at which Posh could cut and come again.
More than one advised him that he should have some better security than a
mere partnership understanding, that he should, in fact, insist on having
a bill of sale, or mortgage of the _Meum and Tuum_ and her gear to secure
the money he had found. Possibly he was swayed by Posh's backwardness in
the matter of account. Certainly he came to the conclusion that his
friends were right, and that he should have a charge on the boat and her
gear. Now I believe that Posh tells the truth when he says that in the
first instance there was no mention of any such charge. And he was not a
business man enough to see the reasonableness of FitzGerald's demand. He
was, moreover, urged by the secretiveness of his race, the love of
keeping private affairs from outsiders, and he bitterly resented the
proposition. Indeed, during the early months of 1868, there were
constant semi-quarrels, which were as constantly patched up. FitzGerald
loved the man too well to quarrel with him definitely. Besides, Posh had
not been well. In January FitzGerald wrote to Professor Cowell
(_Letters_, II, 103, Eversley Edition): "I have spent lots of money on my
Herring-lugger, which has made but a poor season. So now we are going
(like wise men) to lay out a lot more for Mackerel; and my Captain (a
dear Fellow) is got ill, which is the worst of all."

But in this first instance Posh gave way. On April 14th FitzGerald wrote
Mr. Spalding: "I believe that he and I shall now sign the Mortgage Papers
that make him owner of _Half Meum and Tuum_. I only get out of him that
he can't say he sees much amiss in the Deed." But Posh is still bitter
about that deed, and still blames his old "guv'nor" for having listened
to the "interfarin' parties." He does not know what was the matter with
him that spring. "I was quare, sir," he says. "I don't know what ta
was. But I was quare."

He got well in time to go off after the spring mackerel, which used to be
a regular fishing season off Lowestoft, though now mackerel are getting
as scarce as salmon off the Norfolk and Suffolk coast. But the _Meum and
Tuum's_ bad luck still followed her with the longer and bigger meshed
nets. On June 16th, 1868, FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (_Two Suffolk
Friends_, p. 113):--

"Mackerel still come in very slow, sometimes none at all: the dead
calm nights play the deuce with the Fishing, and I see no prospect of
change in the w