When Peter recovered consciousness the sun was shining, the air was warm, the sea still, and the mackerel-boat, with Old John still at the tiller, was entering the mouth of a great land-locked harbor. Cliffs, gay with heather and golden gorse, sheltered it from the wind. The lazy, offshore breeze was fragrant with the smell of thyme. Shoals of fish played in the clear water, and on the far side a stream of fresh water rippled over golden sand.
Peter rubbed his eyes and looked around him with amazement. The harbor was thronged with shipping of every size, shape, and rig: yachts and smacks, schooners and ketches, tramp steamers and ocean-liners, barks and full-rigged ships, galleys and galleons, cogs and caracks, dromons and balingers, aphracts and cataphracts.
“See that vessel?” said Old John, as they passed under the stern of a stoutly built brig. “That's Franklin's ship, the Terror—crushed in the ice, she was, off Beechey Island in the Arctic. And that little craft alongside of her is the Revenge. She sank in the Azores after fighting fifty-three Spaniards for a day and a night. Away over there is what they used to call a trireme. Cleared from the Port of Tyre, she did, when I was young, and foundered off Marazion, just where we left the pilchard fleet.”
But Peter was not listening. He was eagerly watching a yawl that was scudding toward them; for the yawl was the Maeldune, and under the arched foot of her mainsail the Sea Maid was smiling a greeting.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS
- Why did the author make his hero “the dullest man that ever audited an account”?
- Point out, and explain, all the classical and literary allusions.
- Why did the author make his story so largely realistic?
- What is the effect of the songs?
- How does the author make his story clear?
- Comment on the author's use of conversation.
- In what respects is the story poetic?
- What effect does Old John contribute to the story?
- What is the effect of the abrupt ending?
- What makes the story unusually artistic?
SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION
| 1. Utopia | 11. The World of Puck and Oberon |
| 2. Castles in Spain | 12. The Summit of Olympus |
| 3. The Fountain of Youth | 13. Eldorado |
| 4. Arcadia | 14. St. Brendan's Isle |
| 5. The Garden of the Hesperides | 15. Lyonesse |
| 6. Over the Mountains | 16. The Fortunate Islands |
| 7. The Happy Valley | 17. The Land of the Lotus |
| 8. The Land of Dreams | 18. The Lost Atlantis |
| 9. The Isle of Avalon | 19. At Camelot |
| 10. The Enchanted World | 20. The Land of Heart's Delight |
DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING
It is not easy to write, even with only a small degree of success, so happily suggestive a story as Hi-Brasil. Such a story is the product both of experience and of art.