Thus Miss Anne lived her life from week to week in that remote place.  Her only excitement came when very bad weather broke on us.  If vessels were in danger off our savage rocks, she would stand on the cliffs while the spray lashed up in her face and drenched her with its bitter saltness.  If a shipwrecked crew were brought ashore she always liked to take in one or two of the men, and her house was kept in a sad turmoil until her guests had gone away.  There are Italians, Norwegians, Swedes, and Frenchmen, besides our own countrymen, who remember the exquisite lady with gratitude.  Very few people knew how Miss Anne came to live unmarried, and in solitude; but there is a sorrowful story that explains all.  The Fisher’s Friend had been the greatest beauty in all the north country, and many men had loved her.  One mad young fellow asked her to marry him.  She liked him, but she had always said that she never would have him for a husband unless he gave up his wild ways.  Again and again they quarrelled, and made friends when he promised to be better.  At last she said something very bitter to him, and ordered him out of her sight.  He tramped in his own woods all night, and in the morning he galloped his big brown horse down to the sea.  He met Miss Anne and straightened his horse across her path.  She spoke sharply to him again, as he dashed the spurs in, and went away.  Next morning Miss Anne heard that he had hung himself in the barn, and that he had left a note upbraiding her.  She turned very white, and went to her room, where she stayed praying all day.  The young Squire’s death really ended her life.

After she had grown old, she failed one morning to rise early, and the servants, who had been used to hear the quick sound of her feet whenever the dawn came, grew alarmed.  They sent for Big Tom, and Tom broke open Miss Anne’s bedroom door about noon.  She was lying dead, and on her breast they found a miniature portrait of a handsome and dark-looking young man.  She had worn her sweetheart’s likeness for fifty years.

THE COASTGUARD.

Winter and summer, every night about six o’clock, a tall man, dressed in blue, strode over the moor.  Sometimes he looked on the ground for a long time together, and seemed to be buried in deep thought.  When he came to the stream he always found another man waiting for him on the far side, and this man was accompanied by a rough water-spaniel.  The two friends, who were both coastguards, held a little chat, and then the dog was told to go over for the letters.  The spaniel swam across, received the blue despatches, and carried them to his master; then, with a cheery good-night, the men turned back and went across the dark moor to their homes.