A TRIP TO THE ISLE OF MAM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2525, 15 September 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

A TRIP TO THE ISLE OF MAM.

CHAtTER 111. When we got to our lodgings vre found that Sarah had taken her sister's place behind tho counter, but was engaged supplying the wants of two ladies, so we passed through the shop without speaking, merely raising our hands that held the fish to show that we had been successful. Now wo had neither of us, ns yet, seen the kitchen, but the door that I have before spoken of, through which were wafted tlio fumes from the bakehouse, must, I felt sure, lead also to tho cooking apartment. Wo therefore made for this door, and found that it opened into a pussngo that led directly to tho bakehouse, and through a doorway on the other side of this passage was the kitchen. Our landlord was just ccr.ning from the bakehou.-o as wo opened the door, and to him we consigned the fish, with the request that we might have a couple of them fried for breakfast on tho morrow.

He remarked that they were rery fine mackerel, and that he used, at nno timo, to be very fond of fishing himself. "Yes," Haiti Walter, "it's capital sport, and I suppose we have had what you would call very RO"d lnck, for Charley and I caught 20 iu about two hours, baiting with nothing but a bit of the (-kin of the herring." "That's the usual bait," said tho hindlord, " but matiy's the mackerel I've caught with a silver sixpeuce." "Bought, I suppose, you mean," I said.

"No," ho replied, "I mean causrht, with a sixpeueo for bait; you ju."fc make a hole in the sixpence, aud slip it over the hook. Mackerel will bite at anything bright and shining, as long as it moves pretty fast through the water." " It is not only mackerel that are caught with si silver buit," said Walter ; "most oftlio people who fill our jails, aud many who have even lo*t their lives, were allured to their destruction by the same bait as the mackerel. I can remember, when I was a young shaver, being more than once, induced to swallow a nauseous draught of physic by a .-ilver bcinir held out as an inducement." The landlord's floury face broke out into a smilo at this, and then he looked grave, and said, holding up the ft<h for us to set;. '' I was very near once losing my life through a mackerel." " Indeed," we both said, " how was that?" " I was very young at the time," he began, "and was very fond of boating and fishing. One day I werft out to fish in a boat with one of my companions. It was a very small one, aud fit for nothing but a river, or fresh water pool, but we were thoughtless and couldn't see the danger. We managed to get a longiah

stick for a mast, and made a sail out of an old sheet. There was, of course, no sea on, but a nice little l>reeze off the land, so we Moisted our sail ami got our mackerel lines out. Every little puff of wind made her dip her gunwale under the water, out we just leaned on the other side and so kept her from lilling. I soon 'got a bite and hauled the lish up to the boat ; when just as I was leaning slightly over to jerk it in, thi!re came a bit of a p'lfi", and capsized us both into t.hr> sen, I couldn't swim a stroke myself, but. my mate, wus a fairish hand at it, and when I sank lie struck (Hit, and frot, hold of one of the oar«. which hud flouted out of the boat, and then began to look about for me. He says it seemed a longuli time, but at last ho saw my hoad appear above the water, and not very far nit'; .hi ho pave the oar a shove towards me, and the end stniok me on the .-ido of the head. I turned and seized it with my teeth first, and afterwards got my arms over it; but whenever I put any weight upon it it sank, and I went under the water again. However, I managed, with its help, to keep myself from drowniuff, (ill another boat which had seen the capsize came and picked us up. I was pretty nearly done up when they got mo into tho other bout, I had swallowed such a lot of salt water, but I oatiiß round after a hit, and since that time I have been careful not to go fishing in such n. cockle Mic-llsignin. "By Jove ! that was a ucarish touch," said Walter; "how old were you at the time ?" " Oh, it was five or six years before I was married. I must have been about eighteen, I suppose ; lint the sight of a mackerel often reminds mo of it." His wife, now coming out of tho kitchen, he handed the fish to her, tailing her at the same time of our request—that two of them might be cooked for our breakfast. "Of course," she said, "but what shall I do with the others ?" "Oh ! you can make some use of them, I expect," said Walter; "We might have brought more, but thought they would only spoil." She thanked us, and informed iia that dinner would be ready in a few minutes.

We then walked up stairs, and as we mounted them, Walter said—"l say, Charley ; just think ; if it had not been for that bit of wood that enabled the Governor to keep his head above water ; what a dreadful tiling it would have been, there would have been uo Sarah to talk to, no Bella ; no golden hair, and no pastry cook. Bella would have been somebody else, if she had been anybody at all. What a difference that piece of wood floating out of tho boat has made. Funny! Isn't it? He says; seeing a mackerel, often reminds him of the occurrence. By jove ! Whenever I take hold of an oar again ; I shall think of the Isle of Man and the pastry cook, and his daughters."

" Yes," I said it shows clearly enough that the present is only the outcome of the past, and, just as surely will the future bo moulded by all that has gone before."

"And," added Walter, "couldn't you imagine how some very simple thing, such as a man choosing t3 walk on one side of the street instead of the other (especially when orange pfcl is lying about), or carrying his walking stick in the left hand instead of the right, or taking his hat off, or any other trivial affair, might bring about a chain of events that should not only be of the utmost consequence to the man himself, but become of vital importance to a nation, or the world at large. There may be two people, living at different sides of the globe at the present moment, totally unconscious of each other's existence, one of whom will be hanged for the murder of the other in less than a year; or, a hungry man, who had iu voluntarily turned to gaze upon the good things in a pastry cook's shop might end by marrying the daughter, eh, Charley ?"

