A fisher girl of France

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To-morrow at daybreak they will go aboard together, Elise Hénin and her little brother Firmin. They have put on their Sunday clothes to say farewell to their mother, who sleeps...

It was hardly daybreak when Elise and Firmin appeared on the wharf, pushing before them a wheelbarrow, on which were their sailors’ kits. They were the first to arrive. The tide...

At first thought, the situation did not appear very serious. If the _Bon-Pêcheur_ could not get off unassisted, she could easily be drawn into deep water by a few turns of the w...

Everywhere the sea, but not everywhere fish. During the five days that they had been on the grounds, a hundred land miles north of Scotland, the _Bon-Pêcheur_ had spread her net...

The main-sail was taken in, while the little stern-sail was spread to keep steerage way on the boat. Then the _Bon-Pêcheur_ came into the wind and let herself be towed by the ne...

The _flambart_ which Florimond had seen to leeward of the _Bon-Pêcheur_ was not a coaster. It was a boat from some port of Escaut in search of herring, but it was manned by one...

After the collision Florimond had examined into the state of his boat, and had judged it such as to make speedy repairs a necessity. The _Bon-Pêcheur_ was injured in her dead wo...

Florimond’s only hope was that the storm would be slight, for sometimes, threatening as they seem, these squalls have little force, and are soon over. He awaited impatiently the...

When she had ordered the hatches closed, her order had been carried out so quickly that they had forgotten him, as he lay unconscious under the capstan hatch, and had nailed him...

The sky seemed to mock them. Swept by the winds, it was of a limpid blue, that deep summer blue which is mirrored back on the surface of the sea.

The night was soft, moonlit, and silent. There was not a sound in the village, not a breath of air to awaken the sleeping life. The cock, turning on his rod at the top of the st...

Abandoned by the living, Elise turned to the dead, whose quiet peace seemed to her so sweet. She reached the graveyard well before the first rays of the dawn had lightened the e...

Elise had made her toilet, and Barbet was beautiful to see as they entered the village together. But as they passed along the good people drew aside, and mothers made haste to c...

Barbet followed them joyfully. He seemed to have been born again to a new youth, and was thoroughly frivolous. He tossed the crabs in air with his nose, he made the flocks of se...

The nights passed, but no answer came. Only by sad looks did her father plead his cause. He never spoke. It was a constant grief to Elise, and, exhausted by waiting and watching...

She had none the less an hour of weakness the night that the _Bon-Pêcheur_ went to sea again, after more than a month in the ship-yard. Newly rigged and freshly painted for her...

Silvere returned rich, for some time at least, for the _Jeune-Adolphine_ had made a great success of her cruise. She was so heavily loaded with fish that she had been hardly abl...

After a last thought consecrated to the past they quitted the lost sailors’ gulf. At the place pointed out by Barbet, Silvere left the anchor, made fast to a float, as a guide f...

The four sailors of the _Bon-Pêcheur_ could not return home at once. They were on a schooner bound to Saint-Valery, and had to wait until, at dawn, the outgoing tide would leave...

The wharf was as busy a scene as if it had been midday. Among the brigs and schooners unloading wood from Norway, the women were not long in making out a strange-looking steamer...

It was seven o’clock by the sun when the steamer came into the waters of the Vergoyer. A perfect fleet followed it. They had come from Cayeux, Hourdel, Berck, Crotoy, even from...

Never had such a following sea driven a boat as that which, in less than a quarter of an hour, was hurrying the steamer to Treport. It was a real gale from the north.

Father Hénin had come back to earth with money in his pocket. His round purse was really like a great ball in the pocket of his jersey, just over the place where his heart once...

It was the third Sunday in August when Elise, confident in a happy future and certain that this time she would have good luck, embarked on the _Jeune-Adolphine_. She had said fa...

At daybreak of the twenty-first day the boat was still fishing. Like the herring, she had moved southward insensibly, but without leaving the neighborhood of Scotland. At every...

Elise was all in a tremble, and her heart beat fast as she descended the ladder of the hatch and heard the heavy breathing of the captain, who lay there snoring. But her uneasin...

Barbet was cared for like a child. Stretched on a soft bed of nets and bagging, he had the bunk all to himself. Elise had given it up to him. Sick people must have comforts. She...

Since morning the _Jeune-Adolphine_ had been in the Channel. It was her last night at sea, for the next day at the evening tide she ought to be fast at the quay at Dieppe, whith...

She offered him some drops of brandy in the palm of her hand. He paid no attention to it. His lips were closed and shrivelled, a very bad sign. On her return from the watch Elis...

The _Jeune-Adolphine_ did not sail the next day. A good fellow, after all, Poidevin had a tender heart. Immediately after the fight, of which he had been a witness, he had gone...