There was to be another high tide that evening,
and how would the village stand this second storm of its broken defences?
So the order was given to assemble in the street after dinner, and work
at the repair of the breaches. The street looked like an ant-hill, as
the workers, divided into gangs by houses, with the housemaster at the
head of his gang, swarmed on the roadway, clearing it from the _debris_
with pickaxe, spade, and a multitude of hands; re-stacking the cottagers'
store of peat-sods, which the waves had sown broadcast; forming chains
across the beach to pass up from hand to hand the large pebbles at low-
water mark, to build in between the palisades; or cutting down the old
stakes and driving in new ones. This last was the most attractive branch
of the service. How enviable was he whom a reputation as a woodman
secured the enjoyment of an axe, and the genial employ of hewing and
hammering! This was much to be preferred to cutting your hands in moving
rubbish or standing still to hand wet stones in a freezing wind. However,
the pleasure of helping other people was common to all; and many of the
young hearts, which tasted that pleasure in this rough day's labour, will
have gained an impulse of prompt helpfulness that may serve them in other
and ruder storms than that which shook the frail homes of these friendly
villagers.
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