low, pleasant boat-shop, close on the shore of a little arm
of the sea. The tide ebbs and flows before its wide double doors, and
sometimes rises so high as to flow the sills; then you have to walk
across in front of the shop on a plank, laid upon iron ballast. There is
a little wharf or pier close at hand, the outer end of which is always
going to be repaired. There are two or three other shops near by, and
about them is the pleasant litter of a boat-yard. In the cove before
them lie at their moorings in the late afternoon a fleet of fifteen or
twenty fishing and pleasure boats, all cat-rigged, all of one general
build, wide, shoal, with one broad sail, all painted white, by the
custom of the place, and all or nearly all kept neat and clean: they are
all likely enough to be called upon now and then for sailing-parties.
Often of a bright afternoon in summer the sails will all be up, as the
boats swing at their floats: then you have all the effect of a regatta
in still life.

The shop faces down the bay of which this inlet is the foot, and as you
look out from your seat within, on a wooden stool, the great door frames
in a landscape of peaceful beauty. The opening to the sea is closed to
the view. Simply you can see the two white sand-cliffs through which
it makes. The bay is a mile in length, perhaps, and of half that width.
From its white, sandy shores rise gentle hills, bare to the sun or
covered with a low growth of woods. To the right are low-lying pastures
and marshes, with here and there a grazing cow. At the head of the
bay the valley of a stream can be faintly distinguished, while in the
distance there is a faint suggestion of a few scattered houses on the
upper waters. At one or two points masts of boats rise from the grass of
the inland, and sometimes a sail is seen threading its slow way amid the
trees.

The shop is a favorite resort. You may go there in the early morning,
in the late forenoon, or in the afternoon; whenever you go you will
find there more or less company. There is a sort of social, hospitable
atmosphere about the place which is attractive in the extreme. Sometimes
there is a good deal of conversation; sometimes there is a comfortable
silence of good-fellowship. There is more or less knitting there and
crocheting; often in the afternoon the women from near by take their
work there to enjoy the view, and the fresh air which draws up there as
nowhere else.

There is a good deal of religious d