By Celia's Arbour: A Tale of Portsmouth Town (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from By Celia's Arbour: A Tale of Portsmouth Town Leonard, the elder boy, leans on an old-fashioned 32 pounder which points through an embrasure, narrow at the mouth and wide at the end, straight up the harbour. Should any enemy attempt to cross the lagoon of mud which forms the upper harbour at low tide, that enemy would, as Leonard often explained, be raked by the gun. Leonard is a lad between seventeen and eighteen, tall and well-grown. As yet his figure is too slight, but that will fill out; his shoulders are broad enough for the strength a year or two more will give him; he has short brown hair of quite a common colour, but lustrous, and with a natural curl in it; his eyes are hazel, and they are steadfast; when he fought battles at school those eyes looked like winning; his chin is strong and square; his lips are firm. Only to look upon him as he passed, you would say that you had seen a strong man in his youth. People turned their heads after he had gone by to have another look at such a handsome boy. He leans his back, now, against the gun, his hands resting lightly upon the carriage on either side, as if to be ready for immediate action; his straw hat lies on the grass beside him. And he is looking in the face of the girl. She is a mere child of thirteen or fourteen, standing before him and gazing into his face with sad and solemn eyes, She, too, is bareheaded, carrying her summer hat by the ribbons. I suppose no girl of fourteen, when girls are bony, angular, and bigfooted, can properly be described as beauti ful; but Celia was always beautiful to me. Her face remains the same to me through the changes of many years - always lovely, always sweet and Winsome. Her eyes were light blue, and yet not shallow; she had a pair of mutinous little lips which were generally, but not to-night, laughing; her hair hung over her shoulders in the long and unfettered tresses which so well become young maidens; and in her cheek was the prettiest little dimple ever seen. But now she looked sad, and tears were gathered in her eyes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.