"

"You're right," said Brother Bart: "And, though you haven't the true
faith, you seem to be a Christian yourself. What is your name, my good
man?"

"Jeroboam Jimson," was the answer. "Leastways that was what I was
christened, my mother going in heavy for Scripture names. I had a twin
brother Nebuchanezzar. Sort of mouth-filling for general use, so we was
naturally shortened down to Neb and Jeb. Most folks call me Jeb yet."

"It comes easier," said Brother Bart; "though I'd never think of giving it
to a man of your years. It seems a pity, with the Litany of the Saints
convenient, to have to go back so far for a name. But that is no fault of
yours, as God knows. Have you been living long in this place we are going
to?"

"More than five and forty years," was the answer,--"since the 'Lady Jane'
struck the rocks off Killykinick, November 27, 1865. I was second mate to
old Captain Kane; and I stood by him until last May, when he took the
cruise that every man has to make by himself. And I'm standing by his ship
'cording to orders yet. 'Blood is thicker than water, mate,' he says to
me; 'I've got to leave all that I have to little Polly Raynor's boy, but
you're to stick to the ship as long as you live. I've hed that put down in
the log with my name to it, and priest and lawyer and doctor as witness.
You're Captain Jeroboam Jimson of the "Lady Jane," in my place, and thar
ain't no land sharks nor water sharks can bother ye.' I lay that's the
chap he called Polly's boy," said Captain Jeb, turning his eyes on Freddy,
who, seated at Brother Bart's side, had been listening, with flattering
interest, to the old sailor's conversation.

"Yes," he spoke up eagerly, "my mother was Polly. Did you know her?"

"I did," said Captain Jeb, nodding. "She came down here once as a bit of a
girl, dancing over the sands like a water kelpie. The old Captain didn't
care much for women folks, but he was sot on her sure. Then she come down
agin as a bride, purty and shy and sweet; but the old man warn't so
pleased then,--growled he didn't know what girls wanted to get married
for, nohow. So you're her boy!" The old man's eyes softened as they rested
on Freddy. "You've got a sort of look of her, though you ain't as
pretty,--not nigh."

Meanwhile the "Sary Ann," her tawny sail swelling in the wind, had left
the gay beach and bathers and boat club of Beach Cliff, and was making the
swell of the waves like a sea bird on the wing.

"Easy now, la