Page:Moonfleet - John Meade Falkner.pdf/29



the third of November, a few days after this visit to the Why Not, the wind, which had been blowing from the south-west, began about four in the afternoon to rise in sudden, strong gusts. The rooks had been pitch-falling all the morning, so we knew that bad weather was due; and when we came out from the schooling that Mr. Glennie gave us in the hall of the old almshouses, there were wisps of thatch, and ever stray tiles, flying from the roofs, and the children sang,—

It is a heathenish rhyme that has come down out of other and worse times; for though I do not say but that a wreck on Moonfleet beach was looked upon sometimes as little short of a godsend, yet I hope none of us were so wicked as to wish a vessel to be wrecked that we might share in the plunder. Indeed, I have