The Hills is Lonely by Lillian Beckwith

Author:Lillian Beckwith [Beckwith, Lillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781447216735
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

7 Seagull

Seagull which was the name of the boat shared by Lachy and Ruari, was used for inshore fishing, lobster creeling and for the occasional tourist trade. She was slow and heavy and, like a Cheshire beauty, broad in the beam. Her insides were spangled with fish scales which, though decorative, were inclined to be somewhat odorous; her engine was capricious but only slightly more so than her crew; her name was inapt, for she looked as much out of her element on the water as would a bedroom slipper floating on a bathtub.

The frequent invitations I received from Ruari and Lachy to accompany them on their trips were flattering in the extreme, though I must frankly admit that, once aboard, neither of the men seemed to be aware of my presence. They addressed me seldom and left me more or less to my own devices, and I was perfectly content that it should be so. Seasickness never troubled me in Seagull, nor did I ever reach the stage which Morag described as being ‘sick of the sea but not sick in it’. Sometimes I would take a darra and lower it hopefully into the cool, green water, and was thrilled when it came in again, as it sometimes did, with half a dozen or so rainbow-hued mackerel writhing on its hooks. Sometimes I would help haul in the creels but was always careful to retire to a safe distance while Lachy tied the vicious claws of their occupants. Invariably I dragged a spinner after the boat and, to the amazement of the crew, who thought they knew everything there was to be known about fishing, hooked all kinds of fish ranging from dogfish to salmon. The latter of course we always threw back into the sea as the law demands. By what method we managed to obey the law and still have the salmon for supper is nobody’s business.

Though Ruari and Lachy could reasonably be described as intrepid sailors there was an underlying nervousness about them which revealed itself in the altercation between them which continued incessantly. If Ruari saw a cormorant, Lachy swore it was a porpoise. If Lachy saw a rock, Ruari contended that it was a seal and on more than one occasion Seagull’s keel was scraping against the back of a ‘shark’ before one or the other would give way and admit that that particular shark had been marked on the Admiralty chart for the past twenty-five years.

It was one bright morning in early spring that Morag limped into my room having, as she said, ‘gone off her anchor’ the night before when looking for the cow.

‘Ruari’s after takin’ a great lump of them jolly gees to the hills and then he’ll be after collectin’ some cattle from Rhuna and he’s sayin’ you’ll get with them if you’ve a mind,’ she informed me. (Morag always expressed quantity in ‘lumps’, whether she was speaking of manure, cheese or humanity.) Messages from Ruari reached me via his

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.