Читать книгу List, Ye Landsmen!. A Romance of Incident онлайн

24 страница из 122

“I am sorry for the hanged man,” said my uncle, “but willfully casting a ship away, Bill, is a fearful thing—so fearful that the gibbet at which I’d dangle the fellow that did it should be as high as the royal mast head of the craft he foundered! What d’ye think of that drop of rum?”

“Is that wind?” said my aunt.

“Thunder,” said Uncle Joe.

Bess went to the house door: I followed. We stood listening; the noise was thunder; there was not a breath of air, but all the stars were gone. A sort of film of storm had drawn over them, and I guessed I was in for a drenching walk to the beach. But Lord! rain to a man whose lifetime is spent in the eye of the weather!

“Bess,” said I, “you’ve grown a fine girl, d’ye know.”

“No compliments, William, dear. I am going to be married.”

“If I had known that before!” said I, kissing her now for the first time, for congratulation.

This was fresh news, and we talked about the coming son-in-law, who, to be sure, must be in the seafaring line too, for once inject salt water into the veins of a family, and it takes a power of posterity to flush the pipes clear.