vii FISHERMAN BILLY 113 



understand my refined pleasure in these 

 minute things, so I do not trouble to explain 

 them to him ; instead I dangle the snap- 

 tackle before him, that he may put on a dace 

 from the bucket. 



While the floats are travelling down the 

 eddy I have leisure to consider his appear- 

 ance with more care. He is a very small 

 man and extremely ancient, clean-shaven, 

 and with a face wrinkled like a winter 

 apple ; yet, small, ancient, and wrinkled 

 though he be, he can paddle a heavy boat 

 against a strong stream, can lend a hand 

 with the seines when the salmon are running 

 up from sea, can pull up his eel-traps (no 

 mean test of strength), and can carry a 

 bucket full of water or fish as well as many 

 a younger man. He is an astonishing ex- 

 ample of what an open-air life will do for 

 a sound constitution. He will never see 

 seventy again, though his age is a matter of 

 speculation merely ; he himself is not in- 

 formed on the point. So far as I can 

 ascertain, his principal article of nutrition is 

 beer, and, though he does not stint himself 

 therein, one would hardly think it a whole- 

 some form of diet. Yet here he sits, this 



i 



