BREYDON IN SPRINGTIME 73 



mudflats, and to a stout chain-cable and anchor and he has 

 need to ! in a snug corner where a cross drain empties itself 

 at the entrance of Duffell's larger drain. From here he com- 

 mands a view up and down Breydon. Usually his Noah's 

 Ark is a cosy little place, and it is pleasant to sit on the 

 settle by the fireside, opposite him, and chat of Breydon and 

 its folk-lore, listening meanwhile to the hissing of eels in the 

 fry-pan, and the wail of the wildfowl outside. It is not 

 always so comfortable here when the north wind beats with 

 fury upon the boat, and the flood tide pushes up against it, 

 nor when blow the keener north-east blasts, in whose breath 

 drifts the twirling snowflakes, for not with all Jary's stoking, 

 and rolling among the blankets, can the long night be made 

 comfortable; and day after day of chilling rainfall, with seldom 

 a kindred spirit to converse with, makes the man's isolation 

 as complete as if he were billeted in some lone lighthouse, or 

 were tossing in the night watches on a floating light. Yet 

 when the atmosphere is not blurred with sleet and drizzle, 

 he is within binocular range of his homestead out there be- 

 yond the marshes. 



Blowy weather makes Breydon look its wildest, when the 

 sky is murky and overcast ; the racing flood tide is muddy 

 and troubled, and the black, hummocky clouds tumble up 

 from the horizon and pass overhead in panoramic succes- 

 sion. 



" Likely to be a rough night, Jary ! " I remarked, as the 

 punt's nose bumped against the side of his houseboat. 



" About time we had a change, J bor ! " replied Jary, clutch- 

 ing the painter, and fastening it to the fender-rope running 

 round his craft. A rattling shower came down as I stepped 

 inside and hastily pulled-to the half-door of his cabin. The 

 flowing of the tide had ceased, and before very long a stake 

 outside, easily seen from the cabin window, and which serves 

 Jary for a tide-gauge, began to show up above the surface of 

 the water at intervals, as the fretted waves broke choppily. 

 A laggard wherry or two passed upstream, hoping to make 

 Burgh before nightfall, for the wind was favourable to them. 



The breeze strengthened as the daylight waned, and 

 strings of great "grey" gulls passed "upward," while two 

 or three whimbrel clamoured noisily as they changed their 

 feeding quarters and called to their fellows across the flats. 



