I CABBAGES 7 



on variability itself, as wavelets may vary on the 

 surface of irregular waves, or puffs in a veering 

 wind. With the winds and waves it varies, down 

 to its smallest detail. At the present moment I 

 sit here at a table writing this, not simply because I 

 want to, and have been wanting for some days, but 

 over and above all because I am given the oppor- 

 tunity by a fresh north-easter that is turning up 

 the sea feather-white, and is driving in upon the 

 beach a surf which our small craft cannot face; or 

 at all events will not face, now that the tide is low 

 upon the flat sand, and the thump and rattle of the 

 ground-swell at high water has changed gradually, 

 first to the riotous saw-edged roar of half-tide, 

 then latterly to the snarling plash of combers, 

 breaking far out, and several at a tim.e, their white 

 spray smoking into the air, blown backwards off 

 their crests by the same easterly wind which, 

 farther out to sea, has heaped them up. In a 

 few minutes I shall go and buy seedling cabbages, 

 for this chain of reasons: Fair dry winds earlier 

 in the year gave my skipper plenty to do on the 

 beach. Hot sunshine had started the timbers of 

 his boats, so that they needed (and still need) a 

 good deal of caulking and varnishing. Less time 

 than usual, therefore, was left him to attend to his 



