lected on the water.

As I approached the stranger, I saw that he was a seafarer.

"Fine night, sir," I said in salutation as I passed him.

"Ay, very fine. What way is the wind, my lad?"

"Sou'-sou'-west," I replied, looking up at a few flecks of white
cloud in the clear sky.

"Are you going on to Stromness? If so, I will walk along with you.
That's a fine bird you're carrying. What do you call it?"

"A hen harrier, sir. My dog caught it over on the moor. Is that
your barque lying in the bay, sir, the Lydia?"

"Ay; she's a rakish craft, isn't she? We're sailing again in the
morning for South America. Do you think we shall have a fair wind,
my lad?"

"Yes, if it does not veer round too much to the westward."

"You appear to have studied the weather," he said.

"Yes," I answered. "In Stromness we all notice the wind, and father
has taught me to know all the signs of the weather."

"Then your father is a fisherman, I suppose?" he remarked, as he
turned to walk down the brae with me.

"Father's a pilot," I said. "I'm Sandy Ericson's lad."

"Ericson! Ah! I know Ericson. He's a splendid fellow, a regular
Norseman, in fact."

And then he proceeded to praise my father as I had so often before
heard him praised, and with all of which I did not venture to
disagree.

He spoke with me until we reached the entrance to the town, where I
noticed Andrew Drever, my schoolmaster, walking in advance of us,
carrying his rod under his arm and a string of fish in his hand.

"Good evening, sir!" I said, as we overtook him.

"Hello, Halcro, my lad!" he exclaimed, as cheerily as though he had
not seen me for weeks.

"Good evening!" said my sailor companion to the dominie. "I see you
have some fine trout there."

"Yes," said Andrew, when he had returned the greeting. "They're not
so bad, and I've had some fine sport with them. Are you coming from
Kirkwall?"

"No," replied the sailor. "I was just up the hill there for a
saunter in the gloaming. The gloaming lasts very long here, I
notice. What time is it dark in midsummer?"

"In midsummer?" replied Andrew. "Well, it's seldom darker than
this; and on the twenty-first of June you can see the sun even at
midnight from the top of the Ward Hill yonder. You'll belong to one
of the ships here, no doubt, sir?"

"Yes, that barque out there with the tall masts."

"Ay, she came in today. That will be the Lydia, I'm thinking, and
you will be Captain Gordon? Bailie Duke was tel