later, was ticketed with the name of Alpheus Vandergraff
Parker Davidson--'Allie' for short.

"And Allie was a good deal of an exhibit, in his way. His togs were cut
to fit his spars, and he carried 'em well--no wrinkles at the peak or
sag along the boom. His figurehead was more'n average regular, and his
hair was combed real nice--the part in the middle of it looked like it
had been laid out with a plumb-line. Also, he had on white shoes and
glory hallelujah stockings. Altogether, he was alone with the price of
admission, and what some folks, I s'pose, would have called a handsome
enough young feller. But I didn't like his eyes; they looked kind of
tired, as if they'd seen 'bout all there was to see of some kinds of
life. Twenty-four year old eyes hadn't ought to look that way.

"But I wasn't interested in eyes jest then. All I could look at was
teeth. There they was, a lovely set of 'em, in the mouth of the ugliest
specimen of a bow-legged bulldog that ever tried to hang itself at the
end of a chain. Allie was holding t'other end of the chain with both
hands, and they were full, at that. The dog stood up on his hind legs
and pawed the air with his front ones, and his tongue hung out and
dripped. You could see he was yearning, just dying, to taste of a
middle-aged longshoreman by the name of Obed Nickerson. I stared at
the dog, and he stared at me. I don't know which of us was the most
interested.

"'Here, you!' says Allie again. 'What are you crossing this field for?'

"I heard him, but I was too busy counting teeth to pay much attention.
'You ought to feed that dog,' I says, absent-minded like. 'He's hungry.'

"'Humph!' says he. 'Well, maybe he'll be fed in a minute. Did you see
those signs?'

"'Yes,' says I; 'I saw 'em. They're real neat and pretty.'

"'Pretty!' He fairly choked, he was so mad. 'Why, you cheeky,
long-legged jay,' he says, 'I'll--What are you crossing this field for?'

"'So's to get to t'other side of it, I guess,' says I. I was riling up a
bit myself. You see, when a feller's been mate of a schooner, like I've
been in my day, it don't come easy to be called names. It looked for a
minute as if Allie was going to have a fit, but he choked it down.

"'Look here!' he says. 'I know who you are. Just because the gov'ner
has been soft enough to let you countrymen walk all over him, it don't
foller that I'm going to be. I'm boss here for this summer. My name's--'
He told me his name, and how his da