A Pleasant Time at Pe^tzance. 59 



in between four thousand and five thousand fine 

 pilchards. These, I was surprised to hear, would 

 only fetch 10s. per thousand, and eventually I 

 heard them cried in the village of Gulval, " Seven 

 a penny, fresh pilchards." 



Then I step into the dingy, to me a somewhat 

 difficult operation, for the night as it advanced had 

 become darker still. This done, I was pulled towards 

 the shore, and the captain suggested that I should 

 get on his back, that he might carry me through the 

 water and place me on dry land. To this proposi- 

 tion I dissented. This fine old man was verging on 

 seventy years of age, and I refused for a while, 

 saying that I weighed fifteen stone. " I can carry 

 ye, man," was the reply. So I played the part, for 

 once, of the Old Man of the Sea, whilst Sinbad 

 trudged through the water until the shore was 

 reached. Now, to get up on his back was a not too 

 easy task for a man who is, to say the least, past his 

 'premiere jeunesse ; in fact, not to put too fine a point 

 upon it, there was not much diff'erence between 

 Sinbad and the Old Man in respect to age. But to 

 get off was an equally difficult operation, and I was 

 within an ace of pulling him backwards into the sea. 

 Fortunately that misfortune did not occur, and we 

 shook hands and parted, mutually pleased with the 

 result of our night's pilchard fishing. 



There is an old song which says, ''It is always 

 the darkest the hour before day," and so I found 

 it, as I blundered amongst \h.Q big boulders in my 

 endeavour to reach the high road. Then day began 

 to break, and by degrees I found my way, and, after 

 an hour's walk, reached Gulval as the clock struck 



