d in at the store door to see that
strange, red-kerchief-topped figure behind Cap'n Abe's counter.

Cap'n Joab Beecher was one of the earliest arrivals. Cap'n Joab had
been as close to Cap'n Abe as anybody in Cardhaven. There had been
some little friction between him and the storekeeper on the previous
evening. Cap'n Joab felt almost as though Cap'n Abe's sudden departure
was a thrust at him.

But when he introduced himself to Cap'n Amazon the latter seized the
caller's hand in a seaman's grip, and said heartily: "I want to know
Cap'n Joab Beecher, of the old _Sally Noble_. I knowed the bark well,
though I never happened to clap eyes on _you_, sir. Abe give me a
letter for you. Here 'tis. Said you was a good feller and might help
wise me to things in the store here till I'd l'arned her riggin' and
how to sail her proper."

Cap'n Joab was frankly pleased by this. He spelled out the note Cap'n
Abe had addressed to him slowly, being without his reading glasses, and
then said:

"I'm yours to command, Cap'n Silt. Land sakes! I s'pose your brother
had a puffict right to go away. He'd talked about goin' enough.
Where's he gone?"

"On a v'y'ge," said Cap'n Amazon.

"No! Gone to sea?"

"Yes. Sailing to-day--out o' Boston."

"I want to know! Abe Silt gone to sea! Wouldn't never believed it.
Always 'peared to be afraid of gettin' his paws wet--same's a cat,"
ruminated Cap'n Joab. "What craft's he sailin' in?"

The Boston morning paper lay before Cap'n Amazon, opened at the page
containing the shipping news. His glance dropped to the sailing
notices and with scarcely a moment's hesitancy he said:

"_Curlew_, Ripley, master, out o' Boston. I knowed of her--knowed
Cap'n Ripley," and he pointed to the very first line of the sailing
list. "If Abe got there in time he like enough j'ined her crew."

"Shipped before the mast?" exploded Cap'n Joab.

"Well," Cap'n Amazon returned sensibly, "if you were skipper about
where would you expect a lubber like Abe Silt to fit into your crew?"

"I swanny, that's so!" agreed Cap'n Joab. "But it's goin' to be hard
lines for a man of his years--and no experience."

Cap'n Amazon sniffed. "I guess he'll get along," he said, seemingly
less disturbed by his brother's plight than other people. "Three
months of summer sailin' won't do him no harm."

That he was under fire he evidently felt, and resented it. His
brother's old neighbors and friends desired to know alto