ys He, 't' the cranks she may have,
hopin' for the best.' An' He done it! That He did! They're tidy
craft--oh, ay, they're wonderful tidy craft--but 'tis Lard help un in a
gale o' wind! An' the Lard made _she_," he continued, reverting to the
woman from Wolf Cove, "after her kind, a woman, acquaint with the wiles
o' women, actin' accordin' t' nature An'," he declared, irrelevantly,
"_'tis_ gettin' close t' winter, an' _'twould_ be comfortable t' have a
man t' tend the fires. She _do_ be of a designin' turn o' mind," he
proceeded, "which is accordin' t' the nature o' women, puttin' no blame
on her, an' she's not a wonderful lot for looks an' temper; but,"
impressively lifting his hand, voice and manner awed, "she've l'arnin',
which is ek'al t' looks, if not t' temper. So," said he, "we'll say
nothin' agin' her, but just tack this letter t' the wall, an' go split
the fish. But," when the letter had thus been disposed of, "I wonder
what----"

"Come on, dad!"

He put an arm around each of the grinning twins, and Timmie put an arm
around me; and thus we went pell-mell down to the stage, where we had an
uproarious time splitting the day's catch.

* * * * *

You must know, now, that all this time we had been busy with the fish,
dawn to dark; that beyond our little lives, while, intent upon their
small concerns, we lived them, a great and lovely work was wrought upon
our barren coast: as every year, unfailingly, to the glory of God, who
made such hearts as beat under the brown, hairy breasts of our men.
From the Strait to Chidley, our folk and their kin from Newfoundland
with hook and net reaped the harvest from the sea--a vast, sullen sea,
unwilling to yield: sourly striving to withhold the good Lord's bounty
from the stout and merry fellows who had with lively courage put out to
gather it. 'Twas catch and split and stow away! In the dawn of stormy
days and sunny ones--contemptuous of the gray wind and reaching
seas--the skiffs came and went. From headland to headland--dodging the
reefs, escaping the shifting peril of ice, outwitting the drifting
mists--little schooners chased the fish. Wave and rock and wind and
bergs--separate dangers, allied with night and fog and sleety rain--were
blithely encountered. Sometimes, to be sure, they wreaked their purpose;
but, notwithstanding, day by day the schooners sailed and the skiffs put
out to the open, and fish were cheerily taken from the sea. Spite