One day I was so scared that I tried to run
away, and got to the door, and stood there a
minute before I fell. My mother was coming
when she saw me, and she and another woman
took me for a ghost, as I stood on the door-step,
and set up such a shriek that some of the
officers, who were within hearing, turned to
see what was the matter. One of them
happened to be the surgeon from the barracks
—a kind gentleman, as I had afterwards good
reason to know. He came at a moment when
my mother was so frightened that she let him
do whatever he pleased, and frightened
indeed she must have been to let him do such
things as he did.

She must bring out a clean sheet. She had
not such a thing as a sheet in the world; nor
was there one among all the cottages.
Presently a sheet was borrowed from the nearest
Preventive Station. While the messenger was
gone about this, the doctor had all the fish
taken from under the bed, and the whole floor
swept. My mother did this herself, at the
first word, lest her smuggled goods should be
found out. When the fish was all cleared out
of the house, there was still the thatch. The
doctor shook his head as he looked up at it,
and said he could not answer for anybody's
life under such a roof as that. All they could
do was to stretch a sail above the bed, as
near the roof as they could fasten it. This
prevented insects and bits of mouldy thatch
from falling upon me as I lay; but it could
not cure the smell. To my mother's great
surprise (considering the season of the year),
the doctor said, I should have a better chance
with no roof over me at all, than with such a
thatch.

I really think she believed that the doctor
meant outright murder when he put me into
a tub and poured cold water over me. Still
I got better; and one day, after a long sleep,
when I woke, I knew quite clearly who they
all were, and what they were saying; and I
did not fancy that the sea was in the house,
or that I was in the sea; or that there were
any monsters about the bed. I heard my
mother say that I had been bewitched, and
that the doctor had washed out the spell:
and then the neighbours said, that, after he
had once done it himself, anybody else could
do it; and that she must not let the evil imp
get a hold again; but, as soon as I began to
toss and look wild, she must wash out the
spell again. She must also let the door stand
wide, that, if the imp got in again, there
might be plenty of room for him to flee, when
the water began to dash. For their part,
they promised to leave a free passage, by
staying away from the door.

The days grew shorter and shorter, and
still I could not walk at all. My mother used
to set me down, like a baby, on the door-steps,
in the sunny autumn mornings; but the
evenings were long and rather dreary, with
the firelight flickering on the rafters, and I
with nothing to do but to lie on the bed and
watch it; and doze, and wake again, till my
mother came to bed. One evening, when I
was in a pretty deep doze, I heard such a
shriek as I shall never forget. It made me
shriek before I knew what I was about.
Then came a terrible clamour;—men's voices
shouting, and children screaming, and the
women crying aloud for the Lord to have
mercy upon them. Then there was a blaze
of light all abroad, which shone in at the
window; and this convinced me that "Bony"
was come at last. I fixed my eyes on the
door, to see him come in. But I could not
bear this long. Even if I met him by the
way, I must go where every body else was.
So I slipped off the bed, all trembling as I
was, and held fast by the barrel and the
chest that stood against the wall, and got to
the door. What a sight it was! The great
fire on the rock above our house was kindled;
and it blazed away, so that every pebble and
sprig of sea-weed on the beach could be seen
as in broad day. The boys kept throwing on
wood—and a good deal that had been tarred;
and up shot the flame, each time, as if it was
in spirits at being fed. Then a light appeared
on a headland to the east, a great way off:
and presently another, so far off that it looked
like a flickering yellow star. And the same
to the west. The whole coast was lighted up,
to receive Bony, at last. I looked round
for him; but I saw only faces that I knew.
Well, as I knew them, they looked very
terrible. My mother was quite wild. When
the night breeze brought the clang of the
church-bells from the town, where every bell
was ringing the alarm, she put her hands to
her ears. She sat down, and hid her face in
her apron, and kept shaking her head in her
own lap, so that I was afraid to speak to her;
but, at last, I put my arms round her neck,
and said, "Mother, where's Bony?"

She looked up with a dreadful face—all
drawn with terror.

"Let's run away," she whispered in a
hoarse voice, which I heard in my heart,
through all the roar of the flame.

"I can't run," I whimpered, sinking on the
sand.

She caught me up in her arms, gave Jos a
box on the ear to attract his attention from
the beacon-fire, ordered him to carry Peter
and follow her, and made for the little dell,
which led up into the country. Before we
had fled half through it, another dismal yell
from behind, and our own name shouted,
made us look round. Some brands from the
beacon had been blown upon the roof of our
cottage, and the thatch had caught. That
rotten thatch was doomed, and the whole
dwelling with it! My mother put me down,
and wrung her hands. Between the fear of
Bony, and that of losing the smuggled goods,
she was well nigh distracted. But the
smuggled goods were not wholly, nor chiefly
her own, while her life was: so she took me
up again, and continued her flight. Jos,