Deephaven by Sarah Orne Jewett — Read

When the summer was ended it was no sorrow to us, for we were even more / fond of Deephaven in the glorious autumn weather than we had ever been / before. Mr. Lancaster was abroad longer than he had intended to be at / first, and it was late in the season before we left. We were both ready / to postpone going back to town as late as possible; but at last it was / time for my friend to re-establish the Boston housekeeping, and to take / up the city life again. I must admit we half dreaded it: we were / surprised to find how little we cared for it, and how well one can get / on without many things which are thought indispensable.

For the last fortnight we were in the house a good deal, because the / weather was wet and dreary. At one time there was a magnificent storm, / and we went every day along the shore in the wind and rain for a mile or / two to see the furious great breakers come plunging in against the / rocks. I never had seen such a wild, stormy sea as that; the rage of it / was awful, and the whole harbor was white with foam. The wind had blown / northeast steadily for days, and it seemed to me that the sea never / could be quiet and smooth and blue again, with soft white clouds sailing / over it in the sky. It was a treacherous sea; it was wicked; it had all / the trembling land in its power, if it only dared to send its great / waves far ashore. All night long the breakers roared, and the wind / howled in the chimneys, and in the morning we always looked fearfully / across the surf and the tossing gray water to see if the lighthouse were / standing firm on its rock. It was so slender a thing to hold its own in / such a wide and monstrous sea. But the sun came out at last, and not / many days afterward we went out with Danny and Skipper Scudder to say / good by to Mrs. Kew. I have been some voyages at sea, but I never was so / danced about in a little boat as I was that day. There was nothing to / fear with so careful a crew, and we only enjoyed the roughness as we / went out and in, though it took much manoeuvring to land us at the / island.