i6o Studies in Rat Catc/iing. [ch. ix. 



hurried me off to another cottage, much such 

 another as the first ; but instead of Mary and 

 the boy, we found a great, tall, gaunt old 

 woman, sitting up before the fire, waiting for 

 her two grandsons, who were away in the 

 same boat with Jack ; but to the rector's 

 cheery, hopeful words, the woman answered 

 with a bitter, sharp, complaining tongue : " I 

 don't want no stop-at-home idle chaps to tell 

 me what a storm is. Danger ! who says 

 there's danger ? Danger with a little puff of 

 wind like this ? Not but what both of those 

 boys will be washed ashore one day as their 

 grandfather and father were. It's in the 

 blood, and trying for a lone woman. Drat 

 the boys ! I told them not to go off with 

 Jack. I could see plain for days that it was 

 coming on to blow ; but oh, no ! they know 

 better than me, who have lived to lose their 

 father in such a storm as this, and to see his 

 boat with my own eyes go to pieces on the 



