GROWTH OF A STORM. 335 



Shavie junior — I'll be fiippit, lathie, if I dinna hae mair siller 

 an' mair boonty tee. 



Cki/rer — Well, make me an offer. 



Shame senior — Ou ay, man ; we'U tak' saxteen shillin' the 

 cran an' a boonty o' twimty pound, an' a pickle cuteh, an a 

 drappie wMsky ; an' that's ower little sUler. 



Ourer — ^Well, I suppose I must give it. 



Bowed Shame — G-ie's oor five shiUin' then, an we're fixed wi' 

 you, an' clear o' a' ither body. 



And so, on the payment of these five shillings by way of 

 arles, the bargain is settled, and the men engaged for the next 

 herring-season. 



The British fisher-people as a class are very sober and in- 

 dustrious, and they are becoming more intelligent, and, it is 

 to be presumed, less superstitious. The children in the fish- 

 ing villages are being educated ; and in time, when they grow 

 to man's and woman's estate, they will no doubt influence the 

 fisheries for the better. Many of the seniors are now teetotal, 

 and while at the herring-fishery prefer tea to whisky. The 

 homes of some of the fisher-folks, on the Berwickshire and 

 Northumberland coasts, are clean and tidy, and the proprietors 

 seem to be in possession of a great abundance of good cheer. 



It is, no doubt, considered by some to be an easy way to 

 wealth to prosecute the herring or white fisheries, and secure 

 a harvest grown on a farm where there is no rent payable, the 

 seed of which is sown in bountiful plenty by nature, which 

 requires no manure to force it to maturity, and no wages for 

 its cultivation. But it is not aU gold that glitters. There 

 are risks of life and property connected with the fishery 

 which are unknown to the industries that are followed on the 

 land. There are times, as I have just been endeavouring to 

 show, when there is weeping and wailing along the shore. 

 The days are not always suffused in sunshine, nor is the 

 sea always calm. The boats go out in the peaceful afternoon, 

 and the sun, gilding their brown saUs, may sink in golden 

 beauty in its western home of rosy-hued clouds ; but anon the 

 wind wUl freshen, and the storm rise apace. The black speck 

 on the distant horizon, unheeded at first, soon grows into a 

 series of fast-flying clouds ; and the wind, which a little ago 

 was but a mere capful, soon begins to rage and roar, the waves 

 are tossed into a wilder and wilder velocity, and in a few 



