-16- 
     
    

    
     Each fall, soon after potato-digging, schooners from the mainland -=- we 
     
     always referred to them as "vessels".-- came up West River and moored alon;; 
     
     the bridge to take on potatoes, grain, turnips, and other vegetables, for: 
     
     shipment abroad. Those ships were chartered by the local merchants who were 
     
     the actual purchasers” of the merchendise. Competition among them \ was keen: 
     
     it was not unusual to see loaded farm wagons waiting in line beyond the 
     
     bridge approaches at either end. : 
     
    

    
     The potatoes were dumped into long, slot-bottomed chutes that stood on 
     
     the ship's deck inside the railing. At each chute, two crew members 
     
     checked the produce for size and quality -- a proceeding toward which the 
     
     owners of the loads displayed a marked lack of enthusiasm. The inspector's 
     
     judgment w&s constantly and sharply questioned. When he tossed a tuber 
     
     aside on the ground that it was undersized, bruised, had been cut during | 
     
     digging, or showed traces of “ary rot, there followed a brisk volley of 
     
     satire. Among other suggestions, the checker was frequently advised to 
     
     Invest in a pair of spsctacles before his blindness had become complete ana 
     
     incurable. Vegetables were Similarly scrutinized, to the accompaniment of 
     
     a running fire of heckling; oats and barley went into the hold with meraly 
     
     x weight verification. . 
     
    

    
     Shipping continued until a temperature drop to below the freezing mark 
     
     gave the signal for topping off holds, battening down hatches, and making 
     
     -ready for sea. It was always with feelings of keen regret thut we younger 
     
     fry watched as, under shortened sail, the schooners dropped down the river 
     
     and passed from ovr sight around the bend. During their atay, we had missed 
     
     no opportunity of slipping down ,t0 the bridge to stand in rapt admiration 
     
     as we fancied ourselves aboard one of them, sailing the high seas to far, 
     
     “fabulous lands. They had brought. us a fleeting glimpse of a world outside 
     
    
   
   
    
     for 
     
     our ken -- a glimpse that’/ a time left us vaguely dissatisfied with the