The Seal

When we used to go harvest fishing for mackerel, this big black seal used to appear behind a certain canoe. It had done so for over seven years, and this year in particular the big seal was seen following this same canoe. When this canoe would be about twenty yards from the beach, up would pop the seal, right at the stern of the canoe. It would dive and come up in the same position, when the canoe would be farther out.

He would keep diving and coming up at intervals of about ten to twenty minutes, and the seal always appeared right at the stern end of the canoe. One of the men made an attempt to strike the seal with an oar, and sure ’twas the worst thing the man ever did. That night when he was going home after fishing, didn’t he slip on the road and burst five ribs, and he never got out of his sick bed for twelve years until the day he died. They said around here that the seal was a good omen, and the fact that this man struck it caused the good omen to turn into a curse, and sure ’twas true enough.