At noon we reached St. Eleanor's, rather a large village, where we met
with great hospitality for two days at the house of a keeper of a small
store, who had married the lively and accomplished daughter of an English
clergyman. The two Irish servant-girls were ill, but she said she should
be delighted to receive us if we would help her to do the household work.
The same afternoon we drove to the house of a shipbuilder at a little
hamlet called Greenshore, and went out lobster-fishing in his beautiful
boat. The way of fishing for these creatures was a novel one to me, but so
easy that a mere novice may be very successful. We tied _sinks_ to
mackerel, and let them down in six fathoms water. We gently raised them
now and then, and, if we felt anything pulling the bait, raised it slowly
up. Gently, gently, or the fish suspects foul play; but soon, just under
the surface, I saw an immense lobster, and one of the gentlemen caught it
by the tail and threw it into the boat. We fished for an hour, and caught
fifteen of these esteemed creatures, which we took to the house in a
wheelbarrow. At night we drove to St. Eleanor's, taking some of our spoil
with us, and immediately adjourned to the kitchen, a large, unfinished
place built of logs, with a clay floor and huge smoke-stained rafters. We
sat by a large stove in the centre, and looked as if we had never known
civilised life. Miss Kenjins and I sat on either side of the fireplace in
broad-brimmed straw hats, Mrs. Maccallummore in front, warming the feet of
the unhappy baby, who bad been a passive spectator of the fishing; the
three gentlemen stood round in easy attitudes, these, be it remembered,
holding glasses of brandy and water; and the two invalid servants stood
behind, occasionally uttering suppressed shrieks as Mr. Oppe took one out
of a heap of lobsters and threw it into a caldron of boiling water on the
stove. This strange scene was illuminated by a blazing pine-knot. Mr.
Kenjins laughingly reminded me of the elegant drawing-room in which he
last saw me in England--"Look on this picture and on that."