THE FISHING PLACES Like every other healthy lad of his years Bobby loved fun and adventure, though he had early learned to carry upon his broad shoulders a full portion of the responsibilities of the household.

In the bleak land where he lived there is no shifting of these responsibilities.

Everyman, and every boy, too, must do his share to wrest a living from the sea and rocks, and Bobby had no thought but to do his part.

If a boy cannot do one thing in Labrador, he can do another.

He can cut wood, hunt small game, attend the fish nets, jig cod--there are a thousand things that he can do, and make sport of as he does them, too, as Bobby did, until he grows to man's estate.
Each summer Abel and Mrs.Abel returned to their old fishing place on Itigailit Island, and of course Bobby went with them, and did his share in jigging cod; and each summer Skipper Ed and Jimmy went to Skipper Ed's old fishing place--the place where he had found his forlorn little partner that stormy autumn day, when they had sealed their bargain with a handshake.
The days of preparation for departure to the fishing were days of keen and pleasurable anticipation for the boys.