ly he closed his knife with
a click and suddenly piped out in a high, shrill voice:

"No! Do you?"

"I--er--do I what?" It had taken the old man so long to answer that
Cleggett had forgotten his own question, and the shrill fierceness of
the voice was disconcerting.

He regarded Cleggett contemptuously, spat on the deck, and then
demanded truculently:

"D'ye want to buy any seed potatoes?"

"Why--er, no," said Cleggett.

"Humph!" said the brown one, with the air of meaning that it was only
to be expected of an idiot like Cleggett that he would NOT want to buy
any seed potatoes. But after a further embarrassing silence he
relented enough to give Cleggett another chance.

"You want some seed corn!" he announced rather than asked.

"No. I------"

"Tomato plants!" shrilled the brown one, as if daring him to deny it.

"No."

He turned his back on Cleggett, as if he had lost interest, and began
to wind up his fishing line on a squeaky reel.

"Who owns this boat?" Cleggett touched him on the elbow.

"Thinkin' of buyin' her?"

"Perhaps. Who owns her?"

"What would you do with her?"

"I might fix her up and sail her. Who owns her?"

"She'll take a sight o' fixin'."

"No doubt. Who did you say owned her?"

The old man, who had finished with the rusty reel, deigned to look at
Cleggett again.

"Dunno as I said."

"But who DOES own her?"

"She's stuck fast in the mud and her rudder's gone."

"I see you know a lot about ships," said Cleggett, deferentially,
giving up the attempt to find out who owned her. "I picked you out for
an old sailor the minute I saw you." He thought he detected a kindlier
gleam in the old man's eye as that person listened to these words.

"The' ain't a stick in her," said the ancient fisherman. "She's got no
wheel and she's got no nothin'. She used to be used as a kind of a
barroom and dancin' platform till the fellow that used her for such
went out o' business."

He paused, and then added:

"What might your name be?"

"Cleggett."

He appeared to reflect on the name. But he said:

"If you was to ask me, I'd say her timbers is sound."

"Tell me," said Cleggett, "was she a deep-water ship? Could a ship
like her sail around the world, for instance? I can tell that you know
all about ships."

Something like a grin of gratified vanity began to show on the brown
one's features. He leaned back against the rail and looked at Cleggett
with the dawn of approva