hard-working people,
but they often found it very difficult to provide food and clothing for
their little ones, and to keep the boat and nets in good repair. I am
proud to say I was a very useful member of the family, and was wanted
everywhere. During the intervals of time, when my services were not
required in the boat, I did duty as a clothes line, which rather grated
against my dignity, for I fancied it was not the sort of work I ought to
be set to do. However, I consoled myself with the reflection that I had
nothing to do with common clothes props or garden walls, for I was
generally stretched out on the beach, in a sheltered nook behind the
cottage. One end was tied fast to an old mast that now bore a
weathercock, and the other was fastened to a ring in a piece of rock,
near by. So I was patiently contented to hold up all the family wardrobe
to dry, for it was not a very large one, and I knew every time exactly
what I should have to carry. And the sea winds were very obliging, and
dried all the clothes so fast, that my patience was not much tested.

"I tethered the little boat to her landing-place close by, and many a
time has Mary been only too glad to lay hold of me, when her husband
threw me ashore, after a long night's buffeting with the winds and
waves. Even little Robin came behind her and gave fierce tugs at me, to
"draw daddie home again!" Once I saved his father's life, so precious to
all that little family, for he would have been sorely missed, while
there were so many young mouths to feed. It so happened on the day I
mean, that he had taken me out with him, not a usual thing unless it
threatened stormy weather. But that morning, when he set out early, the
sky was as blue and cloudless as on a bright summer's day, and there was
hardly a puff of wind going. He put up his little sail, but it flapped
almost lazily against the mast, and he and his "mate," as he called the
old boatman (who was a sort of second partner in the boat and fishing
gear), had to take to their oars and row to the fishing stakes and nets.
They had taken a good stock of fish, and were thinking of getting back
with the tide, when a sudden squall arose, beginning with "the little
black cloud, as big as a man's hand," and ending in a fierce wind, that
soon lashed the sea up into big mountains of waves. The fisherman, while
prudently watching and carefully managing his sail, had stood on the
seat of the boat, but a sudden gust coming as the