236 THE CALL OF THE SEA 



above them. Texts of comfort in which the fine, 



salt fihns crept, faint verses of sweet hymns defiled 



by the perching sea-birds, old rhymes like homely 



ejaculations of very simple hearts, sank into the 



gathering darkness on every hand. The graves 



seemed murmuring to the night : " Look on me, 



I hold a lover " ; " And I keep fast a maiden " ; 



"And within my arms crumbles a little child 



caught by the sea " ; " And I fold a mother, 



whose son is in the hideous water foliage of the 



depths of the sea " ; " And I embrace an old 



captain whom the sea loved even in his hollow 



age." 



Rol'eri Hichens. 



H.YMOUTH 

 WILLIAM liKENDON AND SON, LTD., I'KINTEKS 



