i6. SEINING 



'There they be! There they be! There they 

 be!' 



Instantly the beach is all agog. 



Very likely fishermen have been standing on 

 the Front, hands pocketed, the whole of a late 

 summer's day, too lazy to live, it would seem, 

 yet never with their eyes for long off the sea. 

 'Mackerel ought to play up this evening,' is the 

 word passed along. The sea looks like it; the 

 time of year is come; and perhaps a report has 

 been brought in that the water was 'pretty near 

 dry wi' fish outside.' Or a screeching flock of gulls 

 may have been sighted on the out-ground, flutter- 

 ing over the surface of the sea, and making furious 

 jabs down into it. Or possibly the brit (our 

 name for shoals of fish-fry and whitebait) have 

 already fled along shore, darkening the water, and 

 jumping out of it like little streaks of silvery light. 



IS3 



