Flora Lyndsay Volume I Part 13

"'Captain Penny's wife and children would not thank you for that wish,'

said I. 'How glad I am that the good old man is safe!'

"The day wore away. A long day for us both. The gale did not increase, and Mrs. Arthur at last began to listen to reason. The moon rose high and bright; and after seeing the old lady to her bed, I went home to give my father and the boys their supper.

"I found father very cross for having waited so long. 'What the devil, Betsy!' cried he, 'kept you so late? The lads and I have been starving for the last hour. When girls get sweethearts they can think of nothing else.'

"'Mrs. Arthur felt anxious about her sons, and I stayed with her.'

"'What's the old fool afraid of? This cupful of wind, Penny's old _Molly_ rode it out bravely. He told me he left the Arthurs in the river. He thought they would be in by daybreak. Come, be quick, girl. As I am to lose you so soon, I would make the most of you while you belong to me.'

"His cheerful, hearty manner helped to raise my spirits, which had been depressed by Mrs. Arthur's fretful antic.i.p.ations of evil. I bustled hither and thither, laughed and sung, and cooked father's mess of fresh fish so much to his satisfaction, that he declared I should make a jewel of a wife, and that he had not made up his mind whether he would part with such a good cook. Without he married again, he was afraid he would not get such another.

"'You must be quick then,' said I, 'or you will not have me for your bridesmaid. I give you just three weeks for the courts.h.i.+p, for I shan't remain single one day longer to cook the wedding dinner for you.'

"'You are saucy,' said he, filling his pipe. 'Davy will have to take the helm himself, if he would keep you on the right tack. Clear the decks now, and be off to your bed. If the gale lulls, I shall sail early in the morning.'

"I removed the supper-things, and before I lighted my candle, lingered for a few minutes at the back window, to take a last view of the sea. It was a stormy but very beautiful night. The heavens were without a cloud.

The full moon cast broken gleams of silver upon the restless, tossing waters, which scattered them into a thousand fragments of dazzling brightness, as the heavy surf rolled in thunder against the beach.

"'Has the gale freshened, father?' said I, anxiously.

"'Not a bit of it. Say your prayers, Betsy, and trust in Providence.

Your lover is as safe in his good s.h.i.+p to-night, as in his bed at home.'

"He pulled me on to his knee, and kissed me, and I went up to bed with a lighter heart.

"A few minutes later I was fast asleep. I don't know how long this sleep lasted, but I awoke with hearing David Arthur calling beneath my window.

His mother's window and mine both fronted the cliff, and were in a line with each other. 'Thank G.o.d! David is safe!' I cried, as I sprang joyfully from my bed, and threw open the cas.e.m.e.nt.

"There he was sure enough, standing in the moonlight, directly beneath the window. His norwester flung far back on his head, his yellow curls hanging in wet ma.s.ses on his shoulders, and his clothes dripping with the salt spray. The moon shone forth on his upturned face. He looked very pale and cold, and his eyes were fixed intently upon his mother's chamber-window. Before I could speak, he cried out in his rich, manly tones-

"'Mother, dearest mother, I am come home to you. Open the door, and let me in!'

"'Stay, Davy, darling-stay one moment, and I will let you in. Your mother's asleep; but I can open the back-door with my key. Oh! I'm so happy, so thankful, that you are safe.'

"I threw my clothes on as fast as I could, but my hands trembled so from excitement, that I could scarcely fasten a string. A cold chill was creeping through my whole frame, and, in spite of the joy I felt, I involuntarily burst into tears. Das.h.i.+ng away the unwelcome drops with the back of my hand, I bounded down the stairs, unlocked the back-door that led into the alley, and in another moment stood alone on the cliff.

"'David, where are you?' I cried. But no David was there. I glanced all round the wide, open s.p.a.ce: not an object was moving over its surface. A deep stillness reigned all around, only interrupted by the solemn thunder of the waters, whose hollow surging against the sh.o.r.e rendered the solitude of the midnight hour more profound.

"Again I felt those cold chills steal through me-again the unbidden tears streamed down my cheeks.

"'What can have become of him?' said I, quite bewildered with surprise and fear; 'he must have got in at the back window!-I will go to his mother-I shall find him with her!'

"The key I held in my hand fitted both locks: I went into Mrs. Arthur's, lighted the candle that I had left on her kitchen dresser, and went up to her chamber. She started up in the bed as I opened the door.

"'Good G.o.d! Betsy,' she cried, 'is that you? I thought I heard David call me.'

"'And so he did,' I said; 'he came under the window just now, and called to you to let him in. I told him to wait till I could dress myself, and I would come down and open the door. Is he not here?'

"'No,' said his mother, her face turning as white as her cap; 'you must have been dreaming.'

