The simple people of the village believed her to
be of foreign birth and high descent, while reverence for her lonely
conditions made them treat her with affection as well as deference; so
that the forsaken child, regarded as subject to no law, was as happy in
her freedom and confidence as any wild winged thing of the land or sea.
The summer loved her; the winter strengthened her. Her first baptism in
the salt waters had made her a free creature of the earth and skies; had
fortified her, Achilles-like, against all hardship, cold, and nakedness
to come; had delivered her from the bonds of habit and custom, and shown
in her what earth and air of themselves can do, to make the lowest, most
undeveloped life, a divine gift.
"The following morning, the sea was smooth and clear. So was the sky.
Looking down from their cottage, the sea appeared to Herbert to slope
steeply up to the horizon, so that the shore lay like a deep narrow valley
between him and it. Far down, at the low pier, he saw a little boat
belonging to a retired ship-captain.
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