Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 312 pages of information about Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts.

Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 312 pages of information about Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts.

It was about five in the afternoon (I think), all was still in the courtyard, when I heard the click of a latch and, running to the window, saw the porter closing his wicket gate.  A minute later, on a rise beyond the wall, I spied the Moor.  His back was towards the castle and he was walking rapidly towards Market Jew:  and after him padded my lady’s hound.

I hurried along the passages and knocked at my Master’s door.  No one answered.  I could not wait to knock again, but burst it open.

On the floor at my feet lay my Master, and hard by the window my Mistress with her hands crossed upon a crucifix.  My Master had no crucifix:  but his face wore a smile—­a happier one than it had worn for years.

[1] About 150,000 pounds in present money.

FROZEN MARGIT

A Narrative of the sufferings of Mr. Obed Lanyon, of Vellingey-Saint Agnes, Cornwall; Margit Lanyon, his wife; and seventeen persons (mostly Americans) shipwrecked among the Quinaiult Tribes of the N.W.  Coast of America, in the winter of 1807-8.  With some remarkable Experiences of the said Margit Lanyon, formerly Pedersen.  Written by the Survivor, Edom Lanyon, sometime a Commander in the service of the Honourable East India Company.

My twin brother Obed and I were born on the 21st of March, 1759 (he being the elder by a few minutes), at Vellingey-St. Agnes, or St. Ann’s, a farm on the north coast of Cornwall, owned and cultivated by our father Renatus Lanyon.  Our mother was a Falmouth woman, daughter of a ship’s captain of that port:  and I suppose it was this inclined us to a sea-faring life.  At any rate, soon after our fifteenth birthday we sailed (rather against our father’s wish) on a short coasting voyage with our grandfather—­whose name was William Dustow.

A second voyage in the early summer of 1776 took us as far as the Thames.  It happened that the famous Captain Cook was just then recruiting for his third and (as it proved) his last voyage of discovery.  This set us talking and planning, and the end was that we stole ashore and offered ourselves.  Obed had the luck to be picked.  Though very like in face, I was already the taller by two inches; and no doubt the Captain judged I had outgrown my strength.  But it surprised me to be rejected when Obed was taken; and disappointed me more:  for, letting alone the prospect of the voyage, we two (as twins, and our parents’ only children) were fond of each other out of the common degree, and had never thought to be separated.

To speak first of Obed:—­Captain Cook put some questions, and finding that we were under our grandfather’s care, would do nothing without his consent.  We returned to the ship and confessed to the old man, who pretended to be much annoyed.  But next day he put on his best clothes and went in search of the great seaman, to Whitehall; and so the matter was arranged.  Obed sailed in July

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Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.