222 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



and it humoured the crafts to the utmost. To 

 a stranger watching them enter the harbour full 

 speed, it would look as if by no possible chance 

 could they help dashing into other craft already 

 anchored. But not so. Down would come the sails 

 like magic, out would run the anchor-chain, and 

 they were at their moorings. 



There is a time for all things, and what a man 

 has done at twenty-two, he can hardly expect to be 

 able to do when he is sixty, although even then 

 some will have a good try at repeating the exploits 

 of their youth. I have been out in all weathers, 

 simply because I liked it, but, when one is com- 

 pelled to throw oneself down on the spray-damped 

 shingle, and to grip down in it in order to keep 

 from being lifted over the sea-wall, the work is 

 more than rough enough. 



" What hev ye got thet gun out fur ? Surely ye 

 ain't goin' near the mouth where the bile-up from 

 the bar cums in, be ye ? Ye wun't be sich a fool ; 

 why 'tis bubblin' an' hissin' like a copper gone mad 

 on a washin'-day. Bide here, don't get driftin' 

 down the mouth o' that place ; all the salts is 

 brimming up the wall." 



" Well, I thought that some fowl might be in the 

 bay bend of the second channel ; it is slack water 

 there." 



" Oh, well, look here. Curly Ned hev got his 

 craft on them salts ; he got her up there out o' the 

 way, to tar her. He's aboord her, I know, and her 

 skiff is there. But don't ye git acting the fool now. 



