Among the River Pirates

cks that he was cooking. The coffee had twice boiled over and the narrow little cabin was filled with a blue, acrid smoke and though the

he was visualizing what benefits were to be derived from residing in the Basin, chief among these being an uninterrupted summer season of fishing and swimming. That to

n the meagerly furnished cabin of the barge, he had achieved that blessed miracle of youth and accepted the inevitable without a question. Life stretched out ahead of him as the inlet

offee pot. All the world seemed delightful and generous with these savory dishes ready to be eaten, and he asked himself if his father wasn’t making much of little. After all, they had the Minnie

oing to feel out on the river all summer than back in dusty, hot Riverboro where he had spent all his life. He wo

xed odor of mud, decayed fish and salt, he noticed it not at all. Moreover, the inlet might hav

of his father. Suddenly on the damp salt breeze they heard the distant sound

? Everythin’s ready, so you

ive to the borough. Now I s’pose he’ll give the three hunderd dollars he cheated me outa, fer somethin’ else what’ll give him a big name, hey? That’s what some uv them s

in and his father followed him in gloomy silence. Mechanically, he carried the steaming plate from the oil st

what. They’re all blackballed men, Sonny; men what’s got in Ol’ Flint’s clutches an’ ain’t never got the chance nor the brains ter git out. Not like me that had a little more brains ter earn bigger

that Skippy hurried for the

so bad here. It’s a nice little house we got in this cabin; chairs an’ the stove an’ a table an’ our trunk.” His glance wandered to the tiny windows o

gh, clean boards and he stood up,

heat it up an’ drink it when we come back.” He laughe

his khaki knickers. Then with a swift movement he shook back

t me with you, Pop?”

to talk ter on the way I ain’t so like ter lose my head when I git there an’ talk ter him. If he gits sneerin’ at me like hi

t’s gonna make you feel that way, Pop. Gee, I’ll go anywh

Skippy—I know it. But so long as yer make me promis

hope for the best. He went to the old battered trunk, took out a

e little kicker had not a light. Toby’s former nocturnal occupations had made it necessary for him to dispense with this appurtenance and now, as he explained to his inq

there wasn’t a star in all the heavens, he would try to tell himself. All was black night and the muffled motor purred with a hushed monotony that affect

h the inlet or the black, silent night. It was a nameless dread t

shouldn’t go on to Josiah Flint’s