is heard a hissing and a crackling as if a hundred glowing irons
had been cast into the water, as the burning stern cleaves its way into
the billows, which come foaming up over the sides, and in under the
counter, while the tiny flames which were flickering along the seams are
quenched by the rush of air.

The wind, which got more power now that the ship was away, swept down on
to the still burning buildings, and, spreading out over the ground, hid
from view the vessel, which was gliding out into the harbour, by a
curtain of dark smoke fringed with flame; and in the midst of the place
where she had stood, which looked vast indeed now she was gone, stood a
little band of bent and tar-stained men, fanning their faces with their
caps. In the midst of the band was seen the form of a tall and slender
youth, his face glowing red in the light of the fire.

"Gabriel!" shouted Uncle Richard. "Gabriel!" was repeated by a hundred
voices. The _attache_ elbowed his way towards him, followed by some of
the crowd, who, however, stopped and formed a respectful ring round the
hero of the day. Uncle Richard gave Gabriel a hearty embrace, and then
turning round to the crowd he cried, "Three cheers for Gabriel Garman!
Hurrah!" He was about to wave his hat, when he discovered that he was
bareheaded.

"Hurrah!" shouted the spectators with a mighty cheer; they were just in
the humour for cheering.

"Three cheers for the carpenters!" shouted Gabriel; but his boy's voice
broke into a discordant scream in the effort. But it did not matter; a
wild hurrah was given for the shipwrights, another for the ship, and
another for the firm. There was cheering and rejoicing without end.

"Come with me," said Gabriel to the workmen. "Father was going to give
you a breakfast, but now it will have to be a supper."

The shipwrights laughed heartily at this joke, but the laughter was even
louder when Uncle Richard added, "I think you have earned your breakfast
as well." They thought the remark so wonderfully witty, that they
laughed as if they would never stop, and the joke about "Uncle Richard's
breakfast" was a proverb both with them and their successors ever after.

In the mean time, the storehouse, and everything the yard contained
which was burnable, was on fire. The flames began stealing down the
ways, but no one took any notice of them. The ship was saved. Nothing
else was of much consequence, and fortunately the wind was blowing off
the land. Mo