Many a pleasant adventure they had as they rode together on their
sure-footed little "shelties," or climbed the crags and rocks to look
down upon the isles, "like so many stars reflected from the sky." And
many a pleasant talk they had with the hospitable inhabitants, who
rehearsed to them some of the dangers which assail the dwellers in
those solitary little islands. The narrow belts of sea, which divide
their ocean-girded homes, have constantly to be ferried across, and
many a boat which has gone out manned with a gallant crew has never
returned or sent a waif to tell its story.
It was partly to acquire a knowledge of the Shetland character, and to
see some phases of its home-life, that our friends, when they came at
last to one little village by the sea, where they had only intended to
make a flying visit, determined to halt there for a few days. It was a
charming spot; on the one side of the village there were to be seen
some of the finest specimens of the savage grandeur of cliff and crag,
and on the other the smiling, genial face of cultivation and quiet
beauty.
On the morning our friends arrived at the village they found three
fishermen at work beside their cottage door, on the margin of the sea.
They were brothers--Ole, Maurice, and Eric Hughson; all young men,
handsome, strong and intelligent.
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