A Stranger Came Ashore Read Online Free

don’t know about that,” Old Da objected. “I remember, when I was a young man I saw a coin washed ashore from a Spanish treasure ship that was wrecked in ancient times on this island. A piece of eight, they called it, and it looked exactly like this one.”
    â€œI don’t doubt you,” Peter remarked. “But you know what Robbie is like! He was letting his fancy run away with a whole shipload of treasure, instead of the odd piece a sailor man might pick up on his travels – which is where this one came from I’ll wager!”
    Finn Learson smiled at this – the same, rather odd little smile Robbie had noticed the night before. “Yes, of course,” he agreed. “It
is
just something I picked up on my travels. And since I have no coins in my belt of the kind you use, it is all I can offer you.”
    â€œBut we cannot take it,” Janet declared, “for gold does not lose its value however old the coins that are made from it. And this one is worth more than it would cost to keep you, supposing you stayed for a year with us.”
    Finn Learson began to speak again, but Peter checked him.
    â€œWait,” said he. “Let me tell you this. There is no money to be made from fishing in the voe, and none either from working a croft. And so, all the men like myself have to go off every summer to earn money at the deep-sea fishing – the
haaf
, as we call it. But before we can do that, there is all the spring work of the croft to be tackled – digging, planting, sowing, cutting peats–”
    â€œI can see what’s in your mind!” Old Da interrupted, and thenturned ruefully to Finn Learson. “I’m getting too old to share such hard work,” he went on, “and Robbie is still too young to give a man’s help on the croft. Yet there are only six weeks left now before Peter goes off to the
haaf
, and if he does not manage to get the crops in before then, how will we all eat next winter?”
    â€œBut if you were willing to help me with that work,” Peter finished, “it would be worth more to us than the cost of your stay here, and it would give you a real chance to try our kind of life. So, what do you say, Finn Learson?”
    â€œI say ‘Done!’” Finn Learson exclaimed. “But you must still have the gold, for it may still cost you more than you think to have me here.”
    â€œNonsense!” Peter and Janet protested together, and Peter began sliding the coin across the table to Finn Learson. Yet still he would not allow this.
    â€œIf you will not take it in payment,” said he, “take it at least as a keepsake of me when I have gone back to my own country.”
    Firmly he pushed the coin back across the table. Then, with a glance at Elspeth, he added, “There! When you look at that, you’ll remember it did not seem half so bright to me as the gold of your daughter’s hair.”
    Elspeth blushed scarlet at this, but the others laughed at such a compliment.
    â€œWould you not like Nicol to say fine things like that?” Robbie teased her; and Peter told Finn Learson, “Well, we can hardly refuse it on
those
terms!”
    And so it was settled. Elspeth stood the coin on its edge like an ornament on the mantelpiece; and there it stayed, its smooth surface glittering in the light of the kollie. Janet made up a proper bed for Finn Learson in the barn that was built on to the gable wall of the but end; and he also stayed, to help Peter with all the work that had to be done before the
haaf
.

4. … and Dancing and Gold
    The new arrangement, it seemed, was going to be a good one – and not just for Peter, either.
    The whole family felt the benefit of it, for Robbie and Old Da had now more time each day to go fishing in the voe, and a good catch of fish meant more food for everyone. Also, they had more time to look after the livestock, and so there were fewer lambs and calves