human
Mr. Poyntz, said I, clasping my hands behind my head, and crossing one knee over the other,
gpt
Ay, surely! answered Mr. Poyntz, taking the pipe from his mouth, and smoothing down the great sheaf of his beard.
human
But, d'ye see, sir, 'twas not I set the house here, nor my father before me, and maybe there was no butcher, nor yet no meeting-house along in those times. And another thing, since you've set me a-going, sir; you see the lighthouse on the point yonder? indicating an abrupt rocky promontory half a mile to the right of our position, which lay athwart the shore like a vast wall, separating us from the little fishing hamlet on the other side.
gpt
Ye see the lighthouse on tip-end of Gloam's Point, don't ye? Well, sir, old as that lighthouse looks to you now, I, that am a deal older than you are, can remember when 'twa'nt there. And that brings me round to what I was going to say. Along in those times, sir, when there wa'nt no regular lighthouse, but no bit less danger of craft running ashore, they used to rig up a sort of a jury-light, if I might so call it, in the front of our old gable. Ye may see the fixings now if ye steps forward a bit and look up there. Ay, ay, every dark night, more especially every dirty night, some of us would mount the garret shrouds, d'ye see, and show the lantern. And many a ship we saved, no doubt; but they'd come ashore once in a while, for the best we could do.
human
That's a suggestive name--Devil's Ribs. I suppose the bones of many a good man and vessel lie swallowed up in them.
gpt
Ay, surely, returned the ancient mariner, swathing his head in a haze of tobacco-smoke.
human
The more since the currents and whirlpools thereabout mostly keep back the floating bits--spars, bodies, and such like--from getting to the beach. Whatever strikes there, sinks there, speaking in a general way. And forasmuch as there's five-and-thirty fathom clear water there, and always a tidy bit of surf on, 'tain't very popular work dredging.
gpt
That's an ugly thought, I observed;