his ax, an' falled safe between the halves,
an' swimmed aboard his schooner in a gale o' wind; an' though I had
heared the tale verified by others, I never could swallow it whole at
all, but deemed it the cleverest whopper that ever a man had invented
in play.

When Skipper Harry had done, the lad turned t' me, his face in a flush
o' pride.

"Mister Tumm!" says he.

"Sir t' you?" says I.

"Is you listenin' t' me?"

"I is."

"Well, then, you listen an' learn. That's what I wants _you_ t' do."

"I'll learn all I can," says I. "What is it?"

Sammy Scull slapped his knee. An' he laughed a free ripple o' glee
an' looked Skipper Harry over whilst he vowed the truth of his words.
"I'll lay my liver an' lights on it," says he, "that I got the boldest
pa...."

That's all.

* * * * *

VIII

SMALL SAM SMALL

* * * * *

VIII

SMALL SAM SMALL

We were lying snug from the wind and sea in Right-an'-Tight Cove--the
Straits shore of the Labrador--when Tumm, the clerk of the _Quick as
Wink_, trading the northern outports for salt cod in fall weather,
told the engaging tale of Small Sam Small, of Whooping Harbor. It was
raining. This was a sweeping downpour, sleety and thick, driving, as
they say in those parts, from a sky as black as a wolf's throat. There
was no star showing; there were cottage lights on the hills
ashore--warm and human little glimmers in the dark--but otherwise a
black confusion all round about. The wind, running down from the
northwest, tumbled over the cliff, and swirled, bewildered and angry,
in the lee of it. Riding under Lost Craft Head, in this black turmoil,
the schooner shivered a bit; and she droned aloft, and she whined
below, and she restlessly rose and fell in the soft swell that came
spent and frothy from the wide open through Run Away Tickle. But for
all we in the forecastle knew of the bitter night--of the roaring
white seas and a wind thick and stinging with spume snatched from the
long crests--it was blowing a moonlit breeze aboard. The forecastle
lamp burned placidly; and the little stove was busy with its
accustomed employment--laboring with much noisy fuss in the display of
its genial accomplishments. Skipper and crew--and Tumm, the clerk, and
I--lounged at ease in the glow and warmth. No gale from the nor'west,
blow as it would in fall weather, could trouble the _Quick as Wink_,
lying a