“Good riddance to the seal! We’re not sorry to leave that awful smell. Why, the whole Island is permeated with it!”
“’Tis rather sickenin’, isn’t it?” grinned Billy, standing up to stretch his lame back. “It’s just as well mother isn’t here now!”
The next few days were devoted by Billy and Fred to the curing and tanning of the seal-skin. It was no easy job, either! The scraping alone occupied many hours but nothing seemed like too much trouble for such a trophy!
“Billy, did you know there’s a bounty on the Harbour seals?” asked Captain Ed, one morning. “If you just take the chin whiskers to the Post Office at Sabbath Day Harbour they’ll give you a dollar for them.”
“Me for that dollar!” declared Billy. So that afternoon Captain Ed handed Billy a written statement for evidence that the boy caught the seal.
The next day the boys made another trip to Islesboro and much to the young Nimrod’s satisfaction the dollar was forthcoming without delay.
“There won’t be any seals left a few years from now,” remarked the elderly postmaster to Billy.
“Wall, they come near to ruin’ the salmon-fisheries and somethin’ had to be done about ’em,” added a sailor-man.
“Yes, sir!” said a fisherman who lounged near the door. “I’ve seen a salmon-weir just hung full of salmon-heads—all that them seals left the fishermen!”
“But I always kind’a liked the seals and it’s a pity they has to be killed off,” said the postmaster sympathetically.