little sailboat Dolphin, which chanced
just then to be in the market. This was in the latter part of May.

Three shares, at five or six dollars each, I forget which, had already
been taken by Phil Adams, Fred Langdon, and Binny Wallace. The fourth
and remaining share hung fire. Unless a purchaser could be found for
this, the bargain was to fall through.

I am afraid I required but slight urging to join in the investment.
I had four dollars and fifty cents on hand, and the treasurer of the
Centipedes (a secret society, composed of twelve boys of the Temple
Grammar School, Rivermouth) advanced me the balance, receiving my silver
pencil-case as ample security. It was a proud moment when I stood on the
wharf with my partners, inspecting the Dolphin, moored at the foot of a
very slippery flight of steps. She was painted white with a green stripe
outside, and on the stern a yellow dolphin, with its scarlet mouth wide
open, stared with a surprised expression at its own reflection in the
water. The boat was a great bargain.

I whirled my cap in the air, and ran to the stairs leading down from the
wharf, when a hand was laid gently on my shoulder. I turned, and faced
Captain Nutter (2 Tom Bailey's grandfather.) I never saw such an old
sharp-eye as he was in those days.

I knew he would not be angry with me for buying a rowboat; but I also
knew that the little bowsprit suggesting a jib and the tapering mast
ready for its few square feet of canvas were trifles not likely to meet
his approval. As far as rowing on the river, among the wharves, was
concerned, the Captain had long since withdrawn his decided objections,
having convinced himself, by going out with me several times, that I
could manage a pair of sculls as well as anybody.

I was right in my surmises. He commanded me, in the most emphatic
terms, never to go out in the Dolphin without leaving the mast in the
boat-house. This curtailed my anticipated sport, but the pleasure of
having a pull whenever I wanted it remained. I never disobeyed the
Captain's orders touching the sail, though I sometimes extended my row
beyond the points he has indicated.

The river was dangerous for sailboats. Squalls, without the slightest
warning, were of frequent occurrence; scarcely a year passed that three
or four persons were not drowned under the very windows of the town,
and these, oddly enough, were generally sea-captains, who either did not
understand the river, or lacked the skil