Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/18

 12 tered and jagged ice, which, broken up by the combined force of wind and waves, had been driven in and heaped up in ghastly desolation upon the shore. Beyond these was a dull margin of ice, and, still beyond, sullen and fierce rolled the black waters, occasionally iridescent, with a pale, blue, phosphoric light, and then settling down again in inky blackness.

On either hand the prospect was bounded by the dark masses of the forest fir-trees, which crept down almost to the very water's edge, and over all hung like a sable covering the dull, gray, leaden clouds, rayless and gloomy—only changing when some fiercer burst of wind tore them asunder, and tossed them into wilder forms of gloom and portent.

"Luik! luik!" exclaimed the shivering child, turning away in nervous terror as she spoke. "It's gruesom'—it's awfu'! I said sae; it's a wicked lan', an' a hatefu'; I winna bide here."

"Whist! Allie, darlin'! harken ye to me, my bonnie queen, my ain precious wee birdie!" said the woman, soothingly; and as she spoke she rose, and, going to the win-