Page:Granny's Wonderful Chair 1857.pdf/132

fashion—for the saying held good, ‘Like mother, like son.’ Dame Civil thought the whole world didn’t hold a better than her son; and her boy was the only creature at whom Dame Sour didn’t scold and frown. The hamlet was divided in opinion concerning the young fishermen. Some thought Civil the best; some said, without Sour he would catch nothing. So things went on, till one day about the fall of winter, when mists were gathering darkly on sea and sky, and the air was chill and frosty, all the boatmen of the hamlet went out to fish, and so did Sour and Civil.

“That day they had not their usual luck. Cast their net where they would, not a single fish came in. Their neighbours caught boatsful, and went home, Sour said, laughing at them. But when the sea was growing crimson with the sunset their nets were empty, and they were tired. Civil himself did not like to go home without fish—it would damage the high repute they had gained in the village. Besides, the sea was calm and the evening fair, and, as a last attempt, they steered still further out, and cast their nets beside a rock which rose rough and grey above the water, and was called the Merman’s Seat—from an old report that the fishermen’s fathers had seen the mermen, or sea-people, sitting there on moonlight nights.