"It ain't no trouble at all to keep James clean," I have
heard Mrs. Parsons say, in her funny little way; "he picks his way round
for all the world just like a pussycat, and never gets no spots on him,
nowhere."

You saw at once, upon the slightest acquaintance with James, that while
he was of the same general civilization as his neighbors, he was of
a different type. In his narrowness, there was a peculiar breadth and
vigor which characterized him. He had about him the atmosphere of a
wider ocean.

His early reminiscences were all of that picturesque and adventurous
life which prevailed along our coasts to within forty years, and his
conversation was suggestive of it He held a silver medal from the Humane
Society for conspicuous bravery in the rescue of the crew of a ship
stranded in winter in a storm of sleet off Post Hill Bar. He had a
war-hatchet, for which he had negotiated face to face with a naked
cannibal in the South Sea. He was familiar with the Hoogly.

His language savored always of the sea. His hens "turned in," at night.
He was full of sayings and formulas of a maritime nature; there was
one which always seemed to me to have something of a weird and mystic
character: "South moon brings high water on Coast Island Bar." In
describing the transactions of domestic life, he used words more
properly applicable to the movements of large ships. He would speak of a
saucepan as if it weighed a hundred tons. He never tossed or threw even
the slightest object; he hove it. "Why, father!" said Mrs. Parsons,
surprised at seeing him for a moment untidy; "what have you ben doing?
Your boots and trousers-legs is all white!" "Yes," said Mr. Parsons,
apologetically, looking down upon his dusty garments, "I just took that
bucket of ashes and hove 'em into the henhouse."

The word "heave," in fact, was always upon his tongue. It applied to
everything. "How was this road straightened out?" I asked him one day;
"did the town vote to do it?" "No, no," he said quickly; "there was n't
never no vote. The se-lec'men just come along one day, and got us all
together, and hove in and hove out; and we altered our fences to suit."

I remember hearing him testify as a witness to a will. It appeared
that the testator was sick in bed when he signed the instrument. He was
suffering greatly, and when he was to sign, it was necessary to lift him
with the ex-tremest care, to turn him to the light-stand. "State what
was done next," the lawye