a love of liberty and independence, is productive of much
good, when the parties happen to be right, and of quite as much evil, when
they happen to be wrong. It is ever the wisest, as, indeed, it is the
noblest course, to defer to that which is just, with a perfect reliance on
its being the course pointed out by the finger of infallible wisdom and
truth. He who does this, need feel no concern for his dignity, or for his
success; being certain that it is intended that right shall prevail in the
end, as prevail it will and does. But both our shipmasters were too much
excited to feel the force of these truths; and there they stood, sternly
regarding each other, as if it were their purpose to commence a new
struggle for the possession of the leviathan of the deep.

"Captain Daggett," said Roswell, sharply, "you are too old a whaler not to
know whaling law. My irons were first in this fish; I never have been
loose from it, since it was first struck, and my lance killed it. Under
such circumstances, sir, I am surprised that any man, who knows the usages
among whalers, should have stuck by the creature as you have done."

"It's in my natur', Gar'ner," was the answer. "I stuck by you when you
was dismasted under Hatteras, and I stick by everything that I undertake.
This is what I call Vineyard natur'; and I'm not about to discredit my
native country."

"This is idle talk," returned Roswell, casting a severe glance at the men
in the Vineyard boat, among whom a common smile arose, as if they highly
approved of the reply of their own officer. "You very well know that
Vineyard law cannot settle such a question, but American law. Were you man
enough to take this whale from me, as I trust you are not, on our return
home you could be and would be made to pay smartly for the act. Uncle Sam
has a long arm, with which he sometimes reaches round the whole earth.
Before you proceed any further in this matter, it may be well to remember
that."

Daggett reflected; and it is probable that, as he cooled off from the
excitement created by his late exertions, he fully recognised the justice
of the other's remarks, and the injustice of his own claims. Still, it
seemed to him un-American, un-Vineyard, if the reader please, to "give
up;" and he clung to his error with as much pertinacity as if he had been
right.

"If you are fast, I am fast, too. I'm not so certain of your law. When a
man puts an iron into a whale, commonly it is his fish, if h