Part 8 (1/2)

It was fall in Ruddy Cove, when the winds are variable and gusty, when the sea is breaking under the sweep of a freshening breeze and yet heaving to the force of spent gales Fogs, persistently returning with the east wind, filled the days with glooainst the harbour rocks; the swish and thud of the went to the fishi+ng grounds with Ezekiel Rideout, where he jigged for the fall run of cod; and there he was tossed about in the lop, and chilled to theand plunging for the shelter of the harbour, with the spray falling upon Bagg where he cowered amidshi+ps; and once she was nearly undone by an offshore gale In the end Bagg learned consideration for the whiust and a breaking wave

Thus the fall passed, when the catching and splitting and drying of fish was a distraction Then caht, when there was no relief from the silence and vasty space round about, and the dark was filled with the terrors of snow and great winds and loneliness At last the spring arrived, when the ice drifted out of the north in vast floes, bearing herds of hair-seal within reach of the gaffs of the harbour folk, and was carried hither and thither with the wind

Then there caathered the duainst the coast The sea, where it had lain black and fretful all winter long, was now covered and hidden

The ice stretched unbroken from the rocks of Ruddy Cove to the li marvelled There seeht away in the direction in which Uncle To the comfort and plenty of his place with Aunt Ruth Rideout and Uncle Ezekiel, Bagg still longed to go back to the gutters of London

”I want to go 'ome,” he often said to Billy Topsail and Jimmie Grimm

”What for?” Billy once deo 'o for, Unknown to Ruddy Cove, Starts for Home, and, After Some Difficulty, Safely Gets There_

Uncle To up the hill one day when the ice was jaht carried, was stopped by Bagg at the turn to Squid Cove

”I say, , ”which as you tellin' ht out to the ice-covered sea

”That way?” asked Bagg

”Straight out o' the tickle with the et there?” Bagg inquired

Uncle Tohed ”If he kep' on walkin' he'd strike it so demanded

”If he kep' on walkin',” Uncle To

This much may be said of the ice: the hich carries it inshore inevitably sweeps it out to sea again, in an hour or a day or a week, as it rip of the wind, which, as all rinding against the coast, but when the wind veers to the west the pack reat rush and heaving, he has nothing further to do with his own fate but wait He escapes if he has strength to survive until the wind blows the ice against the coast again--not else When the Newfoundlander starts out to the seal hunt he e in the wind is threatened

Uncle Ezekiel Rideout kept an eye on the weather that night

”Be you goin', b'y?” said Ruth, looking up fro

Ezekiel had just coht of the seals, swar far off in the shadows

”They's seals out there,” he said, ”but I don't know as us'll go the night 'Tis like the wind'll haul t' the west”