A BALMY SPRING DAY. 253 



Rising from a leaning position against the stern of a boat, 

 -which I had assumed the better to enjoy the perfect peace- 

 fulness of the scene surrounding me, I was about to retire 

 to my lodgings, when I casually remarked, addressing my 

 language to no one in particular, that if this weather con- 

 tinued, as I believed it would, there was an end to duck 

 shooting in this locality for the season. An old weather- 

 beaten fellow, who, from his appearance, had seen over 

 sixty winters with very few summers, put in an oar in the 

 ^way of conversation, and vouchsafed me the information, 

 that, " if he knew anything of the looks of the sky and 

 water, with the next run of the tide we would have a gale, 

 and cold enough to take a fellow's nose off." This pro- 

 phecy I thought little of at the time, but an hour or two 

 before midnight it was verified. Sudden squalls of wind 

 and rain commenced soon after dark, and continued, with 

 gradually increasing violence, till it blew a full gale of 

 wind; then the thermometer fell considerably below freezing- 

 point, and the breeze suddenly chopped round from south- 

 west to north-west. 



All was commotion now in the little settlement, for every 

 available hand was summoned to beach the smaller crafts 

 in the roadstead, or make the larger ones secure with 

 additional moorings and anchors. Of course, I turned 

 out with the others to assist in saving property, and a 

 wilder scene could scarcely be imagined. On the shores 

 broke the white rollers, hissing out with compressed breath 

 their wrath at being deprived of their expected pleasure of 

 destruction ; the wild boatmen pulled, hauled, and swore at 

 <every obstacle that increased their labour ; while the pitch- 



