Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Pricked her fat sides, she spurned the weather bank, And where her bows should be, behold, her flank ! Ere dusk, Ted moored the ship by Horning Ferry; They ate their meat; dim craft beyond the wherry Beguiled the starry night with cheerful noise And happy laughter ; from astern, the boys Cast loose the dinghy, clattering all the gear, And lightly argued who should row, who steer, Which way to set their course, upstream or down, And where the ferry lay, and where the town. With tuneful bickering they pulled away ; Their fresh young voices in a roundelay Of eager mirth stole cheerly o'er the tide. The Harvest Moon uprose, and far and wide She flung her silvery arrows at the night, Flaunting her radiant panoply, bedight With borrowed plumes, but unabashed ; a jade, But ah ! how lovely, tender ; ne'er dismayed, She knows her lovers, though she wax or wane, Shall mark her beauty at the full again. Next morn the sky was grey. " 'Tis my belief There's wind a-comin', best take in a reef," Said careful Ted. Clink-clank, the ratchet went, Clink-clank ; Dick to the windlass handle bent His brawny back, the gaff crept up the mast, Till Ted sang out: " 'Tis high enough, make fast." They tied the reef points 'neath the murmuring sail, Then showed their prudent canvas to the gale. 'Twas but a summery storm, yet sped they quick Past Horning Hall, to where St. Benedick His Abbey ruins are ; for rough King Hal Bethought him how the monks held festival By the fat banks of Bure, and confiscate Were all St. Benet's lands; the Abbey gate Still lifts a lonely archway—Ichabod Is written large upon the tumbled sod. By Acle Bridge they slept; an aged dame, Whose brains were nimble, though her legs were lame, Would sell them fowls, and cabbages. Next d...