he always wore loose pantaloons,--white in summer, and blue in
winter,--and a sort of tarpaulin hat, with long blue ribbons tied around
it, the ends flowing off behind like the pennant of a man-of-war.

Captain Hardy was known to everybody as a generous, warm-hearted, and
harmless man; but he was thought to be equally improvident. The poor had
a constant friend in him. No beggar ever asked the Captain for a
shilling without getting it, if the Captain had a shilling anywhere
about him. Sometimes he had plenty of money, yet when at home he always
lived in a frugal, homely way. Great was the rejoicing therefore, among
his friends (and they were many), when it was known that he had fallen
in with a streak of good fortune. Having been instrumental in saving the
British bark _Dauntless_ from shipwreck, the insurance companies had
awarded him a liberal salvage, and it was to secure this that he had
gone away on his last voyage. As soon as he came home he went right off
and bought the house which we have before described, with the money he
brought back; and for once got the credit of doing a prudent thing.

The old man's happiness seemed now complete. "Here," exclaimed he,
"Heaven willing, I will bring the old craft to an anchor, and end my
days in peace." But after the excitement of fitting up his house and
grounds, and getting his little yacht in order, had passed over, he
began to feel a little lonely. He was so far away from the village that
he could not meet his old friends as often as he wished to. We have seen
that he was a great talker; and he liked so much to talk, and thus to
"fight his battles over again," as it were, and he had so much to talk
about, that an audience was quite necessary to him. It is not
improbable, therefore, that he looked upon his meeting with William and
Fred and Alice as a fortunate event for him; and if the children were
delighted, so was he. He was very fond of children, and these were
children after his own heart. To them the coming story was a great
event,--how great the reader could scarcely understand, unless he knew
how much every boy in Rockdale was envied by all the other boys, big and
little, when he was known to have been especially picked out by Captain
Hardy to be the listener to some tale of adventure on the sea.

CHAPTER III.

Which Shows the Old Man To Be a Man of His Word.

As we may well suppose, the Captain's little friends did not tarry at
home next day beyond t