I BENJIE'S PRIDE 25 



self. Like most men who have always, day and 

 night, some job to do, your compleat longshoreman 

 is a philosopher at leaving it undone. Benjie is 

 the compleatest longshoreman I know. He is a 

 pastmaster both of doing and not doing. 



He has a pride in the winds and waves; more 

 than pride, a joy. Though he cannot dinriinish 

 the wind by a puff nor the waves by one jot of 

 spray, yet by forecasting them he tames them to 

 his purpose. They are pets of his; perhaps, 

 essentially, not wilder than his cats. On account, 

 it may be, of Dartmoor, upreared to the clouds in 

 the midst of South Devon, and certainly owing to 

 the configuration of the hills and valleys just 

 around us, our weather is in some degree local, 

 and does not exactly follow the great storm- 

 systems of the Western Channel, unless they are 

 both strong and wide. Many a day when we can 

 see it blowing sou'west out in the offing we have 

 in here a nor'west wind off land, with sunshine 

 and shower. Always a wind from the north blows 

 out of the valley, on the west side of the town as if 

 it were a north-east wind and on the east side of 

 the town as if it were a nor'west wind, so that 

 on either tack there is a headwind, and a dig with 

 the oars is the quickest way home. Benjie is 



