ooked exceedingly
thoughtful when Cap'n Amazon broke away from those with whom he had
been talking and joined her.

"Nice man, that Reverend Jimson, I guess," the captain said, as they
wended their way homeward; "but he's got as many ways of holdin' a
feller as an octopus. And lemme tell you, that's a plenty! Arms seem
to grow on devilfish 'while you wait' as the feller said.

"I sha'n't ever forget the time I was a boy in the old _Mary Bedloe_
brig, out o' Boston, loaded with sundries for Jamaica, to bring back
molasses--and something a leetle mite stronger. That's 'bout as near
as I ever got to having traffic with liquor--and 'twas an unlucky
v'y'ge all the way through.

"Before we ever got the rum aboard," pursued Cap'n Amazon, "on our way
down there, our water went bad. Yes, sir! Water does get stringy
sometimes on long v'y'ges. It useter on whalin' cruises--get all
stringy and bad; but after she'd worked clear she'd be fit to drink
again.

"But this time in the _Mary Bedloe_ it was something mysterious
happened to the drinking water. Made the hull crew sick. Cap'n Jim
Braman was master. He was a good navigator, but an awful profane man.
Swore without no reason to it.

"Well----Where was I? Oh, yes! We had light airs in the Caribbean for
once, and didn't make no more headway in a day than a brick barge goin'
upstream. We come to an island--something more than a key--and Cap'n
Braman ordered a boat's crew ashore for water. I was in the second's
boat so I went. We found good water easy and the second officer, who
was a nice young chap, let us scour around on our own hook for fruit
and such, after we'd filled the barrels.

"I was all for shellfish them days, and I see some big mussels attached
to the rocks, it bein' low water. Some o' them mussels, when ye gut
'em same as ye would deep-sea clams, make the nicest fry you ever
tasted.

"Wal," said Cap'n Amazon, walking sedately home from church with his
amused niece on his arm, "I wanted a few of them mussels. There was a
mud bottom and so the water was black. Just as I reached for the first
mussel I felt something creeping around my left leg. I thought it was
eel-grass; then I thought it was an eel.

"Next thing I knowed it took holt like a leech in half a dozen places.
I jumped; but I didn't jump far. There was two o' the things had me,
and that left leg o' mine was fast as a duck's foot in the mud!"

"Oh, Uncle Amazon!" gasped Louise.