ilent wharf flanked with great
iron-roofed sheds fall of warm emptiness, and lay there without a sound.

Then Harvey sat down by the wheel, and sobbed and sobbed as though his
heart would break, and a tall woman who had been sitting on a
weigh-scale dropped down into the schooner and kissed Dan once on the
cheek; for she was his mother, and she had seen the _We're Here_ by the
lightning flashes. She took no notice of Harvey till he had recovered
himself a little and Disko had told her his story. Then they went to
Disko's house together as the dawn was breaking; and until the
telegraph office was open and he could wire his folk, Harvey Cheyne was
perhaps the loneliest boy in all America. But the curious thing was
that Disko and Dan seemed to think none the worse of him for crying.

Wouverman was not ready for Disko's prices till Disko, sure that the
_We're Here_ was at least a week ahead of any other Gloucester boat,
had given him a few days to swallow them; so all hands played about the
streets, and Long Jack stopped the Rocky Neck trolley, on principle, as
he said, till the conductor let him ride free. But Dan went about with
his freckled nose in the air, bung-full of mystery and most haughty to
his family.

"Dan, I'll hev to lay inter you ef you act this way," said Troop,
pensively. "Sence we've come ashore this time you've bin a heap too
fresh."

"I'd lay into him naow ef he was mine," said Uncle Salters, sourly. He
and Penn boarded with the Troops.

"Oho!" said Dan, shuffling with the accordion round the backyard, ready
to leap the fence if the enemy advanced. "Dad, you're welcome to your
own judgment, but remember I've warned ye. Your own flesh an' blood ha'
warned ye! 'Tain't any o' my fault ef you're mistook, but I'll be on
deck to watch ye. An' ez fer yeou, Uncle Salters, Pharaoh's chief
butler ain't in it 'longside o' you! You watch aout an' wait. You'll be
plowed under like your own blamed clover; but me--Dan Troop--I'll
flourish like a green bay-tree because I warn't stuck on my own
opinion."

Disko was smoking in all his shore dignity and a pair of beautiful
carpet-slippers. "You're gettin' ez crazy as poor Harve. You two go
araound gigglin' an' squinchin' an' kickin' each other under the table
till there's no peace in the haouse," said he.

"There's goin' to be a heap less--fer some folks," Dan replied. "You
wait an' see."

He and Harvey went out on the trolley to East Gloucester, where they
tram