s we came back to
the bright kitchen.

"No; I take stiddy to my knitting after January sets in," said the old
seafarer. "'Tain't worth while, fish make off into deeper water an' you
can't stand no such perishin' for the sake o' what you get. I leave out
a few traps in sheltered coves an' do a little lobsterin' on fair days.
The young fellows braves it out, some on 'em; but, for me, I lay in
my winter's yarn an' set here where 'tis warm, an' knit an' take my
comfort. Mother learnt me once when I was a lad; she was a beautiful
knitter herself. I was laid up with a bad knee, an' she said 'twould
take up my time an' help her; we was a large family. They'll buy all the
folks can do down here to Addicks' store. They say our Dunnet stockin's
is gettin' to be celebrated up to Boston,--good quality o' wool an'
even knittin' or somethin'. I've always been called a pretty hand to do
nettin', but seines is master cheap to what they used to be when they
was all hand worked. I change off to nettin' long towards spring, and I
piece up my trawls and lines and get my fishin' stuff to rights. Lobster
pots they require attention, but I make 'em up in spring weather when
it's warm there in the barn. No; I ain't one o' them that likes to set
an' do nothin'."

"You see the rugs, poor dear did them; she wa'n't very partial to
knittin'," old Elijah went on, after he had counted his stitches. "Our
rugs is beginnin' to show wear, but I can't master none o' them womanish
tricks. My sister, she tinkers 'em up. She said last time she was here
that she guessed they'd last my time."

"The old ones are always the prettiest," I said.

"You ain't referrin' to the braided ones now?" answered Mr. Tilley. "You
see ours is braided for the most part, an' their good looks is all in
the beginnin'. Poor dear used to say they made an easier floor. I go
shufflin' round the house same's if 'twas a bo't, and I always used to
be stubbin' up the corners o' the hooked kind. Her an' me was always
havin' our jokes together same's a boy an' girl. Outsiders never'd know
nothin' about it to see us. She had nice manners with all, but to me
there was nobody so entertainin'. She'd take off anybody's natural
talk winter evenin's when we set here alone, so you'd think 'twas them
a-speakin'. There, there!"

I saw that he had dropped a stitch again, and was snarling the blue yarn
round his clumsy fingers. He handled it and threw it off at arm's length
as if it were a cod li