" Yes," I said," or lead to his friend's doing so."

" Not much chance of the juniorejt clerk in a Provincial Bank getting married," he replied." I shall wait till I've got a bank of my own ; and when that happens, don't you come wanting a little temporaryaccommodation. I may be bald headed by that time; and look benevolent ; but you'll find that, if I could'nt keep my hair on ; I shall hold on tiuhtly to the cash. Now, our manager is bald, and looks, in consequence, like a philantropliist; but, by Jove ! I've seen people come out of what we call the sweating room, after a personal interview with him, who looked as if their mission had not been very successful, and as if they were just about (it to make a job for the coroner. He's a regular fraud, is our bank manager. Beneath that mild exterior, and below that bald head, is a heart of adamant. You should just see him come out of that room, after blighting the last hope of some poor devil ; his face beaming with goodnature, and the top of bis bald head shining as if it had been fresh polished, while the fellow he is bowing out, look 3 as if a black-cap sentence had just been pronounced upon him."

"Well!" I said, "I don't see much connection between mackerel and man agers of banks ; but our talk has drifted from one to the other strangely enough, and the links Dy which they are joined miglic [lerhapa afford soma indication of how events grow, one out of another."

The latter part of this conversation had taken place in tho bed-room, where we had gone for a wash before dinner, and as we could now hear a clatter of plates and knives and forks in the sitting-room, the talk ceased, and we were soon discussing the merits of a beef steak, freuch beans and potatoes,

Tho steak was tender, and we were both hungry, and consumed a quantity, I think, that must have somewhat astonished our hostess. Dinner being over, as wo sat smoking our cigarettes iu the c.isy chairs before spoken of, Walter reverted to the conversation that had take.! place in the bed-room.

" I say, Charley," he began, " I have been tninking of the old chap below, and the inackarel that was so near, not only depriving him of his ex stecce, but his daughters' also; because if he had been drowned, of course, they would never have existed, or they might have been the sons of some other cudVer. Now, you just see how that accident of tlie oar floating uear enough to be available (it happened before either of us were born, remember), has to some extent altered the current of our lives. If it had not been for that bit of wood we should assuredly not be sitting here at the present moment. See how completely we are at the mercy of oircumstauces, over which we have not the slightest control. Do you know, I sometimes doubt whether we really have any free will at all, and whether our every aetio-i is not the result of circumstances, and the natural bias of the individual. Our physical form and mental capabilities We inherit from our ancestors. I say ancestors, and not father and mother, because some peculiarity in one of our forefathers, whose remains (as they call them) would not fill a snuff box, will pass through two or three generations without showing and then turn up in one member of a family, who astonishes his parents by the possession of some quality, talent, bodily defect, or beauty, that they can neither of them see in themselves, and are utterly at a loss to account for. Now ; thia is only the revival of the peculiarity,of th« aforesaid ancestor, who has perhaps been

in the grave for more than a hundred years. Well .' wo are, when first born, the result or outcome of what has gone before, We are, as we are, of necessity. Then, we have no choice in the position or grade in life, which we (at all events at first) occupy, and then begins our education ; which I take to he the effects produced upon us by our surroundings. These will, no doubt, to some extent, modify the original bias with which we started, but then we are not in the least degree responsible either for the bias, or the circumstances and people by whom we are surrounded. So you sec, we are the result of influences (beyond our control) that have moulded and shaped us mentally aud bodily ; and our actions through life are determined by these influences. A pair of delicately-balanced sualen may have their equilibrium destroyed by a minuto particle of piaster falling from the ceiling, or a particle of dust blown in at the door. Of course, freewill in some things appear indisputable. I can undoubtedly raise my arm or not, as I please, but if I do raise it, it would be Imrd to prove that outs-ide influences have not. so affected me, that being what I am I could do no other."

" That would be a most pernicious doctiine to teach the multitude," I said. "You would do away with all responsibility, and bow then could we justify punishment for eiime '?"

"Oli!" lie replied, " society would of course protect itself as it does now ; hesides don't, you see, that by establishing penalties for wrong doing, we are creating influences that tend to keep people from criminal acts. You must understand what I mean—a man is called upon to act. He weighs consequences with such faculties as he possesses, and nets in some particular way. Now lam inclined to think that his inherited bias, modified by his education, that is—modified by his surroundings from birth, determine the matter, and that, that man could do no other."

"No believer in Christianity could ac. cept your argument for a moment," I said, "for if there is no responsibility there can scarcely be reward or punishment hereafter." "You forget the Calvaniste," ho said, "but setting thorn aside, I suppose it comes to that, and so '.ve had better let the matter drop, as I don't wish to get out of my depth."

I had not often seeu Walter so seiious. Though his moods were changeful, the love of fun generally predominated. I know he was greatly liked by his fellow clerUs, for his good nature and cheerful disposition ; and more than one had told me that the bank bad worn a more lively aspect since he had been there, lie used to say himself that " life, to be palatable, ought to be like sandwiches, a layer of fun between the- thick chunks of hard work." The disuussiou (if such it may be called) having closed by mutual agreement, I proposed a walk ; to which he readily assented; and added, " but we'll have a talk to the girls first, if they are in the shop." (To be continued.)