llingate schooner, with the first shore-fish. A
Barbadoes cruise again. Then a v'y'ge out China way. Queer how the
flea-bite o' travel will itch! An' so long as it itched I kep' on
scratchin'. 'Twas over two years afore I got a good long breath o' the
fogs o' these parts again. An' by this time a miracle had happened on
the Labrador. The good Lord had surprised Mary Mull at Come-By-Guess
Harbor. Ay, lads! At last Mary Mull had what she wanted. An' I had a
godson. Tobias Tumm Mull had sot out on his cruise o' the seas o' this
life. News o' all this cotched me when I landed at St. John's. 'Twas
in a letter from Mary Mull herself.

"'Ecod!' thinks I, as I read; 'she'll never be content until she
flaunts that child on the roads o' Tinkle Tickle.'

"An' 'twas true. 'Twas said so in the letter. They was movin' back t'
Tinkle Tickle, says she, in the fall o' the year, t' live for good an'
all. An' as for Tim, says she, a man jus' wouldn't believe how tickled
he was.

"Me, too, ecod! I was tickled. Deep down in my heart I blessed the
fortune that had come t' Mary Mull. An' I was fair achin' t' knock the
breath out o' Tim with a clap on the back. 'Queer,' thinks I, 'how
good luck may be delayed. An' the longer luck waits,' thinks I, 'the
better it seems an' the more 'tis welcome.'

"'Twas an old letter, this, from Mary; 'twas near a year old. They was
already back at Tinkle Tickle. An' so I laid in a silver spoon an' a
silver mug, marked 'Toby' in fine fashion, against the time I might
land at the Tickle. But I went clerk on the _Call Again_ out o' Chain
Harbor, that spring; an' 'twas not until midsummer that I got the
chance t' drop in t' see how my godson was thrivin'. Lyin' here at
Soap-an'-Water Harbor, one night, in stress o' weather, as now we lies
here, I made up mind, come what might, that I'd run over t' Tinkle
Tickle an' give the mug an' the spoon t' wee Toby when the gale should
oblige us. 'July!' thinks I. 'Well, well! An' here it is the
seventeenth o' the month. I'll drop in on the nineteenth an' help
celebrate the first birthday o' that child. 'Twill be a joyous
occasion by Fo'c's'le Head. An' I'll have the schooner decked out in
her best, an' guns poppin'; an' I'll have Tim Mull aboard, when 'tis
over, for a small nip o' rum.'

"But when Tim Mull come aboard at Tinkle Tickle t' greet me, I was
fair aghast an' dismayed. Never afore had he looked so woebegone an'
wan. Red eyes peerin' out from two black caves;