THERE was once a man living on the north coast of Scotland who gained his livelihood by catching and killing seals. One evening when he was sitting in his cottage after a hard day's labor, a stranger came galloping up to his door and begged the seal-catcher to come with him immediately to see a sick person who needed help.

 

"Certainly, I will go with you," responded the seal-catcher, "but where is this sick person?"

"Over that way by the great cliff," the stranger answered, pointing with his finger.

The seal-catcher threw a cloak over his shoulders and mounted the horse behind the stranger, and away they sped to the great cliff. When they came to its outer edge where it overhung the sea the horse stopped and the two men leaped off.

"Whither shall we go now?" asked the seal-catcher.

"I will show you the way," said the stranger, and he suddenly caught his companion about the waist and sprang headlong from the precipice.

Down they went into the sea, and they sank deep beneath the waves to the very bottom. The stranger had now become a seal, but he kept his grip on the frightened man and dragged him along until they came to a large low building. This they entered and the seal-catcher saw that it had many rooms full of inhabitants, only the dwellers were not people, but seals.

There was water everywhere, yet it did not occasion the seal-catcher any inconvenience, and he breathed it just as he would air. "These seals have suffered much at my hands," thought the man, "and now they will have their revenge. I see no way to escape."

The seal who was his guide and captor presently stopped and picked up a big knife off a table, and the man fell to his knees and earnestly implored for mercy. But the seal did not mean him any harm and told him to rise and not be afraid. Then the seal handed him the knife, saying, "Did you ever see that before?"

The man instantly knew it was his own. He had that day thrust it into a seal which had escaped with the knife in the wound. Reluctantly, he acknowledged that the knife was his, and then the guide said, "The seal you struck with the knife is my father, and I brought you here to help heal the wound."

Then the guide led the way to the next room, where, on a rude couch, lay the very seal the man had attempted to kill that morning. There was an ugly gash in its neck which was still bleeding. "Do what you can for my father," said the guide, "and afterward I will carry you back."

So the man took his handkerchief, and bound it carefully about the wound. "That will assist the cut to heal," said he, "and is the best I can do."

"Very well," responded his guide, "follow me. I am ready to conduct you to your home, but with the express condition that you will agree never to hunt seals again as long as you live."

The man was willing to promise anything to get away, and he swore to do as the seal wished. Then they went out of the building, and the seal took the man's hand and swam up to the surface of the sea and they came out of the water on to the land near the base of the great cliff. At once the seal became a man and the two climbed to the top of the rocks where they found the horse waiting. They mounted and dashed away at a gallop till they arrived at the seal-catcher's cottage. Then the guide left the man, but in saying good-by he gave him a heavy bag of money. So the man had no need to work at seal-catching any more, and it was not such a hardship to abandon his calling, as he expected it would be.