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Island.”
    â€œHorwood’s? Wasn’t it their boy was seeing that new teacher before she took up with the minister?”
    Agnes’s eyes widened. “She’s after takin’ up with the minister? I heard she was engaged to Henry.”
    â€œShe might be, maid, but I believe she’s seein’ the minister, all the same. He’s always over to their house, sure. Ada haves him in every Sunday after church. It’s not hard to tell what she’s up to. She’s tryin’ to get them together.”
    Gossip about Emily! Agnes weighed in. “That’s the goin’ on she haves, see. Not satisfied with one man, like the rest of us; no, she got to have two. I don’t know what she sees in that minister. Sure, he talks right queer. Did you ever speak to him?”
    â€œNow what would I be doin’ talkin’ to the minister from Saint Marks’s church? And have you ever seen one of that crowd yet that wasn’t a queer hand, anyway? I don’t know why you’d expect their minister to be any different.”
    â€œWell, I wonder what she’s going to be up to now, with Henry gone for two months,” said Agnes. “I feel bad for him but what can you expect from the likes o’ she?”

chapter nine
    Jackie sat at the table as his mother and older sister served supper. He fiddled with the flat can of Holiday tobacco that always sat next to his father’s pipe, and gazed at the ship on the front. Flipping open the lid he took a long sniff of the exotic mixture.
    â€œGet your nose outa that; the next thing you’ll want to be smoking it,” his mother ordered. “Alice, give your father more than that, now. He’s been working all day and needs a good supper.”
    â€œThank you, dear,” a smiling Tom Gould said to his daughter.
    â€œWell, I dare say the sealers will be on their way in the morning,” his wife ventured to nobody in particular.
    â€œI suppose so.” Tom’s mind was less on the seal hunt and more on the food his daughter had just put in front of him. He was a grocer, and a lot of potatoes and turnips had passed through his hands today. Now it was his turn to consume a few.
    â€œPlease God they’ll have good weather and a safe trip.”
    â€œMmm,” he responded, while devouring a piece of salt beef. “I just hope they come home with a good haul of seals. Maybe then some of them will settle their accounts.”
    â€œI know,” said Jackie’s mother. “A lot of people are finding it hard. Jackie, put down that can and eat your supper!”
    â€œThis is the worst winter I’ve ever seen for people not paying their bills on time.”
    â€œI suppose there will be more boys stow away again this year,” Jackie’s mother pondered out loud.
    Jackie gulped and looked down at his plate, trying to appear innocuous. What was this, now? Was she baiting him? Better say nothing.
    She fixed her eyes on her son. “And leaving their poor mothers at home wondering where in the world they’re got to, with no way of knowing if they’re on a boat or fell off the wharf. My blessed, if they knew what they was putting their mothers through, they’d stay home where they’re safe.”
    Jackie decided that now was a good time to rely on a nugget of manly advice his father had given him: “When it comes to dealin’ with your mother, there’s a time to speak and a time to keep quiet. Just let her say what she got to say. She’ll say it a few times in different ways, but the best thing for you to do is keep your mouth shut. You’ll only make it worse for yourself if you argue with her.”
    He knew his mother was only doing what mothers were supposed to do, but he was not interested in hearing it. After all, he had passed his thirteenth birthday, far too old to still be in school. A couple of his friends had already dropped out. He was ready to see