The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lighthouse, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: The Lighthouse

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21746]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHTHOUSE ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

THE LIGHTHOUSE, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

CHAPTER ONE.

THE ROCK.

Early on a summer morning, about the beginning of the nineteenth
century, two fishermen of Forfarshire wended their way to the shore,
launched their boat, and put off to sea.

One of the men was tall and ill-favoured, the other, short and
well-favoured. Both were square-built, powerful fellows, like most men
of the class to which they belonged.

It was about that calm hour of the morning which precedes sunrise, when
most living creatures are still asleep, and inanimate nature wears, more
than at other times, the semblance of repose. The sea was like a sheet
of undulating glass. A breeze had been expected, but, in defiance of
expectation, it had not come, so the boatmen were obliged to use their
oars. They used them well, however, insomuch that the land ere long
appeared like a blue line on the horizon, then became tremulous and
indistinct, and finally vanished in the mists of morning.

The men pulled "with a will,"--as seamen pithily express it,--and in
silence. Only once during the first hour did the big, ill-favoured man
venture a remark. Referring to the absence of wind, he said, that "it
would be a' the better for landin' on the rock."

This was said in the broadest vernacular dialect, as, indeed, was
everything that dropped from the fishermen's lips. We take the liberty
of modifying it a little, believing that strict fidelity here would
entail inevitable loss of sense to many of our readers.

The remark, such as it was, called forth a rejoinder from the short
comrade, who stated his belief that "they would be likely to find
somethin' there that day."

They then relapsed into silence.

Under the regular stroke of the oars the boat advanced steadily,
straight out to sea. At first the mirror over which they skimmed was
grey, and the foam at the cutwater