leggett loved her at first sight.

Within an hour after he had first seen her he was in Mr. Abraham
Goldberg's office.

As he was concluding his purchase--Mr. Goldberg having phoned
Cleggett's bankers--he was surprised to discover that he was buying
about half an acre of Long Island real estate along with her. For that
matter he had thought it a little odd in the first place when he had
been directed to a real estate agent as the owner of the craft. But as
he knew very little about business, and nothing at all about ships, he
assumed that perhaps it was quite the usual thing for real estate
dealers to buy and sell ships abutting on the coast of Long Island.

"I had only intended to buy the vessel," said Cleggett. "I don't know
that I'll be able to use the land."

Mr. Goldberg looked at Cleggett with a slight start, as if he were not
sure that he had heard aright, and opened his mouth as if to say
something. But nothing came of it--not just then, at least. When the
last signature had been written, and Clegget's check had been folded by
Mr. Goldberg's plump, bejeweled fingers and put into Mr. Goldberg's
pocketbook, Mr. Goldberg remarked:

"You say you can't use the ship?"

"No; the land. I'm surprised to find that the land goes with the ship."

"Why, it doesn't," said Mr. Goldberg. "It's the ship that goes with
the land. She was on the land when I bought the plot, and I just left
her there. Nobody's paid any attention to her for years."

The words "on the land" grated on Cleggett.

"You mean on the water, don't you?"

"In the mud, then," suggested Mr. Goldberg.

"But she'll sail all right," said Cleggett.

"I suppose if she was decorated up with sails and things she'd sail.
Figuring on sailing her anywhere in particular?"

Subtly irritated, Cleggett answered: "Oh, no, no! Not anywhere in
particular!"

"Going to live on her this summer?--Outdoor sleeping room, and all
that?"

"I'm thinking of it."

"You could turn her into a house boat easy enough. I had a friend who
turned an old barge like that into a house boat and had a lot of fun
with her."

"Barge?" Cleggett rose and buttoned his coat; the conversation was
somehow growing more and more distasteful to him. "You wouldn't call
the Jasper B. a BARGE, would you?"

"Well, you wouldn't call her a YACHT, would you?" said Mr. Goldberg.

"Perhaps not," admitted Cleggett, "perhaps not. She's more like a bark
than a yacht."

"A bark? I dunn