t VETERANS 57 



upon the shingle. But a new cut-rope is made fast 

 through the fore end of her keel; she is hauled 

 right up and across to the roadway gutter; and 

 there she squats, to be lowered back to the 

 beach In fine weather, to be cursed again another 

 day. 



Toil, not price or rarity, still less plcturesque- 

 ness, has conferred a value on these old boats. 

 Toil created love for them. Left out In all 

 weathers, so that the rain turns their bottom- 

 boards green (if they have any) and the dry east 

 wind starts their timbers, no procession bears them 

 like coffins Into winter quarters, nor brings them 

 out again when the gulls are nesting under the 

 cliffs and southerly winds blow gentller. Neglected, 

 cursed, and laughed at, still they hold a place In 

 some man's life, in some fisher family's existence; 

 still they are faithfully looked after when storm 

 reduces fishermen's work to a primitive fight with 

 the sea, and it's All together, boys! As veterans 

 they enforce a tacit respect on those to whom they 

 are a nuisance. "Twould be a grief to him If thic 

 there ol' craft was losted.' 



How carefully the old boats must have been 

 scraped — spattered with blood, too, from knocked 

 and bleeding knuckles; — how patiently they must 



