Trafika Europe 1 - Northern Idyll

He stood there looking until he had seen enough.

He went out and disappeared behind the rock on which the boathouse stood and launched the other færing, it was older than the damaged one, it had been in there for a long time and was dry and leaky. But it was easy to row. He was rowing around the north point and southwards through the sound when he spotted his wife. She was standing and waving both arms. He wanted to row past her, but her voice drew him towards the shore. He asked her what she wanted. She said he couldn’t haul in the lines on his own. He backed the oars towards the shore. Barbro stepped on board, pushed him aside, took hold of the oars, rowed by the Skarve skerries and grasped the first sinker. Lars pulled in the line while Barbro rested on the oars and baled water. The sea was calm. They filled one and a half rib sections with fish, a lot of it old and half-eaten, but some of it usable. Then they hauled in all the tackle. They rowed with an oar each back to the new landing stage and unloaded the fish. Lars split them and Barbro laid them in boxes, fetched some snow and sprinkled it on top. After they had finished Paulus came round the headland and moored, loaded the milk, what little there was, and also the fish, which he expressed his satisfaction with, although it wasn’t much of a catch and the splitting was perhaps a bit slipshod. Lars said he wouldn’t be catching any more for a

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