good gifts
for his mercies.

Joining the night-watch of the chief light-keeper, I also joined in the
good man's enthusiasm for his wonderful "fixed white light," the bright
beams of which poured out upon the surrounding waters a flood of
brilliancy, gladdening hearts far out at sea, even though twenty miles
away, and plainly saying, "This is Body Island Beach: keep off!" How
grand it was to walk out on this gallery in the sky! Looking eastward,
a limitless expanse of ocean; gazing westward, the waters of the great
sound, the shores of which were low marshes miles away. Below me could
be heard the soft cackle of the snow-goose (_Anser hyperboreus_), which
had left its nesting-place on the barren grounds of arctic America,
and was now feeding contentedly in its winter home in the shallow
salt-ponds; while the gentle shur-r-r-of the waves softly broke on the
strand. Above, the star-lit heavens, whose tender beauty seemed almost
within my grasp.

Perched thus upon a single shaft, on a narrow strip of sand far out in
the great water, the many thoughts born of solitude crowded my mind,
when my reverie was abruptly broken by an exclamation from Captain
Hatzel, who threw open the door, and exclaimed, with beaming eyes
peering into the darkness as he spoke, "I see it! Yes, it _is_! Hatteras
Light, thirty-five miles away. This night, December 13th, is the first
time I have caught its flash. Tell it to the Hatteras keeper when you
visit the cape."

From Captain Hatzel I gleaned some facts of deep interest in regard to
the inhabitants of the sound. Some of them, he told me, had Indian blood
in their veins; and to prove the truth of his assertion he handed me a
well-worn copy of the "History of North Carolina," by Dr. Francis L.
Hawks, D. D. From this I obtained facts which might serve for the
intricate mazes of a romance.

It had been a pet scheme with Sir Walter Raleigh to colonize the coast
of North Carolina, then known as Virginia, and though several
expeditions had been sent out for that object, each had failed of
successful issue. One of these expeditions sent by Sir Walter to Roanoke
Island consisted of one hundred and twenty-one persons, of whom
seventeen were women and six children. Of all these souls only two men
returned to the old country, the fate of the remainder being unknown,
and shrouded in the gloom which always attends mystery. England did not,
however, leave her children to perish on a barren shore in the n