their
books and their beds and their little furniture, and set up
house-keeping.

Their home was one of those caves into which the sea rushes a little way
and then suddenly backs out again as if it had changed its mind this
time but would call again. Gudwall and his pupil loved to lie in their
cave just beyond the reach of the waves and watch them dash laughingly
up on the rocks, then roar and gurgle in pretended anger and creep away
out into the blue basin beyond. In summer their daily games with the sea
were great fun, and Gudwall was very happy. They spent some lovely
months alone with the waves and the rocks and the sea-birds which now
and then fluttered screaming into the dark cave, and then again dashed
bashfully out when they found they had come uninvited into a stranger's
home. It was all very nice and peaceful and pretty in the summer time,
just as tourists find it to this day.

But oh! what a change when old Winter came roaring down over the waves
from the North in his chariot of ice, drawn by fierce winds and angry
storm-clouds. Then the temper of the sea was changed. It grew cruel and
hungry. It left off its kindly game with the lonely dwellers on the
island, and seemed instead to have become their enemy. It tried to seize
and swallow them in its cruel jaws.

One morning there came a terrible storm. In the far end of the cave
Gudwall and the other were nearly swept away by a huge wave which rushed
in to devour them. No longer content with pausing on the threshold, the
sea swept through their whole house, dashing away their little store of
books and furniture, a most unneighborly thing to do. It tried to drag
the two men from the corner where they clung to the rough rock. Choked
and gasping they escaped this time, while the sea drew back for another
plunge. But they did not wait for this, for they knew it would mean
their death.

Drenched as they were and blinded by the salt spray, they scrambled out
of the cave and began to climb the slippery seaweed to the rocks above.
It was a hard and dangerous ascent, for the sea leaped after them to
pull them back, snarling angrily at their heels like a fierce beast
maddened by their escape. But it could not quite seize them, and at last
they reached the top of the cliff where they were safe for the time.

But what were they to do now? There were no houses on the island, no
place to go to keep warm; yet they could not live out in the open air to
freeze in the snow