CHAPTER I.

"Nautaeque, per omne
Audaces mare qui currunt, hac mente laborum
Sese ferre, senes ut in otia tuta recedunt,
Aiunt."
HORACE.

Captain Robert Bowline, a retired sea-captain, occupied a snug little
farm in the town of B----, one of the many pleasant villages on the
coast of New England. He had followed the sea for many years, acquired
considerable property, married, and had a family. When he had attained
his forty-fifth year, a relation of his wife died, leaving her heiress
to a very handsome estate, part of which was the farm aforesaid. In
consequence of this event he was easily persuaded by his wife, whom he
tenderly loved, to retire to private life, and leave the "vexed ocean"
to be ploughed by those who had their fortunes to make. They retired to
their farm, when the first act of the old Triton was to pull down the
antique house that had been erected "about the time of the old French
war," and build another more "ship-shape," and congenial to the taste
of a sailor. The dwelling itself was not, indeed, externally different
from any other of the snug-looking and rather handsome two-story houses
of substantial farmers, &c. in New England; but its internal economy was
somewhat nautical, containing numerous "lockers" and "store-rooms." Its
front gate-posts were composed of the two jaw-bones of an enormous
whale; the fence was of a most fanciful Chinese pattern; and directly in
front of the house was erected that never-failing ornament of a sailor's
dwelling, a tall flag-staff, with cap, cross-trees, and topmast,
complete; the last, always being kept "housed," except upon the 4th of
July, 22d of February, &c. At the foot of the flag-staff, "hushed in
grim repose," was an iron six-pounder, mounted upon a ship gun-carriage,
ready for service, whenever any national holyday required its voice. The
house fronted the sea; a most superb view of which it commanded, but was
at the same time screened from its storms in great measure by being
flanked by noble old elms, and a fine orchard, which almost entirely
surrounded it; while in the rear the ground swelled into a thickly
wooded hill of moderate height. The ground in front sloped gently down
to the water's edge, at the distance of half a mile from the house, but
to the left gradually rose into a high point, or headland, terminating
in a rocky cliff that strode far out into the sea,