Far beyond this were tall figures wading in the water, and
seeking their food in the shallows; cranes, who felt the impunity that
the superstition of the simple habitans had extended to them, and
sought their daily meal in peace.
Above the beach and parallel with it, ran a main road, on the upper
side of which were the houses, and on a swelling mound behind them
rose the spire of the chapel visible far off in the Atlantic, a sacred
signal-post for the guidance of the poor coaster. As soon as you reach
this street or road and look around you, you feel at once you are in a
foreign country and a land of strangers. The people, their dress, and
their language, the houses, their form and appearance, the implements
of husbandry, their shape and construction--all that you hear and see
is unlike anything else. It is neither above, beyond, or behind the
age. It is the world before the Flood. I have sketched it for you, and
I think without bragging I may say I can take things off to the life.
Once I drawed a mutton chop so nateral, my dog broke his teeth in
tearing the panel to pieces to get at it; and at another time I
painted a shingle so like stone, when I threw it into the water, it
sunk right kerlash to the bottom.
"Oh, Mr Slick," said the doctor, "let me get away from here. I can't
bear the sight of the sea-coast, and above all, of this offensive
place.
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