- description
- # SKETCH TENTH. RUNAWAYS, CASTAWAYS, SOLITARIES, GRAVE-STONES, ETC.
## Overview
This is a chapter titled "SKETCH TENTH. RUNAWAYS, CASTAWAYS, SOLITARIES, GRAVE-STONES, ETC." from the short story collection [The Piazza Tales](arke:01KG6YFYZ22TKC7DNP0M5XSK81). It was extracted from the file [the_piazza_tales.txt](arke:01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD) and is part of the [Melville](arke:01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF) collection.
## Context
This chapter is situated within the larger narrative of [The Piazza Tales](arke:01KG6YFYZ22TKC7DNP0M5XSK81), a collection of short stories. It follows the chapter titled [The Encantadas](arke:01KG6YGBWB5CFKRR9ZHSC2Z95T) and precedes the chapter titled [SKETCH NINTH. HOOD’S ISLE AND THE HERMIT OBERLUS.](arke:01KG6YGBWBP27MZM102JNCMSXJ).
## Contents
This chapter recounts the poignant departure of a woman named Hunilla and her dogs from a desolate shore. The narrative details the dogs' distress at being left behind as Hunilla, seemingly resigned to her fate after experiencing profound loss, is rowed away. The chapter concludes with Hunilla's arrival in Payta, Peru, where she is given money by the mariners. The text describes her solitary journey into town, riding an ass and contemplating its structure.
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- 2026-01-30T07:58:24.788Z
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- description_title
- SKETCH TENTH. RUNAWAYS, CASTAWAYS, SOLITARIES, GRAVE-STONES, ETC.
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- 7481
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- 2026-01-30T07:57:25.492Z
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- text
- She was in the boat; the oarsmen, too, were seated; all save one, who
stood ready to push off and then spring himself. With the sagacity of
their race, the dogs now seemed aware that they were in the very
instant of being deserted upon a barren strand. The gunwales of the
boat were high; its prow—presented inland—was lifted; so owing to the
water, which they seemed instinctively to shun, the dogs could not well
leap into the little craft. But their busy paws hard scraped the prow,
as it had been some farmer’s door shutting them out from shelter in a
winter storm. A clamorous agony of alarm. They did not howl, or whine;
they all but spoke.
“Push off! Give way!” cried the mate. The boat gave one heavy drag and
lurch, and next moment shot swiftly from the beach, turned on her heel,
and sped. The dogs ran howling along the water’s marge; now pausing to
gaze at the flying boat, then motioning as if to leap in chase, but
mysteriously withheld themselves; and again ran howling along the
beach. Had they been human beings, hardly would they have more vividly
inspired the sense of desolation. The oars were plied as confederate
feathers of two wings. No one spoke. I looked back upon the beach, and
then upon Hunilla, but her face was set in a stern dusky calm. The dogs
crouching in her lap vainly licked her rigid hands. She never looked
behind her: but sat motionless, till we turned a promontory of the
coast and lost all sights and sounds astern. She seemed as one who,
having experienced the sharpest of mortal pangs, was henceforth content
to have all lesser heartstrings riven, one by one. To Hunilla, pain
seemed so necessary, that pain in other beings, though by love and
sympathy made her own, was unrepiningly to be borne. A heart of
yearning in a frame of steel. A heart of earthly yearning, frozen by
the frost which falleth from the sky.
The sequel is soon told. After a long passage, vexed by calms and
baffling winds, we made the little port of Tombez in Peru, there to
recruit the ship. Payta was not very distant. Our captain sold the
tortoise oil to a Tombez merchant; and adding to the silver a
contribution from all hands, gave it to our silent passenger, who knew
not what the mariners had done.
The last seen of lone Hunilla she was passing into Payta town, riding
upon a small gray ass; and before her on the ass’s shoulders, she eyed
the jointed workings of the beast’s armorial cross.
- title
- SKETCH TENTH. RUNAWAYS, CASTAWAYS, SOLITARIES, GRAVE-STONES, ETC.