A SEASCAPE

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

A SEASCAPE

DO YOU REMEMBER?

(By

“Juvenis.")

From the throat of the old man lying on the couch fluttered the smallest of sighs. This. heart of his hurt, this grim pressure in his' chest, bitterest of all this, uselessness. Far. away,' miles . and miles below, so that f it looked, like a huge flat slate roof of something, lay the sea. Green paths wound all ; round about its surface. •A.boat with a dingy-’ brown sail pitched at anchor close, in to ’ shore and tugged, tugged at the line, as if it felt nervous so near tho»rocks. Great bubbles of dark clouds rolled before the sun. The old man shut his eyes .- *■ « oft ; • They lived on the hill,’ above the little bay, curved, like a new moon, at Takapuna. ■ Handfuls of rocks are scattered on the white sand, like round, bro wit nuts. A long, tapering arm of a reef is.-flung out. into the sea. ‘ On the) other side an old pier staggers out io meet the waves, until the water rises above its knees, to its middle. Then it stops short, goes no farther. Over everything rolls a thick mist, the white, salt breath of the ocean; Opposite, Rangitoto' broods in sil- ■ I . ence. Nothing but'the sea for miles and .miles, and then the horizon/ still arid gloomy, a great, black eyebrow—until the sun rises, proud a,nd fierce, quickening the land and water, 1 . . Out they scamper, the three of them, in their tight, little: bathing togs, the youngest - squeaking like a .rat, -partly with delight, partly with fear. They dive, v The sea swallows them up, tosses theni out again, swallows them again. > Kicking, splashing, rolling Tike young porpoises. Suddenly imaginative little Bill rushes, squealing, for the shore,. “A stingaree, a. stingareel” Something dark, / shaped like a fin, peeps above the* blue water. Safe on the sand,,basking in the sun, they watch the fin. 'lt never .moved once. “Poof," says Alfred) disgusted, “it’s only a rock.’’ -#* * ■ Grandma’s house is built half like a ship, half like a lighthouse. When you walk up. and down on the‘verandah, it feels just like a deek. At night- ; time, you sleep in hammocks. You walk up and down the deck) watching for passing ships. Alfred is under the table, hooting. Ho is the chief engineer, making the siren blow. Imaginative little Bill skims over the floor, screaming and flapping his arms. “What on earth are you?" “Look out, look out. I’m a sea-gull." At lunch-time, Uncle Reg brings home a mullet, almost decomposed. Jolly Uncle Reg is round, with a perfect sphere of a stomach. . “Fishing, this afternoon, boys,’/ cries Uncjo/Reg. /“.Bait,: for senriapper?’. Rd wtives the inullet in the air. / .-•> ft * ft ft .

Tho small, open boat lobs with the swell'into green valleys of water. “Thio is the place!” cries jolly Uncle Reg. They ship their oars and rummage under tho seats for their lines, which are full ■> of incomprehensible knots. “Where’s, the mullet,” cries Uncle Reg, “Where’s the bait?” But the bait has entirely disappeared. They can’t find it anywhere. There is nothing to do but to begin the long pull back to the shore. -Uncle Reg ■ is qfiitb mystified about the mullet, until,., suddenly he slaps his knee and . with laughter. “I know,” he cries. “Little Bill’s eaten It.” “That’s it,” he cries, “little Bill ate it.” Little Bill denies it hotly. “I‘ didn’t,” he declares. But everybody laughs and. says quite firmly:. “Yes,,yes, you did, you did.” At odd moments, Uncle Reg shakes all over again and asks: “Where’s the mullet?” “Ha, ha,” shriek the others, “Bill ate it, Bill ate it!” Until poor, little, imaginative Bill turns quite yellow, holds -bis head over tho side of the boat and, without the slightest fuss, casts his bread upon the waters.

’The sea is a dark, secret green. The waves, beating vainly in, drawn reltic-. tantly back, wash passionately against the rocks. Like plates skimming across a green cloth, foam rides on the topof the breakers, falls off, is picked up again. The air is loaded with the smell of wet seaweed. The ocean seems to breathe with pain. A thin breeze stirs, wakes, creeps up and cools their faces with a moist, saltish lick. . Near by a stunted tree wraps itself in its leaves like a bird tucked into its wings and fallen asleep bn one leg. But she is awake, alive, and scenting the loveliness of it. She breathes., quickly and 'her eyes shine. She has never seemed so desirable . . .

Smiling, the old man opened his eyes. His wife had come to sit on the couch by his side, and the pain was easier now s He smiled again and she leaned over to catch what ho was saying: “Do you remember —?” ho began, And all at once somebody pulled up the little boat’s anchor and away it flew for a frolic over the waves, leaving a thin, white lino, like- the trail of a snail, behind it. The breeze cleared a patch of blue in the sky and the sun sailed out again. And now tho sea, as if there were an important visitor in the house, put on its beat clothes of blue with sparkling diamonds. /