penny, Scud
thrashed him within a centimeter of his life. New England fishermen will
take a gift as a sort of neighborly accommodation to you; but he'll
starve before he will ask you for it.

"Are them fur me?" (Scud was always surprised at such a crisis.) "Thank
ye, ma'am. Ain't them showy? I guess they'll skeer the mac'rel off the
coast."

"I wanted you to take me out sailing this morning, Mr. Scud," I began,
after a formal introduction. Scud looked somewhat gratified with the
prefix to his name, and regarded me with interest. To take boarders out
sailing at the rate of seventy-five cents an hour was the kind of work
he would do.

"Yes, ma'am. But I'm 'fraid it'll be a little fresh to-day, if ye hain't
used to sailin'." He jerked his head to the westward. "Salt is a makin'
the dory fast with a new haulin'-line, ma'am. I guess we'll have a
squall pretty soon."

We followed Scud's gesture and looked. A squall on a day like this? The
white streamers had vanished, and above us was dark, unfathomable blue.
But on the western horizon, stretching far to the south, a black bank
had arisen. No cloud in the physical geography was ever sketched
blacker. It had come up as stealthily as a Zulu warrior. It was the hue
of unpolished iron. It had a faint reddish tint. Its outline was as
clear cut as a cameo. It sent ahead here and there jagged tentacles,
broad at the base and fine at the tip, that advanced, dissolved, and
reappeared again with significant rapidity. The ocean had suddenly grown
lethargic. It seemed unable to reflect the sun that still shone. It
became like a platter of tarnished silver. As we looked, the sight
rapidly grew uglier.

Now my cousin Mabel seemed hypnotized by it. She stood for a few
minutes with her hands hanging at her sides; her delicate jaw dropped.
Suddenly she pulled herself together, and whispered: "It is horrible! It
is awful!" Then, as if seized with the full import of the scene, she
cried aloud, "My _children_! They are out fishing in a sail-boat! My
_children_!" She began to run towards the shore leaving us all staring
after her.

My nautical sense was not as highly trained as Mabel's, but I thought
the sight terrifying and fine. It was part of the Eastern culture
towards the education of the Western girl. But seeing Scud look sober--I
had the impression that it was for the first time in his life--I
pleaded:

"Do come too, Scud. Is it so bad? Won't it blow over?"

"It's goin' to be a