112 WHAT I HAVE SEEN WHILE FISHING 



where, as strong as could be built with John Bull's 

 money, as fresh as paint could make her, lay a boat, 

 a " Congested District " boat, with four of its five 

 joint-owners sitting at their oars, ready to back in 

 and take aboard skipper Carlin and his two English 

 fishers. I have been on very fine vessels, but this 

 was the first occasion in my life on which I felt 

 so overpowered that I lost my own identity, and 

 had to ask myself who I really was. This 

 grand, perfectly-equipped boat, its four mighty far- 

 stretching blue oars ; these five well-built, wiry 

 fellows what means it all ? Am I a pirate bold 

 or merely King Edward ? Everything was too 

 mighty, flashy and splendid for successful fishing on 

 such a bright summer's day. 



Owing to the use of our lightest sinkers and 

 very long lines we now and then had interruptions 

 to the jokes, songs and weird stories of our five 

 Irish companions, who, though fathers of families 

 almost as numerous as their captain's, were, after 

 the first half-hour of stiffness, befitting the owners 

 of such a craft, as full of fun as boys, and vied with 

 each other in speech and gesture to infect us with 

 their mad gladsomeness. 



In a long day of merriment moods may change 

 for a period ; no one knows how. We only know 

 that mirth has fled and that there has come an 

 awesome, hushful silence to take its place. On this 

 particular day the change was sudden. Seven 

 happy faces were making noisy laughter ; and then 



