CHAPTER Vn 



THE HARBOR SEAL 



" Vagabond and unconfined! 

 Roving with the roving rain 

 Its unboundaried domain! 

 Kith and kin of wander-kind 

 Children of the sea! " 



— HOVEY. 



EARLY one April day an old man, who 

 had rowed a heavy dory across from 

 Plum Island, struggled up Ipswich 

 beach, carrying on his arm a clam-basket full 

 of turnips for the lighthouse-keeper. His 

 back was bent with the weight of many years 

 and the digging of many clams, but his eyes 

 twinkled when I asked him whether he had 

 dug the turnips on the bar, and he admitted 

 that although " Robin reef " was a good place 

 for sea-clams and seals, it was a pretty poor 

 place for vegetables. Why it was called Rohm 

 reef he could not say, for he had seen " nairy 

 a robin " there, but that had been its name 



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