there would be no
great thieving sin to be laid to his account; for every bead he had about
him wouldn't serve to pay his ferryage. I could carry all the gold on his
neck in my eye, and see none the worse for its company. But it is a shame
to stop the entrance into a licensed tavern, with such a mob, as if it
were an embargoed port; and so I nave sent the woman after her valuables,
and all the idlers, as you see, in her wake."

Joe Joram gazed on the speaker like a man enthralled by some mysterious
charm; neither answering nor altering the direction of his eye, for near a
minute. Then, suddenly breaking out in a deep and powerful laugh, as if he
were not backward in enjoying the artifice, which certainly had produced
the effect of removing the crowd from his own door to that of the absent
tailor, he flourished his arm in the way of greeting, and
exclaimed,--"Welcome, tarry Bob; welcome, old boy, welcome! From what
cloud have you fallen? and before what wind have you been running, that
Newport is again your harbour?"

"Too many questions to be answered in an open roadstead, friend Joram; and
altogether too dry a subject for a husky conversation. When I am birthed
in one of your inner cabins, with a mug of flip and a kid of good Rhode
Island beef within grappling distance, why, as many questions as you
choose, and as many answers, you know, as suits my appetite."

"And who's to pay the piper, honest Bob? whose ship's purser will pay your
check now?" continued the publican, showing the old sailor in, however,
with a readiness that seemed to contradict the doubt, expressed by his
words, of any reward for such extraordinary civility.

"Who?" interrupted the other, displaying the money so lately received from
Wilder, in such a manner that it might be seen by the few by-standers who
remained, as though he would himself furnish a sufficient apology for the
distinguished manner in which he was received; "who but this gentleman? I
can boast of being backed by the countenance of his Sacred Majesty
himself, God bless him!"

"God bless him!" echoed several of the loyal lieges; and that too in a
place which has since heard such very different cries, and where the
words would now excite nearly as much surprise, though far less alarm,
than an earthquake.

"God bless him!" repeated Joram, opening the door of an inner room, and
pointing the way to his customer, "and all that are favored with his
countenance! Walk in, old Bob, and