THE GROUND SWELL. 



CHAPTER I. 

 INTRODUCTORY. 



A GROUNDSWELL. 



&quot;AHOY!&quot; &quot;Bear a hand!&quot; &quot;Cut that painter!&quot; &quot;Cast 

 loose ! &quot; A score of such cries, with sundry incoherent yells, 

 broke suddenly upon the repose of a small fishing hamlet 

 nestling in a cove that opened out upon the wide Atlantic. 



There had been almost a dead calm. The sea, stretching 

 far in the distance, rocked in gentle undulations, like a child 

 in its cradle, and clear as a mirror curled gently up on the 

 shore. The t sough of the waters, as they lazily rose and fell, 

 Was varied only by a soft, long-continued &quot;swi-i-ah&quot; as the 

 ever-recurring, ever-advancing wave of the incoming tide 

 rolled over the shells and pebbles, with a tinkle murmurous 

 and musical. Nothing suggested the resistless power of 

 this calm blue water when lashed into fury by Old Boreas ; 

 nothing in the state of the weather indicated aught but a 

 long-continued calm ; for the tranquillity which reigned over 

 all seemed the result of a settled determination upon the 

 weather s part to remain serene, and was not, by any means, 



(21) 



