eon of the castle on Eilean-na-Rona, it will be necessary
to explain why he did not choose to purchase his liberty by the payment
of the sum of one penny. Pennies among the boys of Erisaig, and more
especially among the MacNicols, were an exceedingly scarce commodity.
The father of the three MacNicols, who was also burdened with the
charge of their orphan cousin Neil, was a hand on board the steamer
_Glenara Castle_, and very seldom came ashore. He had but small wages;
and it was all he could do, in the bringing up of the boys, to pay a
certain sum for their lodging and schooling, leaving them pretty much
to cadge for themselves as regarded food and clothes. Their food,
mostly porridge, potatoes, and fish of their own catching, cost little;
and they did not spend much money on clothes, especially in summer
time, when no Erisaig boy--except Rob MacNicol, who was a distinguished
person--would submit to the encumbrance of shoes and stockings.
Nevertheless, for various purposes, money was necessary to them; and
this they obtained by going down in the morning, when the herring boats
came in, and helping the men to strip the nets. The men were generally
tired out and sleepy with their long night's work; and if they had had
anything like a good haul, they were glad to give these lads twopence
or threepence apiece to undertake the labour of lifting the nets, yard
by yard, out of the hold, shaking out the silvery fish and dexterously
extricating those that had got more firmly enmeshed. Moreover, it was
a work the boys delighted in. If it was not the rose, it was near the
rose. If it was not for them as yet to sail away in the afternoon,
watched by all the village, at least they could take this small part in
the great herring trade. And when they had shaken out the last of the
nets, and received their wages, they stepped ashore with a certain
pride; and generally they put both hands in their pockets as a real
fisherman would do; and perhaps they would walk along the quays with a
slight lurch, as if they, also, had been cramped up all the long night
through, and felt somewhat unused to walking on first getting back to
land.

Now these MacNicol boys, again imitating the well-to-do among the
fishermen, had each an account at the savings bank; and the pence they
got were carefully hoarded up. For if they wanted a new Glengarry cap,
or if they wanted to buy a book telling them of all kinds of tremendous
adventures at sea, or