I CAKES AND CREAM 41 



where they be to, 'cause if the skipper runs 'em 

 ashore or into a colHsion, they got to go, an' if he 

 don't, they an't; 'tis his look-out, not theirs, an' 

 they can't help o'it one way or t'other. They an't 

 got no responsibility for their own lives aboard 

 they there steamers; the crew's got that; but in 

 these yer little packets you'm all crew, an' jest you 

 keep a good look-out. If you sees a fog rising, 

 you get in under land so quick as you can. You 

 won't hurt there, not unless It comes on to blow, 

 an' if 't does, the fog '11 lift. An' if you don't 

 come home, I reckon I can row down under cliff 

 an' find 'ee. Don't you be In too much hurry to 

 hoist your sail,' he added with his sea-gull's chuckle. 

 *Row to the out-ground o' Broken Rocks, an' 

 then if you hoistis sail, you'm going to fetch they 

 there cream-pans, you'm after, in one tack!' 



We did; and we ate the cake and cream lying 

 in a circle round a teapot, on a beach so sunny 

 that the heat of the pebbles struck through jerseys 

 and shirts to our elbows. On our homeward 

 journey the wind dropped, whilst the lop still kept 

 up, making the mast jig in its step, the sail flap to 

 it, and the boat plunge about on the water like an 

 empty barrel. Although two of the crew were 

 fishermen's boys, and the third was a land boy 



