A LABRADOR SPRING 
are not slow in talking, — said he never saw 
people with so much to say to each other. If 
they meet after two hours’ absence, he said, they 
jabber away as if they had not seen each other 
for months. For example, he had watched six 
men shingling the roof of the doctor’s house, 
and they were talking so hard that only semi- 
occasionally was a nail driven. A couple of 
Yankees, he was sure, could have done the 
work in half the time — but this perhaps was 
merely spread-eagleism. 
At all events, the people seemed to be enjoy- 
ing themselves and to be looking forward with 
pleasure to the short three or four months’ 
fishing season after the long winter. The 
winter is the season of wood-cutting, of visiting 
and of travelling along the icy pathway of the 
coast on dog-sleds, while the summer is devoted 
to fishing, and about 150 sails hail from Esqui- 
maux Point. The summer is their season of 
work, the winter they call play. 
The boats, like the houses, are all of the same 
type. Each boat was about thirty feet in 
length, pointed at both ends and _ schooner- 
rigged with two masts, although the jib and a 
bowsprit were often lacking. Picturesque 
72 
