Produced by Roy Brown, Wiltshire, England
By R.M.BALLANTYNE
Author of "The Coral Island" &c.
E-Test prepared by Roy Brown
Early on a summer morning, about the beginning of the nineteenthcentury, two fishermen of Forfarshire wended their way to the shore,launched their boat, and put off to sea.
One of the men was tall and ill-favoured, the other, short andwell-favoured. Both were square-built, powerful fellows, like mostmen of the class to which they belonged.
It was about that calm hour of the morning which precedes sunrise,when most living creatures are still asleep, and inanimate naturewears, more than at other times, the semblance of repose. The sea waslike a sheet of undulating glass. A breeze had been expected, but,in defiance of expectation, it had not come, so the boatmen wereobliged to use their oars. They used them well, however, insomuchthat the land ere long appeared like a blue line on the horizon, thenbecame tremulous and indistinct, and finally vanished in the mists ofmorning.
The men pulled "with a will,"—as seamen pithily express in silence.Only once during the first hour did the ill-favoured man venture aremark. Referring to the absence of wind, he said, that "it would bea' the better for landin' on the rock."
This was said in the broadest vernacular dialect, as, indeed, waseverything that dropped from the fishermen's lips. We take theliberty of modifying it a little, believing that strict fidelity herewould entail inevitable loss of sense to many of our readers.
The remark, such as it was, called forth a rejoinder from the shortcomrade, who