invited by the captain to run down below and help himself to a nip of brandy.  After taking his brandy he proceeded to light his pipe at the stove.  Now the captain possessed a large monkey, and the creature was shivering near the fire.  The pilot said, “A gurly day, sir;” and the monkey gave a responsive shiver.  Tho pilot went on with affable gruffness, “The Soutar light’s away on the port bow now, sir;” and still the monkey made no answer.  Not to be stalled off, the pilot proceeded, “We’ll be over the bar in an hour, sir.”  But failing to elicit a response even to this pleasant information, he stepped up on deck, and ranging himself alongside of the captain on the bridge, said, “What a quiet chap your father is!”

The first time I saw my poor friend I liked him.  We lived in a lonely house that stood on the cliffs at a bleak turn of the coast.  One wild morning a coble beat into our cove.  It looked as though the sea must double on her every second; but just when the combers shot at her most dangerously the man at the tiller placed the broad square stern at right angles to the path of the travelling wave, and she lunged forward safely.  By dexterous jockeying she was brought close in, and the men came through the shallow water in their sea-boots.  They were blue with cold, and begged for a little tea or coffee.  Hot cakes and coffee happened to be just ready; so the fellows had a hearty breakfast and went away.  With prolonged clumsiness the pilot shook the hand of the lady who had entertained him; and in two days after the boat sailed into the cove again amid nasty weather, and the master came ashore with a set of gaudy wooden bowls painted black and red.  These he solemnly presented to the lady of the house.  He had run thirty miles against a northerly sea to bring them.

When I next saw the pilot he had fallen upon very hard times.  The system of keeping “privileged men” had obtained great hold in the north.  The privileged pilot does not need to go out and beat about at sea in search of vessels; he can lie comfortably in his bed until he is signalled, and then he steps aboard without any of the trouble of competition.  However good this system may be in a general way, it bears very hardly on the poor fellows who have to lie off for two or three days together on the chance of getting a ship.  We were passing by Flamborough Head in a large steamer when the mate came down below and said, “There is a pilot-boat from our town astern there, sir.”  The captain shouted, “Tell them to stop her directly and take the coble in tow.”  We then blew our whistle, and the pilot-boat drew up alongside.  My friend stepped aboard, and the captain said, “Come away down and have some breakfast.”  The pilot tried to speak, but his voice broke.  He said:  “No, I can’t eat.  When you passed us, we baith started to cry; and when you whistled for us, maw heart com’ oot on its place, an’ it’ll gan back ne mair.”  The poor men had had no food for two days.  In spite of his tragic statement, the pilot recovered, and ate a very good breakfast indeed; and his boat towed astern of us till he placed us at our moorings.