r
gentle hand, while Cap'n Abe talked.

It was a story that brought to the eyes of the sympathetic girl the
sting of tears as well as bubbling laughter to her lips. And in it all
she found something almost heroic as well as ridiculous.

"My mother marked me," said Cap'n Abe. "Poor mother! I was born with
her awful horror of the ravenin' sea as she saw the Bravo an' Cap'n
Josh go down. I knew it soon--when I was only a little child. I knew
I was set apart from other Silts, who had all been seafarin' men since
the beginnin' of time.

"And yet I loved the sea, Niece Louise. The magic of it, its mystery,
its romance and its wonders; all phases of the sea and seafarin'
charmed me. But I could not step foot in a boat without almost
swoonin' with fright, and the sight of the sea in its might filled me
with terror.

"Ah, me! You can have no idea what pains I suffered as a boy because
of this fear," said Cap'n Abe. "I dreamed of voyagin' into unknown
seas--of seein' the islands of the West and of the East--of visitin'
all the wonderful corners of the world--of facin' all the perils and
experiencin' all the adventures of a free rover. And what was my fate?

"The tamest sort of a life," he said, answering his own question. "The
flattest existence ever man could imagine. Hi-mighty! Instead of a
sea rover--a storekeeper! Instead of romance--Sargasso!" and he
gestured with his pipe in his hand. "You understand, Louise? That's
what I meant when I spoke of the Sargasso Sea t'other day. It was my
doom to live in the tideless and almost motionless Sea of Sargasso.

"But my mind didn't stay tame ashore," pursued Cap'n Abe. "As a boy I
fed it upon all the romances of the sea I could gather. Ye-as. I
suppose I am greatly to be blamed. I have been a hi-mighty liar,
Louise!

"It began because I heard so many other men tellin' of their
adventoors, an' I couldn't tell of none. My store at Rocky Head where
I lived all my life till I come here (mother came over to Cardhaven
with her second husband; but I stayed on there till twenty-odd year
ago)--my store there was like this one. There's allus a lot of old
barnacles like Cap'n Joab and Washy Gallup clingin' to such reefs as
this.

"So I heard unendin' experiences of men who had gone to sea. And at
night I read everything I could get touchin' on, an' appertainin' to,
sea-farin'. In my mind I've sailed the seven seas, charted unknown
waters, went through all the