Peter seemed to understand that no answer was required, and therefore
made none, but asked him where he had come from?
"Where did he come from?" said the stranger, who evidently applied the
question to a fish in his basket, and not to himself, "originally from
the lake, Peter, where it was spawned, and whither it annually
returns. You ought to understand that, Mac, for you have a head on
your shoulders, and that is more than half the poor wretches that
float ashore here from the deep have. It's a hard life, my friend,
going to sea, and hard shores sailors knock against sometimes, and
still harder hearts they often find there. A stone in the end of a
stocking is a sling for a giant, and soon puts an end to their
sufferings; a punishment for wearing gold watches, a penalty for
pride. Jolly tars eh? oh yes, very jolly! it's a jolly sight, ain't
it, to see two hundred half-naked, mangled, and disfigured bodies on
the beach, as I did the other day?" and he gave a shudder at the
thought that seemed to shake the very chair he sat on. "It's lucky
their friends don't see them, and know their sad fate. They were lost
at sea! that is enough for mothers and wives to hear. The cry for
help, when there is none to save, the shriek of despair, when no hope
is left, the half-uttered prayer, the last groan, and the last
struggle of death, are all hushed in the storm, and weeping friends
know not what they lament.
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