The Argosy — page 242: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Channel Islands. 227 stood. It was a very picturesque scene, and the weather-beaten old men, with their grey locks flying in the wind, were in good keeping with it. We were at a considerable height above the sea. Just at this spot—La Moye Point—a tongue of almost detached rocks jutted out from the mainland, and the water dashed and broke around them. They helped to form a small harbour where fishing- boats were moored, and our old men pointed out their own little craft. Za Belle Marie,1 think it was called; and if so named in honour of the wife of one of the veterans, the fair days of the original Belle Marie must have existed in the long ago. Then they turned to their baskets, and we found they had had the luck—late though the season—to capture a splendid lobster. Here indeed was manna in the wilderness—for we knew not then how plentifully our wants had been supplied. An exchange was sug- gested, and they demanded half-a-crown for the creature. It was black and lively, and moved its claws suggestively. The price seemed rather excessive for this remote district of the world, but they declared the bargain was all ours. So we paid them in full, and Hy putting his stick to the lobster’s claw, it immediately fastened on to it, ‘and hung suspended therefrom until we reached the inn, and gave He Bver to the tender mercies of the landlady. That evening it’graced' our table, so fine a fish and so delicate a flavour that, with great mag- nanimity of mind, we confessed the bargain had not-been all on the other side. BES Every possible moment of the next day was given to thé open air ; to scrambling about the rocks ; enjoying the winds that blew, the sea that plashed on the shore and sparkled in the sunlight. More and more we were in love with this grand spot; the broken, precipitous cliffs ; the splendid points and headlands that we rounded only to come into view of others beyond, equally fine, equally alluring to the pedestrian. Every now and then the cliffs parted and sloped down into valleys or gorges that admitted you to the shore, whilst the rocks rose high on either hand. Streams here sometimes ran to the Sea, and more than once we found ourselves fast falling into bogs that compelled a quick retreat. But as a rule our walks were all beauty and excitement ; the high- est, healthiest kind of excitement, the purest, keenest pleasure. We had told our Jehu to return for us at nightfall, and how we found courage to go back with him, I have never known. We turned our backs upon everything that was beautiful; left a perfect legacy to our landlady’s larder: and we would not for a moment suggest that this had anything to do with the fervency of her adieux, and the evidently heartfelt wish that, like the swallows, we should return to her in fair weather. Her mode of settlement was peculiar, uncommon, and original. We asked for the bill, and she appeared in person. Certainly that would have been a heavier reckoning than we had bargained for. CONNIE OOO KS neO