NOVEMBER IN BROADLAND. 115 



* Ah. ! 'bor ' volunteers a son of old Ocean who has made himself comfortable 

 in his rough and ready fashion in the same compartment as ourselves, and between 

 whose knees dangles a string of silvery herrings * This here's only a waather- 

 breeder, yow jist see if I ain't far out from bein' right. Goodness knows we've had 

 a tidy spell o' bad waather this month. Law! how that blowed the airly part of 

 last week ! ' After having delivered himself of this comment he relapses awhile 

 into silence; some unpleasant reminiscences, mayhap, are passing before his mental 

 vision. We refrain from unduly intruding upon his cogitations, and peering out 

 from the carriage window we catch a glimpse of the sea, now placidly rippling and 

 gleaming as if 



' in its summer play 



As gentle as a child.' 



Great gulls, mostly 'greys ' (the immature of the greater saddlebacks), amongst 

 which may be distinguished a few of their blacker-backed elders, and several herring- 

 gulls, and their smaller relatives, the Larus ridibundus, are winnowing their way 

 on easy pinions to and fro, playfully dipping to the surface of the water to snatch 

 up fragments of herrings and other animal refuse as their keen eyes espy them. 

 Over the nearer marrum-covered sand-hills several white-winged snowbuntings are 

 hunting for seeds of the various ' dune ' plants that flourished there in the warmer 

 days. In flight they are exceedingly conspicuous. And the grey-mantled hooded 

 crow recently arrived from the Norwegian fjords loafs here and there, ready to 

 pounce upon wounded fowl or any carrion that less foul-feeding creatures have 

 passed carelessly by. We might, perhaps, have noticed the various changes in the 

 country through which we are being rapidly borne along, but our brawny-shouldered, 

 guernsey-clad fisher friend, who has distributed one or two characteristic expecto- 

 rations upon the floor, and replenished his capacious cheeks with a fresh section of 

 * twist,' becomes talkative, and monopolises our attentions. Nothing loth, we settle 

 to a friendly gossip, and let him spin his yarn. 



( Yow are right, 'bor, we hev had some rummy waather, and only this time 

 last week I never reckoned on comin' home tu my old gal ag'in. Boy an' man, I 

 ha' followed the sea off an' on this twenty yeer, but I ain't had sich a neer 'un 

 afore. I doan't like the sea a sight, and doan't know anyone as du; if they say 

 they du they lie ; theer, 'bor, tha's straight. Anyhow, I mane them as go a-fishin' 

 an' smackin' on the North Sea. It'll du middlin' in summer, but it cuts up rough 

 in winter; an', little or much, it's rough pretty gin'rally. Us Broadland folk 

 many on us, yer know, ha' tu eke out a livin' partly ashore an' partly afloat; loads 

 (many) foller it up altogither, spendin' a few odd days ashore between times. I 



