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See this, now you've almost broken the tortoise-shell crooked-comb that she made me a present of." "Why, blood alive, Ellen, sure it was only sealin' the bargain I was." "But remember it is a bargain, and one I'll stick to. Now leave me; it's gettin' quite dark; or, if you like, you may see me across the fields."
"There aren't; at least, not now," was Hank's reply. "There were tens of millions of fur seals in these waters when I made my first trip out here in 1860, but they've been killed off right an' left, same as the buffalo. The government has to protect 'em now, an' there's no pelagic sealin' allowed at all." "What's pelagic sealing?" asked Colin. "Killing seals at sea," the whaler answered.
"Yes, sir, that's sometimes skeary work, too; though I don't think so much of a whale as I do of a sea-elephant, or of a sea-lion. 'Let me know my shipmates, say I, 'on a sealin' expedition." "Captain Gar'ner," said the deacon, who necessarily overheard this discourse, "you ought to know at once whether this man is to go in the schooner or not.
Landing, they are surprised to see a square-built hut of large size, quite different from anything of Fuegian construction, and evidently the work of white men. "I reck'n the crew o' some sealin' vessel hez put it up," surmises Seagriff; in doubt adding, "Yit I can't understan' why they should a-squatted hyar, still less built a shanty, seein' it ain't much of a lay fer seal.
I s'pose he sent for me to be a witness, as I am some acquainted with the sealin' business, having made two v'y'ges out of Stunnin'tun, many years since. Ay, ay; that's the insterment, and pretty well frightened was the deacon when he put his name to it, I can tell you!" "Frightened!" echoed the brother "that's ag'in law, at any rate.
"How do ye know what they're doin'? They might be sealin' up parts of the mine down below! That's what makes it so horrible nobody knows what's happenin'! Ye should have heard poor Mrs. Rafferty screamin'. Joe, it went through me like a knife. Just think, it's been half an hour since they brought him up, and the poor lady can't be told if her man is alive." Hal stood for a few moments in thought.
"In another month, whatever, Dad'll be comin' home," said Toby one morning when they were at breakfast. "We'll go for he with the dogs and komatik. And then 'twill soon be time for the sealin' and fishin' again." "'Twill be nice to have fresh fish again," suggested Mrs. Twig. "We're not havin' any but salt fish the whole winter. I'm thinkin' 'twould be fine for you lads to catch some trout.
I like meetin'-goin' at the right place, and sealin' when sealin' ought to be done. This day is lost, I fear, and I hope we shall not have reason to regret it." Stimson did not abandon what he conceived to be his duty, but answered this cold, worldly spirit in the best manner his uncultivated speech enabled him to do. But his words were thrown away on Daggett.
Robert gets nervous. We don't hear a word from him, though, and by three o'clock we're hopin' for the best. Then Aunt Julie shows up. She's a large, elegant old girl, all got up in Persian lamb and a fur hat with seven kinds of sealin' wax fruit on it. She's just in from Palm Beach, and she's heard that Brother Henry's boy is here on a visit.
The wind has shifted, by the marcy of God, and it has begun to rain. Now, I think we may have summer in 'arnest, as summer comes among these sealin' islands." Roswell took six or eight swallows of the coffee, which was smoking hot, and instantly felt the genial influence diffused over his whole frame.
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