THE SEA-SERPENT. 
21 
stirring lays, wild legends of those stormy seas ; — 
traditions strange, that stranger men, borne thither 
by the tide and breeze, have told, which then were 
told again unto their children, until years had made 
them seem almost divine, — till e’en a nation’s 
hopes and fears bent humbly at tradition’s shrine.” 
“ But why to-night, dear Hunt, should you, 
when all around is calm and still, look bluer than 
the ocean’s blue, or feel this sense of coming ill ? ” 
VIII. 
“Ah, Mary, have you never heard of a monster 
vast in the northern seas, who lives below when 
the waves are stirred by the dashing storm or the 
ringing breeze, but in the calm, when the storm 
is done, and the waves are still on the summer 
sea, comes up to bask in the noontide sun, and 
play on the tranquil ocean free ? So monstrous 
his size, and so vast his length, vessels and boats 
are naught to him ; he laughs at the ship and her 
boasted strength ; he is king of the sea ; the 
fishes that swim, when they meet him, are fright- 
