Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/51

51

THE SHIPWRECK.

to be almost directly above them, and after some
seconds of motionless astonishment the sailors greeted
its appearance with a joyous hurrah ! while the other
three sank into each other's arms with tears of joy.
The circumstances of their situation now became plain.
The boat was anchored by the side of a half-overflowed
wharf and was protected from the wind by it and the
house which stood upon it, while the storm was raging
round them in its full strength and apparently more
wildly than before. The end of the rope which God-
ber had taken with him he had already fastened to
the door-post, and hauling the boat up as closely as
possible, it served to assist them to disembark, so that
in a few minutes they all found themselves under the
shelter of the house.
  Here being received with the kindest hospitality and
refreshed with the most active zeal, they did not fail to
offer grateful thanks to their happy deliverer, which the
sailors did briefly with a hearty pressure of the hand
and "you are a brave pilot !" The father, too, said
but few words and then sat down silent and thought-
ful. Oswald could not find words enough to express
his eternal gratitude ; he was as gay too as a child,
laughed and joked about the borrowed clothes in which
they were dressed, and which, though really not of the
newest pattern, diffused an agreeable warmth through
their chilled frames. Idalia, who had been changing
her dress in an adjoining room, now came in ; and
while Oswald joyfully embraced her, and laughed im-
moderately at her strange costume, which, he said, would
cause a furore at the next fancy ball in Hamburg, she
was to Godber a vision which thrilled every nerve with