pmost perch o'
the castle, he lights whack, thump, fair upo' my shoulders. I ran but
to shake the whoreson black slug fro' my carcase. Saints ha' mercy,
but his legs waur colder than a wet sheet. I soon unshipp'd my cargo,
though--I tumbled him into the sea, made a present of old blacksleeves
to the fishes!"

"Thou lying chub," said George, angrily, "did not I watch thee? Why,
thou cub, thou cormorant, thou maker of long lies and quick legs,
didst not o'ershoot me, ay, by some fathoms? I followed hard i' thy
wake, but I see'd nought of all this bull-scuddering of thine. Faith,
but thou didst ply thy courses with a wet sail!"

"Go to, Geordie--go to; a juggle, I tell thee; sheer malice of the
enemy, fow' an' fause as he be." Here he spat on the floor to show his
detestation and contempt; but George, either too ignorant or too idle
to reply, took down a dried fluke from the chimney, and warming it on
the glowing turf for a few minutes, was soon occupied in disposing of
this dainty and favourite repast. Their hut was of the rudest
construction. The walls were of boulder stones from the beach, loosely
set up with mud and slime, and in several places decidedly deviating
from the perpendicular. The roof was thatched with rushes, and shaped
like unto a fish's back, having a marvellous big hump in the middle,
upon which grew a fair tuft of long lank herbage, while bunches of the
biting yellow stone-crop clung in irregular patches of bright green
verdure about the extremities. The interior was lighted by a single
casement, showing an assemblage of forms the most homely and primitive
in their construction. The floor, paved with blue pebbles; the
fireplace, a huge hearth-flag merely, on which lay a heap of glowing
turf, an iron pot depending from a crook above. The smoke, curling
lazily through a raft of fish drying a few feet above the flame, and
acquiring the requisite flavour, with considerable difficulty reached
a hole in the roof, where the adverse and refractory wind not
unfrequently disputed its passage, and drove it down again, to assist
the colds and rheums by its stimulating propensities. A broken chair,
a three-legged stool, and a table with no greater number of
supporters, a truckle-bed, and an accumulation of nets, oars, and
broken implements of the like nature, were the usual deposits about
the chamber. The two fishermen were partners in their gainful trade,
and not having tasted the bliss of conjugal comforts, enj