"'Dreaming!' said I, rather indignantly; 'you need not try to persuade me out of my senses-I saw him with my own eyes!-heard him with my own ears! and spoke to him! What else will convince you? He has gone back to the s.h.i.+p for John-I will breeze up the fire, put on the kettle, and get something cooked for their supper. After buffeting about in this storm, they will be cold and hungry.'

"Mrs. Arthur soon joined me. She could not believe that I had spoken to David, though she fancied that she had heard him herself, and was in a fever of anxiety, pacing to and fro the kitchen floor, and opening the door every minute to look out. I felt almost provoked by her want of faith.

"'If the s.h.i.+p were in,' she muttered, 'he would have been in long ago, to tell me that all was safe. He knows how uneasy I always am when he and his brother are away. Betsy must have been deceived!'

"'Mother, dear-indeed, what I tell you is true!'

"And I repeated to her for the twentieth time, perhaps, what David had said, and described his appearance.

"Hour after hour pa.s.sed away, but no well-known footstep, or dearly loved voice, disturbed our lonely vigil. The kettle simmered drowsily on the hob; Mrs. Arthur, tired out with impatient fretting at her son's delay, had thrown her ap.r.o.n over her head, and was sobbing bitterly. I began to feel alarmed; a strange fear seemed growing upon my heart, which almost led me to doubt the evidence of my senses-to fancy, in fact, that what I had seen might have been a dream. But, was I not there, wide awake? Had not his mother heard him speak as well as me?

though her half-waking state had rendered the matter less distinct than it had been to me? I was not going to be reasoned out of my sanity in that way, because he did not choose to wait until I came down to open the door-which I thought rather unkind, when he must be well aware, that my anxiety for his safety must quite equal that of his mother.

"The red beams of the rising sun were tinging the white foam of the billows with a flush of crimson. The gale had lulled; and I knew that my father's vessel sailed with the tide. I started from my seat, Mrs.

Arthur languidly raised her head-

"'My dear Betsy, will you just run across the cliff to the look-out house, and ask the sailors there if the _Nancy_ came in last night? I cannot bear this suspense much longer.'

"'I might have thought of that before,' I said; and, without waiting for hat or shawl, I ran with breathless speed to the nearest station.

"I found one old sailor kneeling upon the bench, looking intently through his telescope at some object at sea. My eyes followed the direction of the gla.s.s, and I saw distinctly, about two miles beyond the east cliff, a vessel lying dismasted upon the reef, with the sea breaking continually over her.

"'What vessel is that, Ned Jones?' said I.

"'It's the _Nancy_,' he replied, without taking his eye from the gla.s.s.

'I know her by the white stripe along her black hull. She's a perfect wreck, and both the brave lads are drowned.'

"'When did this happen?' I shrieked, shaking him frantically by the arm.

"'She struck upon the reef at half-past one this morning. Our lads got the boat off, but too late to save the crew.'

"'Good G.o.d!' I cried, reeling back, as if struck with a bolt of ice; and the same deadly cold s.h.i.+ver ran through me. 'It was his ghost, then, I saw.'[B]

[B] I have told this story exactly as it was told to me by Flora's nurse. The reader must judge how far the young girl's imagination may have deceived her. Whether as a dream, or a reality, I have no doubt of the truth of her tale.

"I don't know how I got back to Mrs. Arthur. I never knew. Or, whether it was from me she learned the terrible tidings of the death of her sons. I fell into a brain fever, and when I recovered my senses, Mrs.

Arthur had been in her grave for some weeks.

"In thinking over the events of that fearful night, the recollection which pained me most was, that David's last thought had been for his mother,-that during his death-struggle, she was dearer to him than me.

It haunted me for years. At times it haunts me still. Whenever the wind blows a gale, and the moon s.h.i.+nes clear and cold, I fancy I can see him standing below my window, in his dripping garments, and that sad pale face turned towards his mother's cas.e.m.e.nt; and I hear him call out, in the rich, mellow voice I loved so well,-'Mother, dearest mother, I have come home to you. Open the door and let me in!'"

"It was a dream, Nurse," said Flora.

"But supposing, Mrs. Lyndsay, that it was a dream. Is it less strange that such a dream should occur at the very moment, perhaps, that he was drowned; and that his mother should fancy she heard him speak as well as I?"

"True," said Flora, "the mystery remains the same, and, for my own part, I never could get rid of a startling reality; because some people choose to call it a mere coincidence. My faith embraces the spirit of the fact, and disclaims the coincidence, though after all, the coincidence is the best proof of the fact."

"This event," continued Nurse, "cast a shadow over my life, which no after suns.h.i.+ne ever dispelled. I never loved again, and gave up all thoughts of getting married from that hour. Perhaps I was wrong, for I refused several worthy men, who would have given me a comfortable home; and I should not now, at my time of life, have to go out nursing, or be dependent upon a cross brother, for the shelter of a roof. If you will take me to Canada with you, I only ask in return a home in my old age."