Since my first encounter with Rebekah, I had taken to going out in the boat with my sons, rather than chance scaring my daughter-in-law again, especially with no one else around. Water didn’t bother me (unless it was holy water of course), but than we were members of The Church of England, not Roman Catholic, so maybe even the holy water wouldn’t work. It’s probably something like ghosts, you have to believe in it. In any case I was getting tired of sitting there in the aft of the dory just watching everyone, if I was going to be a fisher ghost it was time for me to find a way to help. I had learned from starting the fire in the kitchen stove, that it was best not to act too hastily. I was so used to being around by now, that I’d almost forgotten that they couldn’t see me – unless they could – which seemed to cause even more problems. Hauling in the baited hooks often proved quite a task, especially when there was a large codfish on every hook but strength wasn‘t my strong point, as you can‘t see, there’s really nothing of me there. Occasionally a fish would get off the hook just as they were taking it aboard, and it was here that I found a way to help. Fish I discovered, could always see ghosts, so if I appeared at just the right second, instead of jumping back into the water, the fish would jump right into the boat!  I’d seen all four men  turn and stare in wonderment more than once, but they had their best fishing season ever.

Eric had been here about a month when the boat arrived with Sam and Tom’s future brides. They were both healthy looking young women that looked like they might have been made for this sort of a life. Tom was all smiles as he carried Mary’s few possessions up to the big house. Sam too looked quite content as he showed Elsie the meadow where they would build their house. There was plenty of land for all four to build houses as well as space for vegetable gardens and grazing land for the animals which they hoped to have by next summer. The double wedding ceremony took place at the big house two days later with the Church of England Parson, The Rev. Baxter Hibbs presiding. With a permanent population of  more than 1000, half of which were Church of England,  there was talk of a school-chapel being build in St. John’s the following Spring. In the meantime Sunday services were being held in private homes and often outside during the summer when the population swelled to more than six thousand. At just seventeen, Eric was now the only bachelor in the family but as the population increased, there was a possibility that he might one day wed a local girl.