d from Oyster Pond, quitting the waters of
Peconic altogether. There was not an air of departure about her,
notwithstanding. The deacon was not much concerned; and some of Roswell
Gardiner's clothes were still at his washerwoman's, circumstances that
were fully explained, when the schooner was seen to anchor in Gardiner's
Bay, which is an outer roadstead to all the ports and havens of that
region.

Chapter VII.

"Walk in the light! so shalt thou know
That fellowship of love,
His spirit only can bestow
Who reigns in light above.
Walk in the light! and sin, abhorr'd,
Shall ne'er defile again;
The blood of Jesus Christ, the Lord,
Shall cleanse from every stain."

Bernard Barton.

About an hour after the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, had let go her anchor in
Gardiner's Bay, a coasting sloop approached her, coming from the westward.
There are two passages by which vessels enter or quit Long Island Sound,
at its eastern termination. The main channel is between Plum and Fisher's
Islands, and, from the rapidity of its currents, is known by the name of
the Race. The other passage is much less frequented, being out of the
direct line of sailing for craft that keep mid-sound. It lies to the
southward of the Race, between Plum Island and Oyster Pond Point, and is
called by the Anglo-Saxon appellation of Plum Gut. The coaster just
mentioned had come through this latter passage; and it was the impression
of those who saw her from the schooner, that she was bound up into
Peconic, or the waters of Sag Harbour. Instead of luffing up into either
of the channels that would have carried her into these places, however,
she kept off, crossing Gardiner's Bay, until she got within hail of the
schooner. The wind being quite light, there was time for the following
short dialogue to take place between the skipper of this coaster and
Roswell Gardiner, before the sloop had passed beyond the reach of the
voice.

"Is that the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond?" demanded the skipper, boldly.

"Ay, ay," answered Roswell Gardiner, in the sententious manner of a
seaman.

"Is there one Watson, of Martha's Vineyard, shipped in that craft?"

"He was aboard here for a week, but left us suddenly. As he did not sign
articles, I cannot say that he run."

"He changed his mind, then," returned the other, as one expresses a slight
degree of surprise at hearing that which was new to him. "Watson is apt to
whiffle about, though