with the likeableness that
seems to have been the chief note of the Irish character then, and which
they have never lost, Walton speedily became popular in the little
French village. This was the more remarkable, as there was a great
scarcity of food in the village, the inhabitants depending entirely on
fishing, and the fishing-grounds having become worked out. Hence the
presence of a stranger for whom to provide food became a serious
problem.

"But the Irish had not been the teachers and scholars of Europe during
the five preceding centuries for nothing, and though Walton was but a
sailor, he shared the quick-wittedness of his race. He had heard
somewhere that people often starved in the midst of plenty, and he
started exploring for food on his own account. The village was built
near a wide stretch of mud, which was covered by the sea at high tide,
but dry when the water went down, and he noticed that numbers of land-
and sea-birds were in the habit of skimming over the mud at low tide,
apparently picking up worms.

"Birds could be eaten, he thought. Accordingly, patching together all
the old bits of net that could be found and mending the holes, the
Irishman made a huge net two or three hundred yards long. Then he drove
a number of stakes into the mud, working almost night and day, and
stretched the net vertically about ten feet above the mud. The net was
made something like a fish-trap, so that birds flying under would find
it difficult to get out. On the very first night the net was spread, he
caught enough birds to feed the village for a week."

"Bully for him!" cried Colin.

"That was only the beginning," the Deputy Commissioner continued. "The
ingenious stranger now began to consider what food it was that attracted
these birds, and to his surprise, instead of worms, found that they
lived on an unknown black shellfish, now called mussels. If the birds
ate mussels and the birds were good to eat, Walton reasoned that mussels
must be fit for food. He ate some in order to find out."

"That's the real scientific spirit," said Colin, laughing.

"He was Irish and willing to take a chance," was the smiling rejoinder.
"However that may be, he not only found that they were good to eat, but
that they were good eating. He had hard work to persuade the villagers
to his point of view, although his success with the birds had made him a
sort of hero. Soon, however, mussels came to be in great demand. Then
Walton noticed th