230 ALONGSHORE iv 



splashing and lying in the sunshine; was beautiful 

 with the sight of live human bodies against the 

 blueness of the sea. There the corpse was, or 

 among Broken Rocks : it could not have travelled 

 far. At low tide, when the rocks were much 

 uncovered and the water was shallow on the sand 

 for a long distance out, some of us went down 

 among the bathers, and, half swimming, half 

 walking, we trod the sand to try if by any chance 

 we could find the body with our feet. Others, 

 when we returned without success, were flocking 

 to Broken Rocks as if the price of mussels had 

 suddenly risen to ten shillings a peck. One man 

 came across the sandy pools carrying a varnished 

 boat-hook. 'What's got thic thing for?' we 

 called out. 



He stopped suddenly and looked at it with 

 comic surprise. 'I don't know,' he said. 'Felt 

 I wanted summut in me hand, I s'pose.' 



Before we had finished smiling, there followed 

 an old white-bearded man, and he carried in his 

 hand a rusty dented bucket. 



A bucket for a corpse. . . . We burst out 

 into laughter. The spell of the dead body was 

 broken for us, and as the tale of the boat-hook and 

 the bucket travelled across beach, it was still further 



