s, the fishermen are fatalistic. "What's goin' to be,
will be, an' that's the way o'it." But they are not thoroughgoing
fatalists, inasmuch as disappointment quickly turns to resentment
against something handy to blame. If, for example, we catch no fish,
Tony will blame the tide, the hour, the weather, the boat, the sail,
the leads, the line, the hooks, the bait, the fish, his mate--anything
rather than accept the one fact that, for reasons unknown, the fish are
off the bite. A thoroughgoing fatalist would blame, if he did not
acquiesce in, fate itself or his luck.

Tony is a black pessimist as regards the present and to-morrow;
convinced that things are not, and cannot be, what they were; but as
regards the further future, the day after to-morrow, he is a resolute
optimist. "Never mind how bad things du look, summut or other'll sure
to turn up. It always du. I've a-proved it. I've a-see'd it scores o'
times." He can earn money by drifting for mackerel and herring, hooking
mackerel, seining for mackerel, sprats, flat-fish, mullet and bass,
bottom-line fishing for whiting, conger or pout, lobster and crab
potting, and prawning; by belonging to the Royal Naval Reserve; by
boat-hiring; by carpet-beating and cleaning up. I have even seen him
dragging a wheel chair. His boats and gear represent, I suppose, a
capital of near a hundred pounds. It would be hard if he earned
nothing. Yet he is certain that his earnings, year in and year out,
scarcely average fifteen shillings a week. "Yu wears yourself out wi'
it an' never gets much for'arder." The money, moreover, comes in
seasons and lump-sums; ten pounds for a catch perhaps, then nothing for
weeks. Mrs Widger must be, and is, a good hand at household management
and at putting money by. I doubt if Tony ever knows how much, or how
little, gold she has, stored away upstairs. Probably it is as well. He
is a generous man with money. He 'slats it about' when he has it.

[Sidenote: _OPEN BOATS_]

It has to be realised that these fishermen exercise very great skill
and alertness. To sail a small open boat in all weathers requires a
quicker hand and judgment than to navigate a seagoing ship. Seacombe
possesses no harbour, and therefore Seacombe men can use no really
seaworthy craft. "'Tis all very well," Tony says, "for people to buzz
about the North Sea men an' knit 'em all sorts o' woollen gear. They
North Sea men an' the Cornishmen wi' their big, decked harbour boats,
they _have