e loaded into the boat, and Ike
condemned to row it to Emile's house and land it at once. It was late
and dark, but the fear of what might happen to him alone on his point,
now that it was known that he had robbed a blind man, held more
terrors even than hunger for Ike. So the judgment of the court was
carried out that very night.

Partly moved by curiosity, Christmas found me once again visiting the
mansion under the cliff. A shortage in the commissariat was, I knew,
no new experience to the poor fellow, and even the wiles of a
"one-legger" cannot convert stones into bread. Ike, radiant with
smiles and fat as a spring seal, was out to meet me on my
arrival--which circumstance was a little difficult at first to
understand. Then he explained:

"You'm right, Doctor. It drives away t' bad luck when you pays up a
blind man. I hasn't wanted ne'er a t'ing since."

It had been a good voyage that year, and, as a matter of fact, every
one had a warm spot somewhere in his heart for "that rascal Ike." For
though he was admittedly a rogue, he was always such an amusing,
hail-fellow-well-met rogue, and not the really mean type which every
one dislikes. All the shore had heard of his dilemma, and, isolation
not allowing one man to know what another is doing, indiscriminate
charity had poured in upon poor Ike, without possibly doing him much
harm, for he attributed it absolutely to that oftentimes useful mentor
of the feeble-minded, the great god of good luck.

To my surprise it was Emile who really suffered most, though he would
not admit it, but by actual computation of the supplies in his very
give-away storeroom, I learned that he had secretly carried back to
Ike's beach in the dark just one half of those goods which "t' Law"
had recovered for him; and which Ike to this day believes were
deposited for his benefit by the good-luck fairy.

PORTLAND BILL

"It must be nigh sixty years ago, but I remembers it as if it was
yesterday, when a new settler come to live in our harbour," said
Skipper Life Flynn, at whose house I was spending the night with my
driver and dogs.

"Life" was short for Eliphoreth--the "given" names being mostly out of
the Bible down North. "It were a wonderful thing them days, for Father
were the only Liveyer then--that is, as stayed all the year round. He
didn't mind being alone, and t' moving in t' schooner every spring and
fall were bad for Mother. Fish were plenty every season one side or
t'o