Read On the Island for Free Online

wouldn’t think that now, would you, but I was exactly your age. In those days the sky was clearer and we never hardly had any storms or rain. We used to run barefoot on the moors and the hills and I once found a bird’s nest: it was a skylark’s nest and it had three speckled eggs in it, and they were warm. We were doing the peats at the time and I was coming home with my wheelbarrow full of peats when I saw the nest. I had very keen eyesight when I was young: I’m still not bad yet. People will tell you that we didn’t have any enjoyments but they’re wrong. The air was fresher in those days, Iain, and the sea was bluer. What do you do with yourself anyway?”
    Iain saw the Cook’s wife come out of the house and empty a basin of water into the grass. She was old and small and wrinkled and she smiled at him and then she went back into the house again carrying her basin. The Cook hadn’t turned to look at her at all: perhaps he hadn’t seen her.
    â€œI go to school,” said Iain.
    â€œSchool, eh? When I went to school the headmaster would belt us for the smallest thing. He belted me once because I didn’t know my poetry. I can’t remember now what the poetry was but he gave me six of the belt and he said, Perhaps that will teach you to remember. Eh eh? He was a small man with a red face and he was a very good headmaster. If I had gone home to my parents and told them that he had belted me they would have whipped me too, so I never said anything. He was a very respectable man, that headmaster, I can tell you that. But I didn’t know then what I know now.” He paused, and there was a long silence. Iain was going to ask him again about the weather but he didn’t dare do so till the Cook himself would remember to tell him.
    â€œAnother thing,” said the Cook, “we used to throw stones at each other. Did you do that? We used to line up, the boys from the two villages, and we used to throw stones. Big stones too. How they never killed anyone I don’t know. We had teams, you know. But I don’t suppose you do that now.”
    â€œNo,” said Iain.
    â€œI thought not,” said the Cook, “I thought not. I thought you wouldn’t do that. Take that corn now. It used to be yellower than that. Even the corn isn’t as yellow as it was. And the grass isn’t as green. I remember the day when the grass was as green as …” And the Cook paused as if he couldn’t find a comparison for the greenness of the grass. “And we used to run about barefoot and the grass would be warm under your feet. People don’t run about barefoot now, they’ve all got shoes, but are they any better for that, eh?” And he glared fiercely at Iain as if he were about to strike him.
    â€œEh?” he added again, shaking his pipe vigorously to shake the ash out.
    â€œThe weather,” said Iain at last, feebly.
    â€œEh?” said the Cook again, as if he were emerging out of a dream into which he had sunk. “Weather, eh? The weather was much better. Look at that sky. That sky isn’t as bright as it used to be. Now, I’ll tell you a funny thing about the weather. When you’re as old as I am it’s always cold but when you’re young it’s always warm. You remember that. Now take the sky, the sky is what you make it. Do you understand that? What is the sky? In the daytime you see the sun in the sky, isn’t that right, and in the night time you see the moon. But who knows what the sky is like? Can your teachers tell you what the sky is? Tell me that. You tell me that. You ask them. They don’t know either. Nobody knows what the sky is. Sometimes the sky is green and sometimes it’s black. I’ll tell you what the sky is. The sky is just a reflection, that’s all it is. The sky above the sea is blue when the sea is blue and when the sea is grey the sky is grey. That’s the sky for you.