every week that my mother and sister earned by the straw-plaiting
industry. This was work that was common in Orkney at that time; but
the English hat manufacturers, for whom the straw was plaited, were
not always liberal in their payments, nor prompt; and it was only
by very hard work that these few shillings could be earned.

My father had been thrifty, and had saved some little money; but
when we came to calculate the full measure of our resources, we
discovered that several alterations would have to be made in our
mode of living. Not the least important of these changes was the
necessity of an early removal to Lyndardy.

Lyndardy farm had been leased conjointly by my father and my uncle
Mansie; and when there was no occasion for them to be out in the
boat, the two men were in the habit of working together in the
fields, as most of our neighbours worked. It was from Lyndardy that
we were supplied with all our oatmeal, our eggs, cheese, butter,
and vegetables. Fresh fish we could always procure in abundance
from the sea and the lochs, and I was able sometimes to add to the
general stock of provisions by the aid of my gun. The feathers and
oil from the wild sea fowl I shot were sold or bartered for other
commodities; and the wool of the few sheep we kept, and the flax we
grew, were helpful in supplying us with clothing and other
necessaries.

It was not long after my father had "gone before" that we removed
from the old house in the Anchor Close.

Much of our familiar furniture was sold. My boat, too, was disposed
of. Many a heart pang it cost us to leave the home at the
waterside, but we all took kindly to the new life at the farm and
its various duties. Jessie soon became skilled in the work of
attending to the cows; and as for myself, I readily learned how to
mend a gate, to dig potatoes, to look after the sheep, and even to
follow the plough. Thus I busied myself until, in after-time, I was
able to take to the sea.

When the warm weather came round, the boys and girls of Andrew
Drever's school were dismissed for their holidays. Sometimes, when
I saw some of them passing along the cliffs with their climbing
ropes over their arms, I confess I felt some twinge of regret that
I was no longer a schoolboy, and that my duties on the farm no
longer permitted me to join in the pleasures of a bird-catching
expedition. My fowling piece was now hung up in the barn, and few
were my opportunities of taking it down. What