were fairly bulging from his round
black face and, having drawn as near the story-teller as he could, he
mopped one spot until Dolly called out:

"That'll do, Metty, boy! Tackle another board. Mustn't wear out the
deck with your neatness!"

Whereupon old Captain Hurry swung his crutch around and caught the
youngster with such suddenness that he pitched head-first into his own
big bucket. Freeing himself with a howl, he raised his mop as high as
his strength would allow and brought it down upon the captain's
glittering cap.

It was the seaman's turn to howl and an ill-matched fight would have
followed if Jim hadn't caught the pickaninny away and Dorothy seized
the cripple's headgear before it suffered any great harm. Gently
brushing it with her handkerchief she restored it to its owner's head,
with the remark:

"Don't mind Metty, Cap'n Jack. He means well, every time, only he has
a little too hasty a temper. He never heard such wonderful stories
before--nor I, either, for that matter. Did you, boys?"

She had believed them wholly, but Jim had begun to doubt; and Melvin
was bold enough to say:

"I've sailed a good many times between New York and Yarmouth, Nova
Scotia, but I never saw--I mean, I haven't happened, don't you know? I
wouldn't fancy being out alone in a cat-boat and having a devil-fish
rise up alongside that way. I----"

"Young man, do you doubt my word, sir?" demanded the Captain, rising
with all the dignity his lameness and the dropping of his crutch would
allow.

"Oh! no, sir. I doubt nothing--nothing, sir. The Judge says the world
is full of marvels and I fancy, your encounter with that giant squid
is one of them. You should have that story published, Captain. You
should, don't you know?"

Melvin's blue eyes twinkled but the otherwise gravity of his face
harmlessly deceived the old seaman and brought back his good temper.

"Reckon I'll go aloft and make out my log," he remarked, with an air
of importance, and stumped forward to his "bridge" above stairs. These
he ascended, as before, by a hand-over-hand climb of the baluster, his
crutches dragging behind; and it was this nimbleness of arm which
convinced the watchers, far more than his impossible yarns had done,
that he had indeed once been a sailor and could ascend the rigging of
a ship.

Then soon came supper and again such hearty appetites were brought to
it that Mrs. Bruce wondered how so much good food could disappear at
one meal. Als