The Wreck 



So I, being of course nearly as obstinate and unreasonable 

 as himself, spurred him, and kicked him, and buffeted him, 

 and got him very nearly as foamy and lathery as the sea, all 

 for his own sake (originally), and to save him trouble. I 

 could not help being reminded of philanthropists, and 

 abolitionists, and Exeter Hall, and religious persecutions. 



These speculations vi^ere put out of joint by arriving at a 

 place where a great ship had been wrecked, evidently very 

 recently. Huge flakes of massive, closely-pegged plank- 

 work, torn to ragged pieces like brown paper ; masts, sails, 

 and cordage, strewn about the beach, with the sea tumbling 

 and roaring and booming close by the remains of what it 

 had demolished, and hungry for more. Some men on horse- 

 back, who came from Gibraltar to see after her, said she had 

 gone to pieces in the great gale on Sunday (the day, by the 

 way, we came over from Africa), and her cargo was all 

 lost. 



We inquired of the men the way and distance to Estepona. 

 The distance appeared much further than we had calculated 

 on, and the way turned inland from the beach, for the river 

 Guadiaro could not be forded at its mouth, and we must go 

 about a league inland to find a ferry. So we turned inland 

 through mazy and uncertain paths across the dehesa^ which, 

 with its fragrant flowers and bushes, here sloped down to 

 the sea. 



" It seems a pity," said Harry, with a sigh, " that so 

 many sweet and pretty things should be almost thrown 

 away. This is quite a fancy-sample of a wilderness, such as 

 Don Quixote's Cardenios, and Marcellas, and Dorotheas, 

 might have chosen to hide their woes in." 



" I have an idea," said I, interrupting him ; " we will put 

 some of them at least (gathering a handful of lilies, and 

 anemones, and other unknown flowers) to some poetical use, 



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