an' escaped more. So far past belief
was the great tales the lad told that 'twas pitiable in the end; an' I
wasn't quite sure--bein' a sentimental man--whether t' guffaw or t'
blink with grief.

"You is spinnin' a wonderful lot o' big yarns for a wee lad like
you," says Skipper Harry. "Aw, now, an I was you," says he, in
kindness, "I wouldn't carry on so careless."

"I knows other yarns."

"You s'prise me!"

"I could startle you more."

"Where'd you learn all them yarns?"

"I been told 'em."

"Your pa tell you?"

The lad laughed. "Dear man, no!" says he. "I never seed my pa in all
my life."

"Never seed your pa in all your life! Well, now!"

"Why, no, sir! Didn't you know that?"

"You didn't tell me."

"I didn't think I _had_ t' tell you. I thought ev'body in the world
knowed that much about _me_."

"Well, well!" says the skipper. "Never seed your pa in all your life!
Who told you all them yarns then?"

"Ev'body."

"Oh! Ev'body, eh? I sees. Jus' so. You like t' hear yarns about your
pa?"

"Well," says the lad, "I 'low I certainly do! Wouldn't you--if you had
a pa like me?"

'Twas too swift a question.

"Me?" says Skipper Harry, nonplused.

"Ay--tell me!"

Skipper Harry was a kind man an' a foolish one. "I bet ye I would!"
says he, "I'd fair crave 'em. I'd pester the harbor with questions
about my pa."

"That's jus' what I does do!" says the lad. "Doesn't I, Anthony Lot?"

"You got it right, Sammy," says Anthony. "You can't hear too much
about your wonderful pa."

"You hears a lot, Sammy," says the skipper.

"Oh, ev'body knows my pa," says the lad, "an' ev'body spins me yarns
about un."

"Jus' so," says the skipper, gone doleful. "I sees."

"Talkin' about my pa," says the lad, turnin' t' me, then, "I bet ye he
could blow one o' them little black things better 'n you."

"He could play the flute, too!" says I.

"Well, I never been tol' so," says the lad; "but 'twould not s'prise
me if he could. Could he, Anthony Lot?--could my pa play the flute?"

"He could."

"Better 'n this man?"

"Hoosh! Ay, that he could!"

"There!" says the lad. "I tol' you so!"

Anthony Lot turned his back on the lad an' cast a wink at me, an'
grinned an' winked again, an' winked once more t' Skipper Harry; an'
then he told us all as silly an' bitter cruel a whopper as ever I
heared in all my travels. "Once upon a time, Sir Johnnie McLeod, him
that was Gov'nor o' Newf'un'land in them days, sailed this