Ernest blurted out . `` Oh , Ned , wo n't you try and coax your uncle not to sell him ? Perhaps he 'd listen to you . '' I shook my head . I knew Uncle Richard too well to hope that . `` Not in this case , Ern , '' I said . `` He would say it did not concern me , and you know nothing moves him when he determines on a thing . You 'll have to reconcile yourself to losing Laddie , I 'm afraid . '' Ernest 's tow-coloured head went down on Laddie 's neck again , and I , deciding that there was no use in saying anything more , proceeded towards the shore , which was about a mile from Uncle Richard 's house . The beach along his farm and for several farms along shore was a lonely , untenanted one , for the fisher-folk all lived two miles further down , at Rowley 's Cove . About three hundred yards from the shore was the peculiar formation known as Island Rock . This was a large rock that stood abruptly up out of the water . Below , about the usual water-line , it was seamed and fissured , but its summit rose up in a narrow , flat-topped peak . At low tide twenty feet of it was above water , but at high tide it was six feet and often more under water . I pushed Uncle Richard 's small flat down the rough path and rowed out to Island Rock . Arriving there , I thrust the painter deep into a narrow cleft . This was the usual way of mooring it , and no doubt of its safety occurred to me . I scrambled up the rock and around to the eastern end , where there was a broader space for standing and from which some capital views could be obtained . The sea about the rock was calm , but there was quite a swell on and an off-shore breeze was blowing . There were no boats visible .
The tide was low , leaving bare the curious caves and headlands along shore , and I secured a number XXXXX excellent snapshots .
At along down in into of on to towards under