rth window of the kitchen. "Coom
on!" said Tony. "Time we was to sea." He refilled the kettle, hunted
out an old pair of trousers, rammed himself into a faded guernsey and
picked up three mackerel lines[9] from the dresser. He took some salted
lasks from the brine-pot, blew out the lamp--and forth we went. After
collecting together mast, sails and oars from where they were lying,
strewn haphazard on the beach, we pushed and pulled the _Cock Robin_
down to the water's edge, and filled up the ballast-bags with our
hands, like irritable, hasty children playing at shingle-pies. "A li'l
bit farther down. Look out! Jump in. Get hold the oars," commanded
Tony. With a cussword or two (the oars had a horrid disposition to jump
the thole-pins) we shoved and rowed off, shipping not more than a
couple of buckets of water over the stern.

[9] The fishermen's line is very different from the tackle
makers' arrangements. It varies a little locally. At Seacombe,
the upper part consists of 2-3 fathoms of stoutish conger line,
to take the friction over the gunwale, and 5-6 fathoms of finer
line, to the end of which a conical 'sugarloaf' lead is attached
by a clove hitch, the short end being laid up around the standing
part for an inch or so and then finished off with the strong,
neat difficue (corruption of _difficult_?) knot. A swivel, or
better still simply an eyelet cut from an old boot, runs free,
just above the lead, between the clove hitch and difficue knot.
To the eyelet is attached the 'sid'--_i.e._, two or three fathoms
of fine snooding;--to the sid a length of gut on which half an
inch ofclay pipe-stem is threaded, and to the gut a rather large
hook. The bait is a 'lask,' or long three-cornered strip of skin,
cut from the tail of a mackerel. The older fishermen prefer a
round lead, cast in the egg-shell of a gull, because it runs
sweeter through the water, but with this form the fish's bite is
difficult to feel on account of the jerk having to be transmitted
through the heavy bulky piece of lead.

The lines are trailed astern of the boat as it sails up and down,
where the mackerel are believed to be. When well on the feed they
will bite, even at the pipe clay and bare hook, faster than they
can be hauled inboard. River anglers and even some sea fishers
are disposed to deny the amount of