I minds when th' folks cotched un one summer in Black Run Harbor, and most every one that cotched un died! Oh, my eyes!" "Aye, 'tis like t' be a dangerous complaint down here on The Labrador, where we folk have poor means for caring for our sick," agreed Skipper Ed, dropping into the dialect of the people, as he often did when conversing with them.

"But you have a schooner, and you're not so badly off as we are in our tents." "My eyes!" repeated Captain Higgles.

"Measles! 'Tis like t' ruin th' v'yage!" The _Good and Sure_ spread her canvas and sailed away that morning, and quite as though nothing had occurred to disturb the even tenor of their every-day existence Abel Zachariah and Skipper Ed and Bobby and Jimmy turned their attention to jigging cod, and Mrs.Abel to splitting the fish and spreading them to dry, and all worked from morning until night each day, that none of the harvest might be lost, for that year there was a plentiful run of fish.
But Skipper Ed had something on his mind.

After the departure of the _Good and Sure_ his face looked troubled, and more than once he murmured, "Better luck, I hope.

Better luck." And as the days passed his anxiety increased, and Bobby and Jimmy frequently surprised him looking intently at them.
Then came a morning when Bobby complained of feeling ill, and Skipper Ed directed that he must not go with the others of them to jig, but must remain in the tent, and he prepared a hot drink for Bobby, and wrapped the lad warmly in blankets.