Down North and Up Along 
in on the schooners to the dull triangular 
form that appears on the flakes. 
One thinks of the pitchfork as an implement 
of the farm ; it bears upon its prongs sugges- 
tions of new-mown hay and golden straw, but 
here at Digby its real meaning is apparent. It 
is Neptune's trident with one of the prongs 
lost in the vortex of time. It is used, of course, 
in its proper field, — to pitch codfish. Out of 
the ship's hold the shining forms are tossed as 
a farmer's boy tosses a sheaf of grain. 
They have already, while on shipboard, 
gone through their first sad experiences, and 
now, headless, heartless, and saturated with 
salt, though still with shining skins, they are 
pitchforked from the hold to the deck. 
Another trident-bearer then pitchforks them to 
the wharf Here they are pitchforked to the 
wooden cradle in which they are weighed. 
From the cradle they are once more pitchforked 
into a great quivering heap on the wharf. 
Thence they are pitchforked into wheelbarrows 
and wheeled to the store-room, where they are 
pitchforked into vats and resalted. 
As the cod receives his last pitchforking you 
examine him, expecting to find him riddled 
