side.
On returning on board, we found that our stock of provisions had
arrived, that our blankets were dried, and the cabin cleaned out. We
therefore immediately got under weigh, and stood out for the bay.
"What!" exclaimed Dick, "is this the Saint Ives I've heard of all my
life?" and he repeated--
"As I was going to Saint Ives
I met a man with seven wives;
Seven wives had seven sacks,
Seven sacks had seven cats,
Seven cats had seven kits,
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were going to Saint Ives?"
Papa laughed, and said he believed that the honour was also claimed by a
little town in Huntingdonshire of the same name. "The two," he said,
"may fight it out. It is not very important."
The wind now blew from the northward, and in a short time we opened the
Longships, bearing due south-west. It had hitherto been hidden by the
land, so that we knew perfectly well where we were. We then kept away
until we came in sight of the two lights of the Seven Stones Lightship,
until we brought them on our starboard beam, when we were within the
radius of Saint Agnes Lighthouse just before daybreak.
We were hoping to get in or off Saint Mary's in the morning, when it
fell calm; and there we lay, with our sails flapping idly, and rolling
in the swell of the Atlantic, which came in from the southward. We
could see through our glasses the Longships Lighthouse on one side and
the light-vessel on the other, while the Scilly Islands rose blue and
indistinct out of the ocean. One tide carried us to the northward; but
in the next we regained our lost ground. It was, however, very
tantalising, as we were anxious to ascertain what had become of the
Dolphin.
Though papa always hoped for the best, he could not help acknowledging
that he feared that she might have met with some accident. At length a
breeze sprang up, but it was against us; still, that was better than a
calm, as we could gain ground by tacking. Dick and Nat asked more than
once why we were sailing away from the land when we wanted to get there.
At last we came in sight of a lofty tower on the top of a hill in Saint
Martin's Island, with the long low outline of Saint Mary's beyond.
Still, we had several tacks more to make before we gained the entrance
to Crow Sound, between Saint Mary's and Saint Martin's. By this time it
was dark. A bright look-out was kept for rocks and shoals in the
channel. Suddenly rounding a point, the light
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