for Captain Jose, 
 and begged him to* take a good look, and tell me 
 everything that he knew or thought. He just set his
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 315 
 
 eye, and then shut up the glass, and handed it to me 
 without a word and walked off, as if I were nobody ! 
 This vexed me, so that I holloaed out : " Are all of 
 you gone downright mad on this side of the Channel? 
 Can't a man ask a civil question, and get a civil 
 answer ? " 
 
 " When he axeth what consarneth him," was the 
 only answer Captain Fuzzy vouchsafed me over his 
 shoulder. 
 
 I could not find it worth my while to quarrel with 
 this ignorant man for the sake of a foolish word or 
 two, considering how morose he was, and kept the 
 keys of ever}i;hing. For the moment, I could not 
 help regretting my wholesome chastisement of the 
 boy Bang ; for he would have told me at least all he 
 knew, if I could have tauglit him to take a good look. 
 And as for Ike, when I went and tried him, whether 
 it was that he failed of my meaning, or that he chose 
 to pretend to do so (on account of my having deposed 
 him), or that he truly knew nothing at all — at any 
 rate, I got nothing from him. This was, indeed, a 
 heavy trial. It is acknowledged that we have such 
 hearts, and strength of goodwill to the universe, and 
 power of entering into things, that not a Welshman 
 of us is there but yearns to know all that can be said 
 about every one he has ever seen, or heard, or even
 
 3l6 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 thought of. And this kind will, instead of being at 
 all repressed by discouragement, increases tenfolcL in 
 proportion as others manifest any unkind desire to 
 keep themselves out of the way of it. My certy, no 
 low curiosity is this, but lofty sympathy. 
 
 My grandfather nine generations back, Yorath the 
 celebrated bard, begins perhaps his most immortal 
 ode to a gentleman who had given him a quart of 
 beer with this noble moral precept : " Lift up your 
 eyes to the castle gates, and behold on how small a 
 hinge they move ! The iron is an inch and a quarter 
 thick, the gates are an hundred and fifty feet wide ! " 
 And though the gates of my history are not quite so 
 wide as that, they often move on a hinge even less 
 than an inch and a quarter in thickness ; though I 
 must not be too sure, of course, as to the substance 
 of Bang's head. However, allow even two inches for 
 it, and it seems but a very trifling matter to tell as it 
 did upon great adventures. The boy was as sound as 
 a boy need be in a couple of hours afterwards, except 
 that he had, or pretended to have, a kind of a buzzing 
 in one ear ; and I found him so grateful for my cor- 
 rection, that I could not bear to urge his head with 
 inquiries for the moment. 
 
 To Captain Fuzzy I said no more. If he could not 
 see the advantage of attending to his own business,
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 317 
 
 but must needs go out of his way to administer public 
 reproof to me, I could only be sorry for him. To 
 Ikey, however, I put some questions of a general 
 tendency ; but from his barbarous broken English — 
 if this jargon could be called English at all— the only 
 thing I could gather was, that none but true Devon- 
 shire folk had a right to ask about Devonshire fami- 
 lies. This might be true to a certain extent, though 
 I never have seen such a law laid down. The answer, 
 however, is perfectly simple. If these people cslytj 
 on in a manner that cannot fail to draw public at- 
 tention, they attack us at once on our tenderest point, 
 and tenfold so if they are our betters ; for what man 
 of common-sense could admit the idea of anybody 
 setting up to be nobody ? Therefore I felt myself 
 quite ready to give a week's pay and \dctuals, in that 
 state of life to which God alone could have seen fit 
 to call me — as mate of that Devonshire ketch, or hoy, 
 or tub, or whatever it might be — four shillings and a 
 bag of suet-dumplings, twice a-day, I would have 
 given, to understand upon the spot all about that 
 elderly gentleman. 
 
 It helped me very little,' indeed, that I kept on 
 saying to myself, " This matters not ; 'tis a few hours 
 only. The moment we get to Barnstaple, I shall find 
 some women ; — the women can never help telling
 
 3l3 THE MAID OF SKER. 
 
 everything, and for the most part ten times that. 
 Only contradict them bravely, and they have no 
 silence left." However, it helped me not a little 
 when Captain Fuzzy, with a duck of his head, 
 tumbled up from the cuddy, brimful, as we saw, of 
 the dinner-time. A man of my experience, who has 
 lived, for six weeks on the horns of sea-snails, which 
 the officers found too hard for them, that time we 
 were wrecked in the Palamede — what can a man of 
 this kind feel when a trumpery coaster dares to pipe 
 all hands to dinner ? 
 
 However, it so happened for the moment that what 
 I felt was appetite ; and Fuzzy, who was a first-rate 
 cook, and knew seasoning without counting, had 
 brought an iron ladle up, so as to save his words, 
 and yet to give us some idea. Soup it was of a sort, 
 that set us thinking of all the meat under it. I blew 
 upon it, and tasted a drop, and found that other 
 people's business would keep till at least after dinner. 
 In the midst of dinner we came to the meeting of 
 two fine rivers, called Tawe and Torridge, and with 
 the tide still making strong we slanted up the former. 
 The channel was given to twists and turns, but the 
 fine open valley made up for it, and the wealth of 
 land on eitlier side, sloping with green meadows 
 gently, and winding in and out with trees. Here
 
 THE MAID OF SKER. 319 
 
 were cattle, as red 'as cliesnuts, running about with 
 tails like spankers, such as I never saw before ; but 
 Ikey gave me to understand that the colour of the 
 earth was the cause of it, and that if I lived long 
 upon corned beef made of them (whose quality no 
 other land could create), I should be turned to that 
 hue myself. At this I laughed, as a sailor's yarn ; 
 but after regarding him steadfastly, and then gazing 
 again at the bullocks, I thought there might be some 
 truth in it. 
 
 One thing I will say of these sons of Devon : rough 
 they may be, and short of grain, and fond of their 
 own opinions, and not well up in points of law — 
 — which is our very nature — queer, moreover, in 
 thought and word, and obstinate as hedgehogs, — yet 
 they show, and truly have, a kind desire to feed one 
 well. Money they have no great love of spending 
 round the corner, neither will they go surety freely 
 for any man who is free to run ; but " vittels," as 
 they call them, " vittels ! " — before you have been in 
 a house two minutes out come these, and eat you 
 must ! Happily, upon this point I was able to afford 
 them large and increasing satisfaction, having rarely 
 enjoyed so fine a means of pleasing myself and others 
 also. For the things are good, and the people too ; 
 and it takes a bad man to gainsay either.
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 PRIKTED BV WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
 
 1 
 
 3V