" were her last words.

"All right--I won't," said her father; and Captain Jim laughed and
said:--

"You'd better not put the frying-pan on till you see us a-coming, for
with this light wind there's no knowing when we'll get over, and the
frizzle might be sp'iled."

Then the sail flapped and filled, and off they went over the yellow
sea. Eyebright watched till the boat passed behind the island, and out
of sight; then she walked up the road to the Downs's, saying to
herself,--

"What funny weather! I never saw any thing like it. It isn't a bit
like last September."

Next morning showed the same sultry mist, a little thicker if any
thing. Eyebright stayed with Mrs. Downs till after dinner, helped in
the weekly baking, hemmed two crash towels, told Benny a story, and
set out for home a little after four, carrying a blueberry pie in a
basket for papa's supper. As she toiled over the sand of the causeway
and up the steep path, she was conscious of a singular heaviness in
the air, and it struck her that the sea was making a sound such as she
had never heard before,--a sort of odd shuddering moan, as if some
great creature was in pain a long way out from shore. The water looked
glassy calm, and there did not seem to be much wind, which made the
sound even stranger and more startling. But she forgot about the sound
when she reached the house, for there was a great deal to do and not
much time to do it in, for Captain Jim expected to get back by six
o'clock or soon after. What with sweeping and dusting and fire-making,
an hour passed rapidly, when suddenly a dusky darkness settled over
the house, and at the same moment a blast of wind blew the door open
with a bang.

"Oh dear, there is going to be a thunder-storm," thought Eyebright.
She was afraid of thunder and lightning and did not like the idea at
all.

Going to the door to shut it, she stopped short, for she saw a strange
sight. One side of the heavens was still thick with the yellow haze,
but toward the sea a bank of black clouds was whirling rapidly up from
the horizon. It had nearly reached the zenith, and had already hidden
the sun and turned the afternoon into temporary twilight. The sea was
glassy smooth near the shore--as smooth as oil; but farther out, the
waves had begun to toss and tumble, and the moaning sound was become a
deep hollow boom, which might easily be imagined the very voice of the
approaching storm.

Filled with anxiety, Eyebright ran down