makes the aged
Corbet a foogitive an a vagabond on the face of the mighty deep. Still
I have my consolations."

The captain paused for a few moments, and then resumed.

"Yes," he continued, "I have my consolations. Surroundins like these
here air a consolation. I like your young faces, an gay an airy ways,
boys. I like to see you enjoy life. So, go in. Pitch in. Go ahead.
Sing. Shout. Go on like mad. Carry on like all possessed, an you'll
find the aged Corbet smilin amid the din, an a flutterin of his
venerable locks triumphant amid the ragin an riotin elements."

"It's a comfort to know that, at any rate," said Tom. "We'll give you
enough of that before we leave, especially as we know it don't annoy
you."

"I don't know how it is," said the captain, solemnly, "but I begin to
feel a sort of somethin towards you youngsters that's very absorbin.
It's a kine o' anxious fondness, with a mixtoor of indulgent
tenderness. How ever I got to contract sech a feelin beats me. I
s'pose it's bein deprived of my babby, an exiled from home, an so my
vacant buzzom craves to be filled. I've got a dreadful talent for doin
the pariential, an what's more, not only for doin the pariential, but
for feelin of it. So you boys, ef ever you see me a doin of the
pariential towards youns, please remember that when I act like an
anxious an too indulgent parient towards youns, it's because I feel
like one."

For some hours they traversed the waters, carried swiftly on by the
united forces of the wind and tide. At last they found themselves
close by Blomidon, and under his mighty shadow they sailed for some
time. Then they doubled the cape, and there, before them, lay a long
channel--the Straits of Minas, through which the waters pour at every
ebb and flood. Their course now lay through this to the Bay of Fundy
outside; and as it was within two hours of the low tide, the current
ran swiftly, hurrying them rapidly past the land. Here the scene was
grand and impressive in the extreme. On one side arose a lofty,
precipitous cliff, which extended for miles, its sides scarred and
tempest-torn, its crest fringed with trees, towering overhead many
hundreds of feet, black, and menacing, and formidable. At its base was
a steep beach, disclosed by the retreating tide, which had been formed
by the accumulated masses of rock that had fallen in past ages from the
cliffs above. These now, from the margin of the water up to high-water
ma