ll his sixty-five years.
He still skipped from pool to pool. He flung me a lobster. "There! put
that in your bag for tay. Tide's dead low. The wind's dying away: sun's
burnt it up. Shuden' wonder if it don't come in sou'west, an' if it du
we'll hae a fair wind home along.--Well, how du 'ee like it? Eh?"

"All right."

"Ah! yu ought to be down here in the winter, like I been, when you got
to put your hands wet into your pockets to get 'em warm enough to feel
the gobbets--aye, to hold 'em! Then carry 'em five mile home on your
back to make 'ee warm again."

So we went on: grab, grab, grab! clatter-clatter! rattle! We talked
less and worked harder, because we were tired. The tide crept up. The
wind veered to south-east and strengthened. "'Tis time to be off out of
thees yer," said Uncle Jake. "The lop'll rise when the flid tide makes.
Yu may know everything there is to know about fishing, but," he added
grimly, "if yu don' know when to be off, 'twill all o'it be no gude to
'ee some day. Blast thees wind! We'll hae to row home now, or ratch out
a couple o' miles to fetch in."

We shouldered our sacks for the half-mile walk to the _Moondaisy_.
Walk.... Scramble! Uncle Jake seemed to glide from rock to rock, but
with two or three stone weight awkwardly perched on my shoulder, the
wet running down my neck and an arm going numb, I slithered down the
weed-covered slopes in a very breakneck fashion. I rather felt for the
bladderheads who refuse to go wrinkling far from home.

[Sidenote: _CAUGHT BY THE TIDE_]

Afloat again, we used the winkles for ballast in place of shingle. The
lop _had_ made, and was against us. We rowed up Landlock Bay to the
western side of Dog Tooth Ledge. Uncle Jake made an exclamation and
stood up. "What's that? Whoever's that? There! down there to Lobster
Ledge! A gen'leman an' lady, looks so. How did us come to miss they?
Look! They'm sittin' down, the fules!--Hi, yu! Hi! Hi!--They'm catched.
When yu see the water washing over the Dog's Tooth, yu can't get round
the ledge wi'out swimming.--Hi, yu! Hi!--They'm in for a night o'it
sure, till the tide falls, if we don' take 'em round to Refuge Cove.
Ther's nowhere there where they be, to get upon land.--Hi! Hi!
Yu!--They'm mazed. An' her an't got no stockings on nuther.--Hi! hi!
Hurry up!--Can't bide here all day. The flid and the sea's making
fast."

They came on at a leisurely pace. The Dog's Tooth was continuously
awash. Spray broke on it. "D'yu