y. He was better;
his rheumatism had not troubled him as much as he had feared; he would
get up, and himself trim the lights for the coming night, and I had
better lie down and rest. Which I gladly did, for I was tired, indeed,
and began to have a suspicion that, though lighthouse telegraphy might
be a pleasant excitement for once, it was inferior, as a steady means
of communication, to the regularly established mails. So, I slept the
sleep of the weary, if not of the just; and the morning was far
advanced when I awoke.

The new day was not stormy, as I had partly anticipated it would be,
nor yet was it clear and beautiful. The gale seemed slowly coming on,
but had not quite reached us. The sky was thick with scudding clouds,
racing wildly from north to south; the air was cold and cheerless; the
sea rolled in with a more powerful swell than usual, breaking along
the shore with a boom like that of heavy artillery. The gulls flew
to and fro, screaming and unsettled; a few coasting schooners,
apprehensive of mischief, had put into the land-locked bay and there
lay at anchor, awaiting better weather; and in one place, the
fishermen were dragging their boats away back to the foot of the
bluff, so as to avoid the still heavier swell which must erelong come.
Yet, for all that, the storm had not commenced, and I could easily
have walked over to Beacon Ledge and made my daily visit.

But still I forbore. I had already told Jessie that I should not see
her again until I came to hear the decision of my fate, and I resolved
that I would be firm. Would it not, beside, spoil the whole romance of
our midnight correspondence were I to visit her again so soon? I had
signalled a greeting to her. What a lowering of sentiment it would be
if now I were to obtain her response in commonplace manner, by mere
word of mouth, instead of by the bright sheen of the lighthouse
itself! Nay, that would never do. So, killing the heavy hours as best
I could, I loitered up and down the beach, shooting at the gulls as
ineffectually as I had before shot at the sand-pipers; watching the
course of a few frightened vessels, which still continued to make for
that little harbor of refuge; and, like a child, making sand-forts on
the beach, for the pleasure of seeing them washed away again by the
next heavy swell.

Night came at last; and, as before, I volunteered to relieve Barry of
the care of the lamps, and allow him additional opportunity to nurse
his rhe