Deephaven by Sarah Orne Jewett — Read

Soon after we went to Deephaven we took a long drive one day with Mr. / Dockum, the kindest and silentest of men. He had the care of the Brandon / property, and had some business at that time connected with a large / tract of pasture-land perhaps ten miles from town. We had heard of the / coast-road which led to it, how rocky and how rough and wild it was, and / when Kate heard by chance that Mr. Dockum meant to go that way, she / asked if we might go with him. He said he would much rather take us than / "go sole alone," but he should be away until late and we must take our / dinner, which we did not mind doing at all.

After we were three or four miles from Deephaven the country looked very / different. The shore was so rocky that there were almost no places where / a boat could put in, so there were no fishermen in the region, and the / farms were scattered wide apart; the land was so poor that even the / trees looked hungry. At the end of our drive we left the horse at a / lonely little farm-house close by the sea. Mr. Dockum was to walk a long / way inland through the woods with a man whom he had come to meet, and he / told us if we followed the shore westward a mile or two we should find / some very high rocks, for which he knew we had a great liking. It was a / delightful day to spend out of doors; there was an occasional whiff of / east-wind. Seeing us seemed to be a perfect godsend to the people whose / nearest neighbors lived far out of sight. We had a long talk with them / before we went for our walk. The house was close by the water by a / narrow cove, around which the rocks were low, but farther down the shore / the land rose more and more, and at last we stood at the edge of the / highest rocks of all and looked far down at the sea, dashing its white / spray high over the ledges that quiet day. What could it be in winter / when there was a storm and the great waves came thundering in?