Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/41

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THE BETROTHED.

umphantly left the foaming breakers behind her and
lay again in deep water.
  "Helm a-lee !" shouted the mother, as if her voice,
which was lost in the storm, could guide the ship ;
but it veered to the left, and every moment the
anxious watchers expected to see it reach the point
which they knew to be so full of peril, where the least
turn tb the right or left must inevitably dash it against
hidden shoals. But suddenly the already reefed sails
dropped from the masts, and the naked spars sustained
uninjured the force of the tempest, the reeling ship
swept slowly round in a semicircle till her bowsprit,
which had so long followed the direction of the storm,
now pointed to windward.
  "They have cast anchor," cried Maria, joyfully ; and
the experienced widow said :
  "If they, as I think, are bound to Husum, they
may with the coming ebb fall into their right course,
from which they have been driven so far to the
north."
  Relieved from their anxiety for the mariners, they
both went into the house. So long as daylight per-
mitted, Maria threw many a look from the little back
room toward the ship, that with the now approaching
ebb still remained moored, and no signs of activity
on board were visible from the shore. When the
twilight shut it from her view, she quietly began to
spin again by the side of her mother. Then there was
a long talk between the two about the dowry and the
future housekeeping ; for the mother, too, through
Maria's confidence, was disposed to believe that Godber
was on board the ship. Later than usual they went to