uantum. Miles
Standish of Plymouth named it that after an Indian that was a good
friend of the Colony in the early days. Well, right off there I was
overhauled by a French privateer once. 'Privateer' is a polite name
for a pirate ship. She was loaded with molasses, indigo, and such from
the West Indies, and I had a cargo of beaver-skins. If it had n't been
that her sailors was mostly roarin' drunk at the time, it 's likely
that would have been the end of Thomas Sanders, skipper, sloop, and
all, but my boat was smaller and quicker than theirs, and, knowing
these waters so well, I was able to give 'em the slip and get out into
open sea; and here I be! Ah, those were the days!"

The Captain heaved a heavy sigh for the lost joys of youth and was
silent for a moment. Then his eyes twinkled and he began another
story. "One day as we was skirtin' the shores of Martha's Vineyard,"
he said, "we were followed by a shark. Now, there 's nothing a sailor
hates worse than a shark; and for good reasons. They 're the pirates
of the deep; that 's what they are. They 'll follow a vessel for days,
snapping up whatever the cook throws out, and hoping somebody 'll
fall overboard to give 'em a full meal. Well, sir, there was a sailor
aboard on that voyage that had a special grudge against sharks. He 'd
been all but et up by one once, and he allowed this was his chance to
get even; so he let out a hook baited with a whole pound of salt pork,
and the shark gobbled it down instanter, hook and all. They hauled him
up the ship's side, and then that sailor let himself down over the
rails by a rope, and cut a hole in the shark's gullet, or whatever
they call the pouch the critter carries his supplies in, and took out
the pork. Then he dropped him back in the water and threw the pork in
after him. Well, sir, believe it or not, that shark sighted the pork
bobbing round in the water; so he swallowed it again. Of course it
dropped right out through the hole in his gullet, and, by jolly! as
long as we could see him that shark was continuing to swallow that
piece of pork over and over again. I don't know as I ever see any
animal get more pleasure out of his rations than that shark got out
of that pound of pork. I believe in bein' kind to dumb critters," he
finished, "and I reckon the shark is about the dumbdest there is.
Anyhow that one surely did die happy." Here the Captain solemnly
winked his eye.

"What became of the sailor?" asked Dan.

"That sa