and necessary at
times, but you would better send them over in some other vessel. The
'Horn o' Plenty' has never carried any thing that to look at, to
taste, or to smell, did not delight the souls of old and young. I am
sure you cannot say that of these commodities. If I were to put such
things on board my ship, it would break the spell which more than
fifty savory voyages have thrown around it."

There were sailors who sailed upon that sea who used to say that
sometimes, when the weather was hazy and they could not see far, they
would know they were about to meet the "Horn o' Plenty" before she
came in sight; her planks and timbers, and even her sails and masts,
had gradually become so filled with the odor of good things that the
winds that blew over her were filled with an agreeable fragrance.

There was another thing about which Captain Covajos was very
particular; he always liked to arrive at one of his ports a few days
before Christmas. Never, in the course of his long life, had the old
sailor spent a Christmas at sea; and now that he had his fine
grandchildren to help make the holidays merry, it would have grieved
him very much if he had been unable to reach one or the other of his
ports in good season. His jolly old vessel was generally heavily
laden, and very slow, and there were many days of calms on that sea
when she did not sail at all, so that her voyages were usually very,
very long. But the Captain fixed the days of sailing so as to give
himself plenty of time to get to the other end of his course before
Christmas came around.

One spring, however, he started too late, and when he was about the
middle of his voyage, he called to him Baragat Bean, his old
boatswain. This venerable sailor had been with the Captain ever since
he had commanded the "Horn o' Plenty," and on important occasions he
was always consulted in preference to the other officers, none of
whom had served under Captain Covajos more then fifteen or twenty
years.

"Baragat," said the Captain, "we have just passed the Isle of
Guinea-Hens. You can see its one mountain standing up against the sky
to the north."

"Aye, aye, sir," said old Baragat; "there she stands, the same as
usual."

"That makes it plain," said the Captain, "that we are not yet
half-way across, and I am very much afraid that I shall not be able
to reach my dear daughter's house before Christmas."

"That would be doleful, indeed," said Baragat; "but I've feared
some