New Wine Author:Agnes Castle General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1919 Original Publisher: D. Appleton and company Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where... more » you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Y APKIL TO APBIIi A Steen coast, but not too stern to guard the land from such seas as the west wind raises upon the Atlantic, when comes the wild weather. Even on such a day as this, these cliffs -- white rock and gray shale -- front grimly the vast expanse, as an enemy. They know that the enemy, though he has, under the April skies, clothed himself in shifting glories -- purple blue, shot through with the indescribable amber green of sun-pierced waters -- is bent on mischief; that his aim is ever to sap the foundation of the fortress; whether he come panoplied as for a tournament, with white manes flying, and splendor and flash of color, or clad in black armor of tempest shrieking to the shock. Therefore the west cliff barrier, standing full girt for battle, while the foe beneath has decked himself as for the feast, presents strange contrast -- so dark and cold and unforgiving above, so glowing, gorgeous, rich, rejoicing, below there, with myriad play and vast caresses. There is, half way down towards the beach of Clenane, a shelf of rock, sun-warmed to-day, that had at all times been a favorite haunt of Shane and Moira. It formed a kind of natural seat overlooking a yawning gap. Far beneath, the surf had gnawed away deep into the . cliff, and the ledge jutted forward over the wave like the prowof some gigantic vessel. On days of storm the spray would shoot right up, even to this perch; and little Moira clinging to little Shane, had passed through high ecstasies in the enjoyment of the fancied peril, just out of its reach. To-day Moira sat there alone,...« less