» A LEE SHORE 13 



Mishaps, wettings in beaching and shoving off, 

 provided then a fine entertainment; now they 

 provide shame if they are my mishaps and anxiety 

 if they are somebody else's. No wonder fishermen 

 say, *The hkes o' they can't tell what the likes 

 o'us got to contend wi', nor never won't!' We 

 have to contend, for one thing, with a shifting 

 beach. 



To fishermen who are compelled by lack of 

 harbourage to keep their boats and gear upon a 

 lee shore, the beach is almost more than home 

 itself. From it they shove off, saying, 'Just fitty 

 for mackerel, this,' or 'Us ought to hae a catch o' 

 herrings this here logic [calm, dull] night.' To 

 it they return, sometimes hardly caring whether 

 they have caught anything or not, half perished 

 with cold, and almost too tired to climb the 

 crunching gravel on their way to bed. Upon it 

 they are fleeced by fish-buyers who have spent 

 their night snug. A fisherman will seldom wander 

 far from his beach, and when he is away from 

 home it is thoughts of the beach which bother 

 him; how far up the sea is running, and whether, 

 If it comes on to blow, some one will think to haul 

 his boats higher. His life is not imperilled there, 

 except when a big boat takes way upon it and 



