My three brothers were then sailing, and how glad I felt that their eyes
might catch the bright rays of our light shining out over the waste of
waters on a dark stormy night. Many nights when a gale came on we could
hear the flapping of sails and the captain shouting orders as the
vessels passed our point into the harbor, seeking shelter from the
storm. Sometimes we could count fifty and sixty vessels anchored in our
harbor, reaching quite a distance outside the point, as there was not
room for so many inside. They lay so close they almost touched at times.
At night our harbor looked like a little city with its many lights. It
was a pleasant sound to hear all those sailors' voices singing as they
raised the anchors in the early morning. With weather fair and white
sails set the ships went gliding out so gracefully to their far away
ports. My brothers were sometimes on those ships. Many captains carried
their families on board with them during the warm weather. Then what a
pleasure to see the children and hear their sweet voices in song in the
twilight hours. Then again when they came on shore for a race on land,
or taking their little baskets went out to pick the wild strawberries.
All these things made life the more pleasant and cheerful.