long, sir; and then all this sea-haar will go."
"Why don't you say mist?" cried the lad contemptuously.
"'Acause it's sea-haar, and you can't make nowt else on it, sir!"
"They haven't seen anything of them in the night, I suppose?"
"No, sir; nowt. It scars me sometimes, the way they dodges us, and gets
away. Don't think theer's anything queer about 'em, do you?"
"Queer? Yes, of course. They're smugglers, and as artful as can be."
"Nay, sir, bad, I mean--you know, sir."
"No, I don't, Dick," cried the young officer pettishly. "How can I
know? Speak out."
"Nay, I wean't say a word, sir; I don't want to get more scarred than I
am sometimes now."
"Get out! What do you mean? That old Bogey helps them to run their
cargoes?"
"Nay, sir, I wean't say a word. It's all werry well for you to laugh,
now it's daylight, and the sun coming out. It's when it's all black as
pitch, as it takes howd on you worst."
"You're a great baby, Dick," cried the midshipman, as he went to the
side of the cutter and looked over the low bulwark toward the east.
"Hah! Here comes the sun."
His eyes brightened as he welcomed the coming of the bright orb,
invisible yet from where he stood; but the cold grey mist that hung
around was becoming here and there, in patches, shot with a soft
delicious rosy hue, which made the grey around turn opalescent rapidly,
beginning to flash out pale yellow, which, as the middy watched,
deepened into orange and gold.
"Lovely!" he said aloud, as he forgot in the glory of the scene the
discomfort he had felt.
"Tidy, sir, pooty tidy," said the sailor, who had come slowly up to
where he stood. "And you should see the morning come over our coast,
sir. Call this lovely? Why, if you'd sin the sun rise there, it would
mak' you stand on your head."
"Rather see this on my feet, Dick," cried the lad. "Look at that!
Hurrah! Up she comes!"
Up "she"--otherwise the sun--did come, rolling slowly above the
mist-covered sea, red, swollen, huge, and sending blood-tinted rays
through and through the haze to glorify the hull, sails, and rigging of
the smart cutter, and make the faces of the man at the helm and the
other watchers glow as with new health.
The effect was magical. Just before all was cold and grey, and the
clinging mist sent a shiver through those on deck; now, their eyes
brightened with pleasure, as the very sight of the glowing orb seemed to
have a warming--as it certainly h
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