when chance threw in
his way a book he had not read, or a stranger who could reinforce his
stock of information. At the other corner of the fire-place, in a
cushioned chair, which was always given to him when he dropped in to
spend an evening with the blacksmith, sat Mr. Harberry, an elderly man,
a man of substance, and a man in whom all Riprock, not excluding
himself, placed unqualified confidence as to his veracity, his
financial soundness, and his deep insight into the causes, the
influences, and the final issue of events and conditions.

"On a night like this," said the stranger, stretching his long legs
toward the blaze, "there is nothing I like better than a fire of wood,
except indeed it be the society of ladies who do not object to a little
tobacco smoke," and he glanced with a smile toward the table with a
lamp upon it.

Now blacksmith Fryker was a prudent man, and he did not consider that
the privileges of his hearthstone--always freely granted to a decent
stranger--included an acquaintance with his pretty daughter; and so,
without allowing his women-folk a chance to enter into the
conversation, he offered the stranger a different subject to hammer
upon.

"In the lower country," said he, "they don't need fires as early in the
season as we do. What calling do you follow, sir? Some kind of trade,
perhaps?"

"No," said the traveller, "I follow no trade; I follow the sea."

At this the three men looked at him, as also the two women. His
appearance no more suggested that he was a seaman than the appearance
of Mr. Harberry suggested that he was what the village of Riprock
believed him to be. "I should not have taken you for a sailor," said
the blacksmith.

"I am not a sailor," said the other; "I am a soldier; a sea-soldier--in
fact, a marine."

"I should say, sir," remarked the school-master, in a manner intended
rather to draw out information than to give it, "that the position of a
soldier on a ship possessed advantages over that of a soldier on land.
The former is not required to make long marches, nor to carry heavy
baggage. He remains at rest, in fact, while traversing great distances.
Nor is he called on to resist the charges of cavalry, nor to form
hollow squares on the deadly battle-field."

The stranger smiled. "We often find it hard enough," said he, "to
resist the charges made against us by our officers; the hollow squares
form themselves in our stomachs when we are on short rations; and I
h