down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go
down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.
And because ships had come there for a great many years, and all the
sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the
ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the
sidewalks were much worn.

That wharf and all the ships that sailed from it belonged to Captain
Jonathan and Captain Jacob; and after they had moved their office to
Boston the ships sailed from a wharf in Boston. And once, in the long
ago, the brig _Industry_ had sailed from the wharf in Boston, and she
had got to that far country and all the things that she had brought
there had been taken out of her and sold. And Captain Solomon had bought
the things that she would carry back to Boston, but they were not loaded
on the _Industry_ yet. And Captain Solomon had gone off with little
Jacob and little Sol to see some elephants, for he thought the mate
could attend to loading the ship.

After Captain Solomon had gone off, the sailors who had rowed him ashore
stood there for a few minutes looking after the dust that the bullocks
kicked up, and then they turned to get into the boat again. And one of
the sailors, who was named Ephraim, saw a man coming toward them, and he
knew the man, for the man was a sailor, too, and he and Ephraim had
sailed together a long while before, but not in the _Industry_. So he
waited for the man to come, and the man and Ephraim were glad to see
each other and Ephraim asked him where he came from and what ship he was
on. For no other ship was in the river at that time.

Then the man said that he had sailed in a ship from England, but the
ship had gone off without him while he was ashore; and he wanted to get
back to Boston, for he hadn't been there for several years. And he asked
Ephraim if there was a chance to be a sailor on the _Industry_. But
Ephraim said that they had a full crew and there wasn't any chance, for
the old man was very strict. He called Captain Solomon the old man, but
he wasn't an old man at all, for he wasn't quite forty years old; but
sailors always call the captain the old man. And Ephraim was afraid of
Captain Solomon, but he needn't have been afraid, for Captain Solomon
was a kind man, although he was rather gruff and stern to the sailors.

And so Ephraim advised the man to try to stow himself away on the
_In