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Updated: May 31, 2025
"And I, too, recollect you. If I mistake not you used to be pretty widely known as Polly Lanreath," said the lady, looking at the old fish-wife. "And so I am now, Mistress Tremayne," answered the dame, "though not known so far and wide as I once was.
His once strong, stout frame was now reduced to a mere skeleton. Still Nelly and Michael buoyed themselves up with the hope that he would recover. Dame Lanreath knew too well that his days on earth were drawing to an end. Michael had become the mainstay of the family. Whenever a boat could get outside, the "Wild Duck" was sure to be seen making her way towards the best fishing-ground.
"You live hard, though, and your father grows no richer," observed Eban. "If he did as others do, and as my father has advised him many a time, he would be a richer man, and you and your sister and Aunt Lanreath would not have to toil early and late, and wear the life out of you as you do. I hope you will be wiser."
"You are welcome, though you come to a house of mourning," said Dame Lanreath, rising, while Nelly hastened to place stools for them to sit on. "I am afraid, then, that we are intruders," said the gentleman, "and we would offer to go on, but my wife and daughter would be wet through before we could reach any other shelter."
Nelly had been anxiously waiting the return of Dame Lanreath; she was greatly agitated by Eban's visit unable to overcome the fear that he might do something desperate, but what that might be she could not tell. She frequently went to the door to see if her granny was coming. The night drew on, the fury of the storm increased.
O Nelly! she looked like an angel as she watched by me, when I scarcely knew whether I was alive or being knocked over and over in the breakers," he observed. "For hours after I was safe on shore I had their sound in my ears in a way I never knew before." Mr Tremayne came to the cottage just as Dame Lanreath, with Michael and Nelly, had returned from attending the funeral of Paul Trefusis.
Never for a moment was he idle, for he always found something which ought to be done; each rope's-end was pointed; his rigging was never chafed; and the moment any service was wanted he put it on. Thus a couple of years passed by, Dame Lanreath and Nelly setting out day after day to sell the fish or lobsters and crabs he caught, for which they seldom failed to obtain a good price.
How she might have acted without the sage Dame Lanreath to advise her, or had she not felt that she could not consent to desert her and Michael, it is impossible to say. Michael had become a fine and active young man. As a sailor he was not inferior to Eban. He had been able to support Nelly and her grandmother in comfort, and to save money besides.
Reuben hoped to be among the first to send fish to the Helston market. Dame Lanreath and Nelly, as well as several other female members of Reuben's family, or related to his crew, were ready to set off with their creels as soon as the boat returned. Nelly had gone as far as Uncle Reuben's house to watch for the "Sea-Gull."
I'll get father to send some men with me with ropes, and if he is alive and clinging to a rock, as he may be, we will bring him back." Nelly poured out her thanks to Eban, who, observing that there was no time to be lost, set off to carry out his proposal. Dame Lanreath had said but little. She shook her head when he had gone, as Nelly continued praising him.
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