caused them to rise in great foam-crested
waves. There are two channels into this river from the open sea,
navigable for ships which are coming in to the city of Bath; one is
broad and shallow, the other narrow and deep, and these are divided by a
steep ledge of rocks.

Where the spectators of this scene were sitting, they could see in the
distance a ship borne with tremendous force by the rising tide into the
mouth of the river, and encountering a northwest wind which had
succeeded the gale, as northwest winds often do on this coast. The ship,
from what might be observed in the distance, seemed struggling to make
the wider channel, but was constantly driven off by the baffling force
of the wind.

"There she is, Naomi," said the old fisherman, eagerly, to his
companion, "coming right in." The young woman was one of the sort that
never start, and never exclaim, but with all deeper emotions grow still.
The color slowly mounted into her cheek, her lips parted, and her eyes
dilated with a wide, bright expression; her breathing came in thick
gasps, but she said nothing.

The old fisherman stood up in the wagon, his coarse, butternut-colored
coat-flaps fluttering and snapping in the breeze, while his interest
seemed to be so intense in the efforts of the ship that he made
involuntary and eager movements as if to direct her course. A moment
passed, and his keen, practiced eye discovered a change in her
movements, for he cried out involuntarily,--

"_Don't_ take the narrow channel to-day!" and a moment after, "O Lord! O
Lord! have mercy,--there they go! Look! look! look!"

And, in fact, the ship rose on a great wave clear out of the water, and
the next second seemed to leap with a desperate plunge into the narrow
passage; for a moment there was a shivering of the masts and the
rigging, and she went down and was gone.

"They're split to pieces!" cried the fisherman. "Oh, my poor girl--my
poor girl--they're gone! O Lord, have mercy!"

The woman lifted up no voice, but, as one who has been shot through the
heart falls with no cry, she fell back,--a mist rose up over her great
mournful eyes,--she had fainted.

The story of this wreck of a home-bound ship just entering the harbor is
yet told in many a family on this coast. A few hours after, the
unfortunate crew were washed ashore in all the joyous holiday rig in
which they had attired themselves that morning to go to their sisters,
wives, and mothers.

This is the firs