Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

104 RAVENSHOE.
CHAPTER XVII.
IN WHICH THERE IS ANOTHER SHIPWRECK.
TIME jogged on very pleasantly to the party assembled at
Ravenshoe that Christmas. There were woodcocks and pheasants
in the woods; there were hares, snipes, and rabbits on the moor.
In the sea there were fish; and many a long excursion they had
in the herring-boats,- sometimes, standing boldly out to sea towards the distant blue island in the main, sometimes crawling
lazily along under the lofty shoreless cliffs which towered above
their heads from 200 to 1,100 feet high.
It was three days before Christmas-day, and they were returning from fishing along the coast, and were about ten miles or so
from home. I say returning, though in fact there was not a
breath of wind, and the boat was drifting idly along on the tide.
Two handsome, simple-looking young men were lolling by the
useless tiller; an old man, hale and strong as a lion, with a courteous, high-bred look about him, was splicing a rope; and a tall,
pale, black-haired man was looking steadily seaward, with his
hands in his pockets, while Charles and Marston were standing in
the bows smoking.
" What a curious, dreamy, dozy, delicious kind of winter you
have down here," said Marston.
" I am very fond of it," said Charles; "it keeps you in continual hope for the spring that is coming. In the middle of frost
and snow and ice one is apt to lose one's faith in waving boughs
and shady pools."
"I have had such a quiet time with you down here, Charley.
I am so pleased with the way in which you are going on. You
are quite an altered man. I think we shall both look back to the
last few quiet weeks as a happy time."
" Here the tall, dark man, who was looking out to sea, suddenly
said, -
" Rain and hail, snow and tempest, stormy wind fulfilling His
word."
"Ay, ay," said the old man: "going to blow to-night, I expect."
"We shall go home pretty fast, may be."
"Not us, Master Charles, dear," said the tall man. "We are
going to have it from south and by west, and so through west
round to north. Before which time there'11 be souls in glory,
praise be to God."