Such rare and
exquisite colours have these great glassy flowers of ocean
that to see them was a feast; and every time a net was hauled
up my prayer--which I was careful not to repeat aloud--was,
Heaven send another big draught of jelly-fish!
The sun, sinking over the hills towards Swyre and Bridport,
turned crimson before it touched the horizon. The sky became
luminous; the yellow Chesil Bank, stretching long leagues
away, and the hills behind it, changed their colours to
violet. The rough sea near the beach glittered like gold; the
deep green water, flecked with foam, was mingled with fire;
the one boat that remained on it, tossing up and down near the
beach, was like a boat of ebony in a glittering fiery sea. A
dozen men were drawing up the last net; but when they gathered
round to see what they had taken--mackerel or jelly-fish--I
cared no longer to look with them. That sudden, wonderful
glory which had fallen on the earth and sea had smitten me as
well and changed me; and I was like some needy homeless tramp
who has found a shilling piece, and, even while he is
gloating over it, all at once sees a great treasure before
him--glittering gold in heaps, and all rarest sparkling gems,
more than he can gather up.
But it is a poor simile. No treasures in gold and gems,
though heaped waist-high all about, could produce in the
greediest man, hungry for earthly pleasures, a delight, a
rapture, equal to mine.
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