194 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



kind, it will find bad blood between these rival herring 

 fishermen. 



So much I gather for later confirmation, while the Sealird 

 increases the distance from land ; and the men and boys, as 

 they coil their ropes, and put things ship-shape, dwell upon 

 their grievance, and nurse it to keep it warm. The mate 

 has a cluster of unoccupied fishermen around him, and reads 

 something which evidently absorbs their attention. It is the 

 account in a local paper of an actual disturbance at Lowes- 

 toft in which a party of Scotchmen had allowed themselves 

 to be drawn into a dispute a dilemma they generally avoid 

 with scrupulous caution. By-and-by loud laughter con- 

 vulses the little auditory \ this follows the reading of a police 

 paragraph narrating how a fisher-boy had been summoned 

 by an owner for remaining ashore. The evidence showed 

 that the lad had poisoned his hand with a fish and wa& 

 really unable to fulfil his contract, whereupon the presiding 

 magistrate had said 



" In this case, willing as the Bench always is to protect 

 the owners, we must dismiss the summons." 



It is the idea (right or wrong) that the Bench could ever 

 dream of doing otherwise than " pertect the owners " that 

 prompts the sarcastic mirth of the Seabird's merry men. 



Our skipper is a fair-complexioned man. You often meet 

 with this blonde type of men and women on the Yarmouth 

 coast, inclining you to lend a serious ear to the disputed 

 tradition which teaches that Cerdic the warrior, or some other 

 antique Saxon, settled here and planted a race with hair 

 as yellow as the sands upon which they landed. Our 

 skipper is a Saxon in every feature, and he stands beside the 

 helm ; but, unlike the gentleman who occupied the same posi- 



