aground down here. I started early this morning to go down
to Vinal Haven; but I'm dished now, and can't go," continued Captain
Shivernock, so interlarding with oaths this simple statement that it
looks like another thing divested of them.

"Where did you get aground?" asked Donald.

"Down by Seal Harbor."

"About three miles from here."

"Do you think I lied to you?"

"By no means, sir."

Donald could not divine how the captain had got aground near Seal
Harbor, if he was bound from Belfast to Vinal Haven, though it was
possible that the wind had been more to the southward early in the
morning, compelling him to beat down the bay; but it was not prudent to
question anything the captain said.

"I ran in shore pretty well, and took the ground. I tried for half an
hour to get the Juno off, but I was soon left high and dry on the beach.
I anchored her where she was, and I'm sorry now I didn't set her afire,"
explained the captain.

"Set her afire!" exclaimed Donald.

"That's what I said. She shall never play me such a trick again,"
growled the strange man.

"Why, it wasn't the fault of the boat."

"Do you mean to say it was my fault?" demanded the captain, ripping out
a string of oaths that made Donald shiver.

"It was an accident which might happen to any one."

"Do you think I didn't know what I was about?"

"I suppose you did, sir; but any boat may get aground."

"Not with me! if she did I'd burn her or sell her for old junk. I never
will sail in her again after I get home. I know what I'm about."

"Of course you do, sir."

"Got a boat here?" suddenly demanded the eccentric.

"Yes, sir; I have our sail-boat."

"Take me down to Seal Harbor in her," added the captain, rising from his
seat.

"I don't think I can go, sir."

"Don't you? What's the reason you can't?" asked the captain, with a
sneer on his lips.

"I have to meet the yacht club here."

Captain Shivernock cursed the yacht club with decided unction, and
insisted that Donald should convey him in his boat to the place where
the Juno was at anchor.

"I have to measure the yachts when they come, sir."

"Measure--" but the place the captain suggested was not capable of
measurement. "I'll pay you well for going."

"I should not ask any pay if I could go," added Donald, glancing up the
bay to see if the fleet was under way.

"I say I will pay you well, and you will be a fool if you don't go with
me."

"The yachts haven't started yet