A Fisher Girl of France by Fernand Calmettes

It was the third Sunday in August when Elise, confident in a happy future and certain that this time she would have good luck, embarked on the _Jeune-Adolphine_. She had said farewell to Mother Pilote, whom she left quite disconsolate, and who had wished to soften her solitude by keeping Barbet. But how could Barbet live away from Elise? He, too, was going to sea.

It was the beginning of the autumn fishing. They sought the herring now, not to the north of Scotland, but in the North Sea near the extreme limits of England. Doubtless the corvette which had rescued Firmin would be stationed at Edinburgh or Berwick. Elise counted on finding some way to meet him. In the North Sea the fishing-grounds are more contracted than in the ocean, the boats are nearer together and communicate more easily. It would be very strange if they did not meet either the corvette herself, or at least one of the coasters who run between the fishers and the nearest English port.