Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/206

186 kets and sweaters, and imbibing hot coffee and brandy and such. The keeper imbibed some, too. And the skipper saw that stocking hanging before the fireplace (Santa Claus had come, after all, and filled it, for it was bulging with toys and things). The captain stood up. He was wearing a long blanket, wrapped around him like a toga, and his face was blue.

"'Gosh, boys!' said he. 'Look at that!' Then he held up his glass of brandy. 'Merry Christmas, boys!' he said, in a voice as hoarse as a fog-horn, 'Merry Christmas!' And that's the only part of it that's really at all like a story-book."

Like a taut-stretched wire the wind sang around the tower; the hungry sea roared against the rock; but on the glowing hearth the bones of the Thomas J. Haskell, schooner, blazed and crackled merrily.