The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19

l too healthy. It was matter between 1 Vida and himself-all he could do for l her, indeed, or let them go and find l Yidas for themselves.
 1 Of course they called him names l when they found out-especially the l twins, Willie and Wilhelmina. They even tried on several occasions to break into the office during his absence bringing with tn em a whole arsenal of housebreaking tools, including some dental instruments belonging to their father. But that unfeeling brother, Phil Calmont, warned the night watchman and the day timekeeper. Whichever happened to be on duty was to loose the yard bulldog upon any of the race of Calmonts who should approach the engineers office, his father only ex- cepted.
 After Vida had explained all about penguins. and how you could kill them with a stick, Dick in his boat, the wa ter dripping lightly from his oars. paused to point out the .guillemots overh cad.
 '"They're no like thae penguins," he said, stolidly, they're nervous beasts, guillemots."
 Come let's scare them," said Vida, , and when immediately below the cliffs she rose and elapped her hands. No
 
 wings, great white V turned with it's apex toward the sea, and all Rough Isl- and seemed to fly up into the air and pass overh cad. Vida laughed her de- light. One or two clear greenish blue eggs would roll over and fall with a yellow splash on the rocks beneath.
 Then Dick Finnan, who had lived his life-or the most part of it-on desert islands and lighthouse platforms, with -1-r L. ,lasf faa1 f T. n young people the theory and practice of bird life on such places. Vida and Phil. seated close together in the stern, a big waterproof rug lined inside with flannel covering them, were pleased with the lengthiest explanation.
 For a model Dick used Rough Island itself under which they were gliding.
 Up on the grassy top where the bum chy rabbits match ed" and hopped and bent their ears at twenty angles in as many seconds, were the puffins. Dick was fond of them.
 "Eh, but they're queer beasts, the Tammie Nories-good eating. though said Old Dick. up wonder ye can h ear them deep under sod, yammering' and chunnerin' and learnin' their bairns the Catechism, I dootnoi And what a bite ye will get if ye put In your hand to pu yin oot-ahd scart-scart like tn @ deil, they wulll Ow aye-they bide aye on the tap where the rabbits mak the holes-but yet are no listening you twav'
 Old Dick would pause at his oars and suspend his instruction.
 "Ye are maybe no comfortable. Trim the boat laddiel Ye will hae Vida in the watern'
 For Phil had gradually been encroach ing Gas Is the duty of the sex) till Dick, at the oars. felt the drag on the starboard side. But, being a man with out guile, and of little feminine ex- perience, he failed to connect cause and effect.
 At last Vida, for the sake of peace. and because, when all was said and done, he had come so far to see her, allowed Phil to hold her hand for a lit- tle-a harmless amusement, much prac- tieed by the very young, but apt to prove insufficient and unsatisfying to the hand h older, just when it is be- ginning to interest the hand-held. Still during these days, this made Phil ri- diculously happy. He forgot rain and shine, now flurries from the sea and the salt drive of the spray in his face even Dicks bird lore, in dreaming of the warm softness of that little girl ish, ungloved hand.
 And let those who have never been young cast at Vida and Phil the first laugh. Why, even Jacob Romer. sulk ing at Gorm Castle, and Gregson the Immaculate, waiting tremblingly upon him knew better. At least they had lived out their youth, such as it was. And once a year or so Gregson forgot to serve the caper sauce with the boil ed mutton for at least two seconds, be- cause he was thinking of the house. maid who had left him for love tokens only a, hatpin and an empty soapdish.
 An them under the caves O the Isle are the Auks (what some folk caa' the Razor bills, as if a thae sea-fowl hadna nebs that bite like raZors, on account O the fish they catch). Trim the boat, laddie! Or else talk the oars yoursel'l ! And then come the guillemots, and the bonny wee white kittiwinks, sittin like leddies on nests that are nests, and no scrapes O cauld stane like the fule craitures aboon them. Ech aye, but I am daft-daft. The suns zane doon an you tWa that cauld, wi the sea cloak up to your chins. What wad Billy say? I maun hae ye baith learn ed to talk an oar apiece-that will keep ye braw and warm"
 Nevertheless, Vida assured Dick that, so far as she was concerned, she was entirely comforta ble, and the visitor quite agreed with her.