They were picked up a day or so after, all
four of them washed up by the morning tide; their boat had drifted no
one knows where, and no one knows how it happened; but I suppose they
were driven out by the fresh breeze that sprung up, and not knowing how
to manage the sails, they were capsized."
"There they all lay. Miss, in the churchyard. It was a solemn sight, I
can tell you, to see those four coffins, side by side, in the church.
They were all strong hearty lads, and all under seventeen. I go and sit
on his grave sometimes, and spell over all I said, and all he said that
day; and glad enough I am, that I can remember neither cross word nor
cross look. Ah, my lady, I should remember it if it had been so. We
think we are good fathers and good friends to them we love while they
are alive, but as soon as we lose 'em, all the kindness we ever did them
seems little enough, while all the bad feelings we had, and sharp words
we spoke, come up to condemn us."
By this time they had reached the fisherman's cottage; it was prettily
situated, as houses on the south coast often are, under the shadow of a
fine over-hanging cliff.
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