and
sputterin' like a pair of fried eels, and Lafayette Gage and Emulous
Peters--they're Denboro folks, Mr. Ellery, and about sixteen p'ints
t'other side of no account--they was the only passengers aboard except
Nat Hammond, and they put in their time playin' high low jack in the
cabin. The lookout was for'ard tootin' a tin horn and his bellerin'
was the most excitin' thing goin' on. After dinner--corned beef and
cabbage--trust Zach for that, though it's next door to cannibalism to
put cabbage in HIS mouth--after dinner all hands was on deck when Nat
says: 'Hush!' he says. 'Don't I hear somethin'?'

"They listened, and then they all heard it--all 'cept Zach, who's deef
in his larboard ear.

"'Stand by!' roars Nat. 'It's a squall, dead astern and comin' abilin'!
I'll take her, 'Bije. You look out for them tops'ls.'

"So Nat grabs the wheel and 'Bije tears for'ard and sends the two
fo'mast hands aloft on the jump. Zach was skipper, but all he done was
race around and holler and trip over his own feet. Oh, he's a prize
sailor, he is! Don't talk to me about them Fosters! I--"

"Nobody is talkin' about 'em but you, Zeb," observed Keziah drily. "Go
on. How about the squall?"

"It hit 'em 'fore they got even one tops'l clewed down. That one, the
foretops'l 'twas, split to rags. The main tops'l was set, and when the
squall struck, the rotten old topmast went by the board 'Kerrash-o!'
'Course splinters flew like all possessed, and one of 'em, about a foot
long, sailed past Nat's head, where he stood heavin' his whole weight on
the wheel, and lit right on the binnacle, smashin' it to matches.

"They say Nat never paid the least attention, no more'n if the chunk of
wood had been a June bug buzzin' past. He just held that wheel hard down
and that saved the packet. She come around and put her nose dead in
the wind just in time. As 'twas, 'Bije says there was a second when the
water by her lee rail looked right underneath him as he hung onto the
deck with finger nails and teeth.

"Well, there they was, afloat, but with their upper riggin' gone and
the compass smashed flat. A howlin' no'thwester blowin' and fog thick as
ever. Zach was a whimperin', fidgetin' old woman, Lafayette and Emulous
was prayin' in the scuppers--and that ain't an exercise they're used to,
neither--and even 'Bije was mighty shook up and worried--he says he was
himself. But Nat Hammond was as cool and refreshin' as the bottom of my
well up home.

"'Bet