ight beat a Rockport granite sloop. Ever hear of the
Henry Clay Parker, Mister Billie Simms, and the little licking she
gave this winner of yours? No? Well, you want to go around and have a
drink or two with the boys next time you're ashore and get the news.
It was like a dogfish and a mackerel--the Henry just eat her up. And
there's the others. Why, this one underneath us'd make a holy show of
her, I'll bet. And there's half a dozen others. There's the--oh,
what's the use?"

"Oh, Eddie Parsons, a perfect lady and coming in like a high-stepper
and yet you must malign her beauty and make light of her virtue," and
Clancy jammed Parsons's sou'wester down over his eyes--"hush up,
Eddie."

Into the harbor and after the Victory heaved another one. And she was
the real thing--handsome, fast and able. And she had a record for
bringing the fish home--an able vessel and well-known for it. She
could carry whole sails when some of the others were double-reefed and
thinking of dragging trysails out of the hold. And her skipper was a
wonder.

"You c'n cut all the others out--here comes the real thing. Here's the
old dog himself. Did he ever miss a blow? And look at him. Every man
comes in here to-day under four lowers, no more, and some under
reefed mains'l, or trys'l, but four whole lowers ain't enough for this
gentleman--not for Wesley. He must carry that gaff-tops'l if he pulls
the planks out of her. He always brings her home, but if some of the
underwriters'd see him out here they'd soon blacklist him till he
mended his ways. It's a blessed wonder he ain't found bottom before
this. Look at her now skating on her ear. There she goes--if they'd
just lower a man over the weather rail with a line on him he could
write his name on her keel!"

And she certainly was something to make a man's eyes stick out. There
had been a vessel or two that staggered before, but the Lucy fairly
rolled down into it, and there was no earthly reason why she should do
it except that it pleased her skipper to sport that extra kite.

She boiled up from the end of the jetty, and her wake was the wake of
a screw steamer. She had come from home, we knew, and so it happened
she was one of the last to get in. The harbor was crowded as she
straightened out. We knew she would not have too much leeway coming
on, and what berth she was after kept everybody guessing.

"If she goes where's she pointing--and most vessels do--she'll find a
berth down on the beac