n SILVERPOLL'S COMPACr 87 



'Where's the NancyT 'Who's got the Szveet- 

 brierV we would ask. 



'Why, there 'er is! Casn' see? There, by 

 the outside mark-buoy. Thic there Silverpoll an' 

 half a dozen o'em 1 I'd gie 'en a darn good 

 lacing if he was a boy o' mine. . . .' 



'He shan't hae the boats,' his father would say 

 angrily. 'Parcel o' kids like they to take a boat 

 when they'm minded !' 



But how otherwise was Silverpoll to learn to 

 row, and to fit himself for a profession that needs 

 to be started early, if at all? 



Finally, against orders, he went down west 

 one evening, and a fresh breeze sprang up from 

 the east. He had to be fetched home. After the 

 boat was hauled up he was given his lacing with 

 the rope's-end. Face downwards on the beach, he 

 wept bitterly, and for nearly a week he hardly 

 set foot in a boat. Yet he had to go to sea; he 

 was certain to do so one way or another, and 

 better openly than sullenly or slily. 



So a compact was made to the effect that if he 

 was shoved off every day when the weather was 

 fit and a boat free, he would take care not to 

 sneak off without asking. That compact, after a 

 preliminary breakage or two, just to test it, he has 



