ky through the gaping
loopholes. Its interior is choked with rocks and brambles, and masses of
fallen masonry. I scrambled up to the parapet, and obtained a noble
sea-view. Beyond the broad bay I saw miniature town and country mapped
out before me; and on the other hand, I saw the infinite Atlantic,--over
which, by the by, all the pretty things are brought from Paris. I spent
the whole afternoon in wandering hither and thither over the hills that
encircle the little cove in which I had landed, heedless of the minutes
and my steps, watching the sailing clouds and the cloudy sails on the
horizon, listening to the musical attrition of the tidal pebbles,
killing innocuous suckers. The only particular sensation I remember was
that of being ten years old again, together with a general impression of
Saturday afternoon, of the liberty to go in wading or even swimming, and
of the prospect of limping home in the dusk with a wondrous story of
having _almost_ caught a turtle. When I returned, I found--but I know
very well what I found, and I need hardly repeat it here for my
mortification. Heaven knows I never was a practical character. What
thought I about the tide? There lay the old tub, high and dry, with the
rusty anchor protruding from the flat green stones and the shallow
puddles left by the receding wave. Moving the boat an inch, much more a
dozen yards, was quite beyond my strength. I slowly reascended the
cliff, to see if from its summit any help was discernible. None was
within sight; and I was about to go down again in profound dejection,
when I saw a trim little sail-boat shoot out from behind a neighboring
bluff, and advance along the shore. I quickened pace. On reaching the
beach, I found the new-comer standing out about a hundred yards. The man
at the helm appeared to regard me with some interest. With a mute prayer
that his feeling might be akin to compassion, I invited him by voice and
gesture to make for a little point of rocks a short distance above us,
where I proceeded to join him. I told him my story, and he readily took
me aboard. He was a civil old gentleman, of the seafaring sort, who
appeared to be cruising about in the evening breeze for his pleasure. On
landing, I visited the proprietor of my old tub, related my
misadventure, and offered to pay damages, if the boat shall turn out in
the morning to have sustained any. Meanwhile, I suppose, it is held
secure against the next tidal revolution, however insidio