, instead of waning, as I had hoped. Our prosperous
farm was given over entirely to the demands of his ship-yard, and
when his sons, Shem, Ham and Japhet came along he directed all their
education along lines of seamanship. He fed them even in their tender
years upon hard-tack and grog. Up to the time when they were two
hundred years old he made them sleep in their cradles, which he kept
rocking continuously so that they would get used to the motion, and
would be able to go to sea when the time came without suffering from
sea-sickness. All clocks were thrust bodily out of his house, and if
anybody ever stopped at the farm to inquire the time of day he was
informed that it was "twenty minutes past six bells," or "nineteen
minutes of three bells," or some other unmeaning balderdash according
to the position of the sun. When the farmhouse needed painting,
instead of renewing the soft and lovely white that had made it a
grateful sight to the eye for centuries, Noah had it covered with
pitch from roof to cellar, until the whole neighborhood began to smell
like a tar barrel. And then he began his work upon this precious ark
of his--Noah's Folly, the neighbors called it; placed in the middle of
our old cow-pasture, twenty-five miles from the sea; about as big as a
summer hotel, and filled with stalls instead of state-rooms! He
mortgaged the farm to pay the first instalment on it, and when I asked
him how on earth he ever expected to liquidate the indebtedness he
smilingly replied that the deluge would take care of everything that
stood in need of liquidation when the date of maturity came round. He
was even flippant on the subject.

"Don't talk about falling dew," he remarked. "There'll be something
dewing around here before many days that will make you landlubbers
wish your rubbers were eight or nine million sizes larger than the
ones you bought last February; and as for liquidation--well, father
dear, you can take my word for it that when this mortgage of mine is
presented at my office for payment by its present holder there will be
liquid enough around to float a new bond issue in case I can't pay in
spot cash. If that is not satisfactory to my creditors, you still need
not worry. I have a definite fund in mind that will take care of
them."

"That is a relief," said I, innocently. "But may I ask what fund you
refer to?"

"Certainly, father dear," he replied. "I refer to the Sinking Fund
which will be in full working ord