I was in Newfoundland, a lieutenant of Royal Engineers, in Major Gore’s time, and went about a good deal among the people, in surveying for Government.  One of my old friends there was Skipper Benjie Westham, of Brigus, a shortish, stout, bald man, with a cheerful, honest face and a kind voice; and he, mending a caplin-seine one day, told me this story, which I will try to tell after him.

We were upon the high ground, beyond where the church stands now, and Prudence, the fisherman’s daughter, and Ralph Barrows, her husband, were with Skipper Benjie when he began; and I had an hour by the watch to spend.  The neighborhood, all about, was still; the only men who were in sight were so far off that we heard nothing from them; no wind was stirring near us, and a slow sail could be seen outside.  Everything was right for listening and telling.

“I can tell ’ee what I sid[1] myself, Sir,” said Skipper Benjie.  “It is n’ like a story that’s put down in books:  it’s on’y like what we planters[2] tells of a winter’s night or sech:  but it’s feelun, mubbe, an’ ‘ee won’t expect much off a man as could n’ never read,—­not so much as Bible or Prayer-Book, even.”

[Footnote 1:  Saw.]

[Footnote 2:  Fishermen.]

Skipper Benjie looked just like what he was thought:  a true-hearted, healthy man, a good fisherman and a good seaman.  There was no need of any one’s saying it.  So I only waited till he went on speaking.

“‘T was one time I goed to th’ Ice, Sir.  I never goed but once, an’ ’t was a’most the first v’yage ever was, ef ‘t was n’ the very first; an’ ‘t was the last for me, an’ worse agen for the rest-part o’ that crew, that never goed no more!  ‘T was tarrible sad douns wi’ they!”

This preface was accompanied by some preliminary handling of the caplin-seine, also, to find out the broken places and get them about him.  Ralph and Prudence deftly helped him.  Then, making his story wait, after this opening, he took one hole to begin at in mending, chose his seat, and drew the seine up to his knee.  At the same time I got nearer to the fellowship of the family by persuading the planter (who yielded with a pleasant smile) to let me try my hand at the netting.  Prudence quietly took to herself a share of the work, and Ralph alone was unbusied.

“They calls th’ Ice a wicked place,—­Sundays an’ weekin days all alike; an’ to my seemun it’s a cruel, bloody place, jes’ so well,—­but not all thinks alike, surely.—­Rafe, lad, mubbe ’ee ’d ruther go down cove-ways, an’ overhaul the punt a bit.”

Ralph, who perhaps had stood waiting for the very dismissal that he now got, assented and left us three.  Prudence, to be sure, looked after him as if she would a good deal rather go with him than stay; but she stayed, nevertheless, and worked at the seine.  I interpreted to myself Skipper Benjie’s sending away of one of his hearers by supposing that his son-in-law had often heard his tales; but the planter explained himself:—­