After the jewellery' he displayed some cheap religious
pictures - abominable oleographs - but I did not see many buyers.
I am told that most of the pedlars who come here are Germans or
Poles, but I did not have occasion to speak with this man by
himself.
I have come over for a few days to the south island, and, as usual,
my voyage was not favourable.
The morning was fine, and seemed to promise one of the peculiarly
hushed, pellucid days that occur sometimes before rain in early
winter. From the first gleam of dawn the sky was covered with white
cloud, and the tranquillity was so complete that every sound seemed
to float away by itself across the silence of the bay. Lines of blue
smoke were going up in spirals over the village, and further off
heavy fragments of rain-cloud were lying on the horizon. We started
early in the day, and, although the sea looked calm from a distance,
we met a considerable roll coming from the south-west when we got
out from the shore.
Near the middle of the sound the man who was rowing in the bow broke
his oar-pin, and the proper management of the canoe became a matter
of some difficulty.
