eeding-grounds. The ice that season was of unusual
thickness, and gave promise of lasting for many weeks. As under the
guidance of Black Bill, they entered the farm-yard of his master, the
elder Lund, they found the rest of the family just entering the house,
and joining them, attacked, with voracious appetites, a coarse but ample
repast of bacon, potatoes, coarse bread, sweet butter, and strong black
tea. After this guns were prepared, ammunition and lunch got ready for
the coming morning, for, with the earliest gleam of the rising sun, they
were to commence the first short day of watching for the northward
coming hosts of heaven.

The exact manner in which the ingenious Mrs. Lund managed to accommodate
six sportsmen, besides her usual family of four girls, three boys, and a
hired man, within the limits of a low cottage of about nine small
apartments, has always been an unsolved mystery to all except members of
the household. To be sure, Risk and the elder Davies occupied a
luxurious couch of robes and blankets in the little parlor, and a huge
settle before the kitchen stove opened its alluring recesses to Ben and
his man Friday, while one of the elder sons and Black Bill shared with
Kennedy and La Salle the largest of the upper rooms. In later years, the
question of where the eight others slept, has attained a prominent place
among the unsolved mysteries of life; but at that time all were tired
enough to be content with knowing that they could sleep soundly, at all
events.

Few have ever passed from port to port of the great Gulf, without
meeting, or at least hearing, of "Captain Tom Lund," known as the most
skilful pilot on the coast.

"Alike to him was tide or time,
Moonless midnight or matin's prime."

And when his skill could not make a desired haven, or tide over a
threatened danger, the mariners of the Gulf deemed the case hopeless
indeed.

Every winter, however, the swift Princess lay in icy bonds, beside the
deserted wharves, and the veteran pilot went home to his farm, his
little house with its brood of children, his shaggy horses, Highland
cows, and long-bodied sheep, and became as earnest a farmer as if he had
never turned a vanishing furrow on the scarless bosom of the ocean.
Always pleasant, anxious to oblige, careful of the safety of his guests,
and with a seaman's love of the wonderful and marvellous, he played the
host to general satisfaction, and in the matter of charges set an
example of m