e
sailing-parties return, perhaps at five, perhaps at six, perhaps not
until the turn of the tide or the evening breeze brings them home.

All the time the quiet life of the boat-shop goes on,--its labor, its
discussions on politics and religion, its criticism of yachts. All
day long small boys play about the pier, race in skiffs or in such
insignificant sailing-craft as may be available, and every half-hour, at
the initiative of some infant leader, all doff their little print waists
and short trousers and "go in," regardless of the sketchers on the
shore.

It was a bright, fresh day. The air was as clear as crystal. Joe had
been gone since dawn with Henry Price. The wind had been blowing hard
from the north for a dozen hours, and, as the saying is, had kicked up
a sea. On the shoal the waves were rolling heavily, and since three
o'clock the tide had been running against the wind, and the seas had
been broken every way. But to Henry Price, and with that boat, rough
seas, from March to November, were only what a rude mountain road would
be to you or me. If his wife, toward afternoon, shading her eyes at the
south door, ever felt anxious about him, it was a woman's foolish fear;
it was only because she thought with concern of that--internal neuralgia
was it?--which her husband brought back from the war; which seized him
at rare intervals and enfeebled him for days. He made light of it, and
never spoke of it out of the house. There was no better boatman on that
shore. Let alone that one possibility of weakness, and the ocean had a
hard man to deal with when it dealt with him.

They had been gone all day. It had been rough, and they would come in
wet. This wind would not die down; they were sure to make a quick run,
and would be in before dark.

It was late in the afternoon. James was sitting in the shop with one or
two companions, engaged in a loud discussion. He had been discoursing
upon all his favorite themes. He had been declaiming upon the dangers
from Catholic supremacy and the subserviency of the Irish vote to the
Church of Rome, and upon the absolute necessity of the supremacy of the
Democratic party; upon the Apocalypse and the seven seals. He had
been maintaining the literal infallibility of the Scriptures, and the
necessity of treating some portions as legendary. It would be hard to
say what inconsistent views he had not set forth within the space of
the past hour; and all this with the utmost intensity, and