Complete New Tales of Para Handy Read Online Free PDF Page B

for spurits again, and he paid off all the hands and told them to come back in 10 weeks.
    â€œLucy wass fair dementit when the Tar gave her the news, but she couldna blame the boy, though it wass goin’ to be very hard to get ony ither work, for there were fower other distilleries layin’ men off at the time and there were chust no chobs to be had in the toon.
    â€œHer mither wass a widow-woman but she helped the young couple ass much ass she could, and it wass she who heard that there wass to be a new boat-yerd opened up at Inveraray by a kizzin o’ her late husband, and she wrote and asked if he could find a chob for the Tar, chust for a few months till the distillery opened up again.
    â€œAnd he wrote back and said yes, if the Tar got himself there within the week he’d tak’ him on in the framin’-shed.
    â€œ ‘But hoo am Ah tae get up tae Inveraray,’ asked the Tar when she gave him the news. ‘Me wi’ no wages comin’ in?’
    â€œShe had even sorted that oot for him. ‘Wan o’ the English chentlemen that comes up for the shootin’s in September bought a yat last year and it’s been lyin’ at Machrihanish effer since then,’ she said, ‘Noo he’s wantin’ it taken to Tarbert to wait for him comin’ up there next month.’
    â€œWan o’ the Campbeltown fishin’ skippers wass pickin’ the yat up the next mornin’ and sailin’ it up to Tarbert while hiss own skiff wass on the Campbeltown slup for her annual overhaul, and he’d agreed wi’ her that the Tar could crew for him. And of course wance he wass in Tarbert it would be easy to tak’ the two hoor trup on to Inveraray on the Lord of the Isles any day of the week.
    â€œThere wassna mich the Tar could do to get oot of that, so next mornin’ he wass up sharp and steppin’ oot the six miles ower to Machrihanish wi’ his tin box on his shoulders.
    â€œVickery, the skipper, wass there before him and within the hour they were off. The Tar wass a bit worried when he saw who the skipper wass, for Vickery was weel-kent for his fondness for the high jinks, but he wass a successful fisherman and a good seaman. The yat wass called Midge but in spite of that she wass a smert boat wi’ a midships cabin wi’ a couple of berths and a wee punt in tow.
    â€œThey made good time round the Mull of Kintyre and chust aboot two-o-clock they had Davaar Island dead ahead, and then the mooth o’ Campbeltown loch openin’ up to port.
    â€œVickery looked at his watch. ‘We’ve made good time, Colin,’ he says to the Tar. ‘What d’ye say we chust look in to the toon for an hour and I’ll see how they’re gettin’ on wi’ the repairs on the skiff?’
    â€œThere wassna anything the Tar could say, he wassna skipper, so they tacked up the loch and moored the Midge in the harbour and rowed ashore in the punt. Ass fate would have it they met a brither o’ Vickery’s who’d chust got hame from Gleska that very mornin’ on the King Edward efter a year at sea, and before the Tar kent what was what, they wass aal ensconced in the nearest Inn at a table by the window — ‘So I can chust keep wan eye on the yat’, said Vickery — and the drams kept comin’ ass soon ass aal the brither’s friends foond oot he was back in toon and came in for a yarn.
    â€œFive in the afternoon came and Vickery gave the Tar the keys to his hoose and sent him to fetch a gallon jar so they could tak’ some refreshments back on board wi’ them. And the first person he met ass he wass comin’ back along the street wi’ the jar wass his mither-in-law! ‘What are you doin’ still here, Colin,’ she cried briskly, ‘when you should be well on your way up Kilbrannan Sound — and whaur are ye goin’ wi’ that jar?’
    â€œThe Tar