fferent footing from
that of nine years before, for this was a very different Levi from
that other. Nevertheless, he was none the less popular in the barroom
of the tavern and at the country store, where he was always the center
of a group of loungers. His nine years seemed to have been crowded
full of the wildest of wild adventures and happenings, as well by land
as by sea, and, given an appreciative audience, he would reel off his
yarns by the hour, in a reckless, devil-may-care fashion that set
agape even old sea dogs who had sailed the western ocean since
boyhood. Then he seemed always to have plenty of money, and he loved
to spend it at the tavern taproom, with a lavishness that was at once
the wonder and admiration of gossips.

[Illustration: Colonel Rhett and the Pirate

_Illustration from_
COLONIES AND NATION

_by_ Woodrow Wilson

_Originally published in_
HARPER'S MAGAZINE, _May_, 1901]

At that time, as was said, Blueskin was the one engrossing topic of
talk, and it added not a little to Levi's prestige when it was found
that he had actually often seen that bloody, devilish pirate with his
own eyes. A great, heavy, burly fellow, Levi said he was, with a beard
as black as a hat--a devil with his sword and pistol afloat, but not
so black as he was painted when ashore. He told of many adventures in
which Blueskin figured and was then always listened to with more than
usual gaping interest.

As for Blueskin, the quiet way in which the pirates conducted
themselves at Indian River almost made the Lewes folk forget what he
could do when the occasion called. They almost ceased to remember that
poor shattered schooner that had crawled with its ghastly dead and
groaning wounded into the harbor a couple of weeks since. But if for a
while they forgot who or what Blueskin was, it was not for long.

One day a bark from Bristol, bound for Cuba and laden with a valuable
cargo of cloth stuffs and silks, put into Lewes harbor to take in
water. The captain himself came ashore and was at the tavern for two
or three hours. It happened that Levi was there and that the talk was
of Blueskin. The English captain, a grizzled old sea dog, listened to
Levi's yarns with not a little contempt. He had, he said, sailed in
the China Sea and the Indian Ocean too long to be afraid of any
hog-eating Yankee pirate such as this Blueskin. A junk full of coolies
armed with stink-pots was something to speak of, but who ever heard of
the li