Suddenly the captain wound up his line and said he thought we’d better be going in, and Kate and I looked at him with surprise.  “It is only half past ten,” said I, looking at my watch.  “Don’t hurry in on our account,” added Kate, persuasively, for we were having a very good time.

“I guess we won’t mind about the haddock.  I’ve got a feelin’ we’d better go ashore.”  And he looked up into the sky and turned to see the west.  “I knew there was something the matter; there’s going to be a shower.”  And we looked behind us to see a bank of heavy clouds coming over fast.  “I wish we had two pair of oars,” said Captain Sands.  “I’m afraid we shall get caught.”

“You needn’t mind us,” said Kate.  “We aren’t in the least afraid of our clothes, and we don’t get cold when we’re wet; we have made sure of that.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” said the cap’n.  “Women-folks are apt to be dreadful scared of a wetting; but I’d just as lief not get wet myself.  I had a twinge of rheumatism yesterday.  I guess we’ll get ashore fast enough.  No.  I feel well enough to-day, but you can row if you want to, and I’ll take the oars the last part of the way.”

When we reached the moorings the clouds were black, and the thunder rattled and boomed over the sea, while heavy spatters of rain were already falling.  We did not go to the wharves, but stopped down the shore at the fish-houses, the nearer place of shelter.  “You just select some of those cunners,” said the captain, who was beginning to be a little out of breath, “and then you can run right up and get under cover, and I’ll put a bit of old sail over the rest of the fish to keep the fresh water off.”  By the time the boat touched the shore and we had pulled it up on the pebbles, the rain had begun in good earnest.  Luckily there was a barrow lying near, and we loaded that in a hurry, and just then the captain caught sight of a well-known red shirt in an open door, and shouted, “Halloa, Danny! lend us a hand with these fish, for we’re nigh on to being shipwrecked.”  And then we ran up to the fish-house and waited awhile, though we stood in the doorway watching the lightning, and there were so many leaks in the roof that we might almost as well have been out of doors.  It was one of Danny’s quietest days, and he silently beheaded hake, only winking at us once very gravely at something our other companion said.

“There!” said Captain Sands, “folks may say what they have a mind to; I didn’t see that shower coming up, and I know as well as I want to that my wife did, and impressed it on my mind.  Our house sets high, and she watches the sky and is al’ays a worrying when I go out fishing for fear something’s going to happen to me,’ specially sence I’ve got to be along in years.”

This was just what Kate and I wished to hear, for we had been told that Captain Sands had most decided opinions on dreams and other mysteries, and could tell some stories which were considered incredible by even a Deephaven audience, to whom the marvellous was of every-day occurrence.