The spray was flyin' in great
white sheets, and whiles, it seemed as if the hull island was goin'
to be swallowed up then and thar. 'Tain't nothin' but a little heap
o' rocks anyhow, to face the hull Atlantic Ocean gone mad: and on
that heap o' rocks was Januarius Judkins, holdin' on for dear life,
and feelin' like a hoppergrass that had got lost in Niag'ry Falls."
"Don't say that name, Daddy!" interrupted the child. "You know I don't
like it. Say 'Captain January'!"
"I tell ye, Honeysuckle," said the old man, "I felt more like a
sea-cook than a cap'n _that_ night. A cap'n on a quarter-deck's a
good thing; but a cap'n on a p'int o' rock, out to sea in a northeast
gale, might just as well be a fo'c'sle hand and done with it. Wal,
as I was holdin' on thar, I seed a flash to windward, as wasn't
lightning; and next minute kem a sound as wasn't thunder nor yet wind
nor sea."
"The guns! the guns!" cried the child, in great excitement. "The guns
of my poor mamma's ship. And then you heard them again, Daddy?"
"Then I heard them agin!" the old man assented. "And agin! a flash,
and a boom! and then in a minute agin, a flash and a boom! 'Oh, Lord!'
says I. 'Take her by to the mainland, and put her ashore there!' I
says; 'cause there's a life-saving station thar, ye know, Blossom,
and there might be some chance for them as were in her.
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