On
either side of the stretch of beach fantastic masses of rock lay
about, as if scattered by some tremendous explosion. Where the
sea reached them, they were covered with untold myriads of
oysters, ready to be eaten and of delicious flavour.
What need to say more? With oyster-feeding, fishing, bathing,
tree-climbing, tea-making, song-singing the hours fled with
pitiless haste, so that, before we had half emptied the brimming
cup of joys proffered us, the slanting rays of the setting sun
warned us to return lest we should get "hushed" in the dark. We
came on board rejoicing, laden with spoils of flowers and fish,
with two-thirds of our money still in our pockets, and full of
happy memories of one of the most delightful days in our whole
lives.
A long night's sound sleep was rudely broken into in the morning
by the cry of "Man the windlass." Having got all we wanted, we
were bound away to finish, if luck were with us, the lading of
our good ship from the teeming waters of the Solander grounds. I
know the skipper's hopes were high, for he never tired of telling
how, when in command of a new ship, he once fished the whole of
his cargo--six thousand barrels of sperm oil--from the
neighbourhood to which we were now bound.
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