408 WILD SPOETS m THE SOUTH. 



under toppling seas, whether she was captured by pirates, 

 or still floated over the waves, watching for her native 

 harbor, Lou did not know, only her feverish mind pic- 

 tured her leaning over the taffrail, and saw her pale face 

 looking for shore. When night came down, trailing her 

 black robes heavy with the sea fog, and shutting out the 

 earth, the vision came stronger still. Her mother's voice 

 calling to her in the wind to save her — the sea bird 

 "lone watcher of despair" piped to her in plaintive 

 cries for help. It was the call of the remembered voice. 

 The feeling was so strong she knew her mother was 

 careering past the reefs ; she saw the sheeted ship among 

 the sprnne, and started to save her. She arose from her 

 hard bed, and taking her scissors and oil can, trimmed 

 the great lamps and wiped dry the reflectors. She 

 touched them with spirits and then striking a match, the 

 fair light flashed out to sea, and the light-keeper again 

 sank to her hiding-place. The darkness had j^rotected 

 her while trimming the lamps, and when the light came 

 she sank so quickly to the floor, the Indians could as 

 easily have shot one of the bale-fires that sometimes 

 hung about the tower, as she. As if in answer to her 

 act of devotion a moment after, from so far at sea, it 

 looked like a thread of gold, a rocket went uj) into the 

 air, parted its trident rays, and dropped again into dark- 

 ness. 



"Mother mother !" called the o-irl stretchino: her thin 

 hands seaward toward the signal light of the ship, " I 

 come, I come " — but only the billows thundered back 



