The Voyage of the Hoppergrass

nister. But we kept picking up passengers-unexpected ones- until the Captain said "we'd have the whole County on board." It wa

ith only one or two boats moving,-as quiet as the streets of the town through which we had walked on our way to the wharf. There had been a shower just before daylight, and this had discouraged us a little, but now the sun was coming through the clouds, and t

on board her,"

akfast, I guess. He helped me bring her up river last night, and he sl

uted: "Hey!

ull-fledged captain of a ship. In our town it was often the custom to call a man "Captain" if he had ever risen as high as mate. The Captain was a short, red-faced man, with such bowed legs that you could have pushed a barrel, end-ways,

and unhappy until the got their "sea-legs." After that, as near as I could make out, they could balance themselves better as they walked the deck, and they didn't mind the rolling of t

houted again. "What's

t to stand h

oppan, and myself. My name was Sam Edwards. (It still IS Sam E

Captain had said, "an' I'll fin

ered with cracker-crumbs and sugar, with cloves stuck in here and there. It makes me hungry to think of them. Jimmy's grandmother had provided all kinds of food, including a lot of her celebrated sugar-gingerbread, and a water-melon. Jimmy was carrying the water-melon now, by means of a shawl-strap. Ed Ma

le over the fresh bread an

lt-hoss an' hard tack, the same's I've done, you woul

of eating nothing but ship's food. Ed Mason and I, however, had read the books by Clark Russell, and we didn't want to eat biscuits full of weevils, bad meat, and all the other unpleasant things they gave to sailors. We agreed that salt hors

push with. He had seen the Captain doing this, and, like Jimmy, it was his aim to be as much of a sailor as possible. Why the Captain did it, I cannot say, unless it was for the reason that sailors of

hing, for we had bags of clothes, as well as rubber boots and oil-skins. Ed Mason and Clarence, between them, managed to let the water-melon slip ou

you could imagine. It rolls over and over, and when you get it out-plop! it tumbles back into the water and sinks out of sight. Then it comes up again- bobbing

it! Why don't

it? What can I g

k,-I'll lay the boat right across its bows. .

e, and we took it bac

gaffed it, you kn

nister clim

to much now. Sam, you take Clarence ashore, and get back as quick as you can. Jimmy, you can

the clothes, and most of the food into

yer better take hold ... one of yer coil up tha

groans from the Captain the anchor slowly came ou

f it on the deck. ... That's right. Now, shove these jugs

, listening to the

rate, fust rate,-I li

n't know exactly where we WERE going. All we had to do was to keep on down the river, turn into Sandy Island River, and pretty soon we would come out in Broad Bay. And in Broad Bay there were any number of islands,-some people said three hundred and six

ck Island tonight

oon. We'll put in at

elow at breakfast, for the decks were deserted except for one man. He wore a blue shirt, and he leaned over the rail, smoking a day pipe.

e-r-HOPPER-g-r-a-do

RA

ornfully spat

lder at the man. Then he bent forward again, peered ahead and under the sa

other folks's business for 'em," he remarked,

felt that the man in the blue shi

aint never been anywhere 'cept between here an' Phi

was sile

give her a name like that. Said his father named her. Well, I thought his father must be plumb foolish, or something, but I didn't like to say so to HIM. Seems too bad to waste

nt's name?" inqu

J. Pet

at too lo

I went out to Calcutta in, summer of '68. And yer see I could use s

that name as well as

mm

cidedly. "Besides, my aunt was a sort of benefactor

she

as a post. She had two of 'em. One was a rubber toob sort of thing,-pretty nigh four foot long. She only used that o

end, and I had supposed that it was a speaking- trumpet. I thought the Captain had used it to shout orders through, when his ship was going round Cape Horn in a gale. It disappointed me to hear that it was nothing

ame, just as

re's no accountin' for tastes, as the man

Island River. A bridge crossed this river, not far from the mouth, and the draw had to be turned to let us through. Ed Mason got a long fish-horn from the cabin, and began to blow it. After

at, Lem?" said h

ight enough," s

igh in the wat

f a man who was expected to find f

it," replied the

g the boat through the narrow gap

er outside, that them boys 'll wis

sight of the na

grass! Where didger g

it ye

ain. He was very much irritat

ell yer- if yer ask ME,-that it's the most ding-busted, t

aptain Bannister, "an' it don't mat

r else he was pretending not to hear, in order t

e stern of a boat. That's what I think,

feoon too far away to hear the critic's remarks. He continued to give us his opinion, ho

ew what might be ahead of us. Sometimes we sailed so near the shore that the boom swept along the bank, brushing the grass. Once we turned a corner suddenly, and started up four crows, who

at Pingree's Beach, an' then we'll have a

arp turn in the river just then, and he put the boat about to roun

ass,-I was bringing her up from Little Duck Island, for him. It was thicker'n burgoo, an' when I got the other side o' this pint, I heard a feller sing out from this side that he was ag

oud, cheerful voice-arose only a few feet from us. It came from t

ted, "look out! Oh, I mea

rly fell overboard. He grabbed the mast to save himself, and then we all stooped to looked unde