Evening star., 1924-09-07
Continued from Yesterdays Star)

In spring there was plenty Of birds
nesting to be done up the valley
Every other tree held a nest of some
sort, If you only knew where to look
| up in the forks OF the ashes and elns
in hollow boles and rock crevices
cunningly hidden in dense ivy clumps
or snug behind barbed entanglements
of thorn. Bohemia, a predatory nat
uralist, marked down special nests
for them, taught them to set bird and
rabbit snares and how to tickle trout
In Spring they hunted gulls' eggs
as we'll round the Luddra Head
swarming perpendicular cliffs. with
prehensile toes and fingers hooked
into cracks, wriggling on their stom-
achs along dizzy foot-wide shelves,
leaping black crevices with the as
surance of chamois. 1t was an excit-
ing pursuit with the sheer drop of
200 feet or~so below one, a sheer drop
to jagged rock ledges over which the
green rollers poured with the thun-
der of heavy artillery and then
poured back, a boil of white water
and seething foam. An exciting pur-
suit with the back draught Of a
southwesterly gale doing it's utmost
to scoop you off the cliffside, and gull
mothers diving and shrieking in your
face, clamorous snowstorm, trying
to shock you off your balance by the
whir of their wings and the piercing
suddenness of their cries.
The brothers spent most of the
Summer at Monks Cove playing with
the fisher children, bathing and
scrambling along the coast. The tide
ebbing left many pools, big and little,
among the rocks, clear basins enam-
eled with white and pink sea lichen.
GttJddpd ttg
ruby and emerald anemones. Delicate
fronds of colored weed grew in these
saltwater gardens, tiny green crabs
scuttered along the bottom, gravel
hued bull-cod darted from shadow to
shadow. They spent tense if fruit
less hours angling for the bull-cod
with bent pins, 1impet baited. In the
largest pool they learned to swim.
When they were sure of themselves
they took to the sea itself.
Their favorite spot was a narrow
funnel between two low promontories,
up which gulf the rollers raced to ex-
plode a white puff of spray through
a blow-hole at the end. At the
mouth of the funnel stood a rock. they
called THE Chimney" the top stand
ing eight feet above low water level.
This made an ideal diving place. You
stood on the Chimney Pot" looked
down through glitters and glints of
reflected sunshine, down through four
fathoms Of bottle-green water, down
to where fantastic pennants of bronze
and purple weed rippled and purIed
and smooth pale powders cleaned in
the swaying light-banners and
skulls of drowned armies. You dived,
pierced cleanly through the green
deeps, a white shooting star trailing
silver bubbles. Down you went
down till your fingers touched the
weed banners, curved and came up,
saw the water changing from green
to amber as you rose, burst into the
blaze and glitter Of sunlight with the
hiss of breaker in your ears, saw it
curving over you, turned and went
shoreward, shouting, slung by giant
arms, wallowtng in milky foam.
plumed with diamond spray. Then a
quick dash sidewise out of the
sparkling turmoil into a quiet eddy
and ashore at your leisure to bask
on the rocks and watch the eternal
surf beating on the Twelve Apostles
and the rainbowS glimmering in the
haze of spindrift that hung above
them.
Porpoises went by, skimming the
surface with beautiful, lazy curves;
solitary cormorants padded past, pop
ping under and reappearing so yards
away, with suspicious Jumps in the
throat. Now and then a shoal of pill
chards crawled along the coast, a
purple stain in the blue, with a cloud
OF vociferous gannets hanging over
it, diving like stones, rising and pois.
ing, glimmering in the sun like sill
YER tinsel- Sometimes a brown sea
cruised along, sleek, round-headed
big-eyed, like negro baby.
There was the Channel traffic tc
watch as well, smacks, schooners
ketches and SHOWS, all manner of rigs
and craft; Tyne collier brigs. grimy
as chimney-sweeps; smart Falmouth
packets carrying mails to and from
the worlds ends; an East 1ndiaman
| maybe, nine months from the Hoogh-
ly. wallowing leisurely home. hei
quarters a-giitter of ginger bread
work." her hold redolent with spices
and somtimes a great Ffrst-Rate with
triple rows of gun-ports, an admirals
flag flying and studding sails set
rolling a mighty bow-wave before
her.
Early one Summer morning they
heard the boom of guns and round
Black earn came big Breon lugger
under tremendous press of sail
leaping the short seas like a grey
AASOhO. VII lct " SdlLSE quart nun
a Kings cutter, gaff-topsail and ring
tail set, tower of swollen canvas
a tongue of fame darted from. the
Briton's counter, followed by a
mushroom of smoke and a dull crash
A jet of white water leapt so feet in
the air on the cutters starboard bow
then another astern of her and an
other and another. She seemed tc
have run among a school of spoutine
whales, but in reality it was the
ricochets of single round-shot. The
cutters how-chaser replied, and jets
spouted all round the lugger. The
Kings ship was trying to crowd the
Breton ashore and looked in a fair
way to do SO. To the excited boys ii
appeared that the 1ugger must in
evitably strike the Twelve Apostles
did she hold her course. She held on
passed into the drag of the big seas
as they gathered to hurl themselves
on the reef. Every moment the
watchers expected to see her caught
SUMNER COTTAGES.
LODGE ON POTOMAC, - MINUTES FROM