All were up before dawn, except the baby, who slept on in blissful
unconsciousness of any impending change; and soon the women stood, with
their shawls over their heads, down on the sandy, crescent-shaped beach,
watching the last preparations.
It was an impressive scene, and never lost that quality to Sara's eyes,
though she had been used to it since infancy. As she stood now, near but
hardly a part of the noisy throng, she was about midway in the crescent,
at either end of which there gleamed whitely through the morning mist
the round tower of a lighthouse.
These were only nine miles apart as the bird flies, but over thirty when
one followed the concave shore; and the eastern light warned of
treacherous rocks jutting out in bold headlands and rugged cliffs, while
the western served to guide the mariner past quite as treacherous
shallows, and a sandy bar which showed like the shining back of some
sea-monster at low-tide.
Within this natural harbor was the little fleet of sloops, smacks, and
schooners, getting up sail, and shipping some last half-forgotten
supplies, while numerous smaller craft were paddled or rowed about,
closer in shore.
The wide white beach, unbroken for a considerable sweep by even a
headland, was now alive with an excited crowd--talking, laughing,
weeping, and gesticulating, while back on the higher ground could be
seen the small, straggling village, of but little more than one street,
where nearly all the houses turned a gabled end to the highway, while a
well-trodden path led through a drooping gateway to a door somewhere at
the side or rear.
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