ouldn't go to
impose upon young gents like you as ha' had a real adventure of your
own, and showed oncommon good pluck and coolness too. I don't say, mind
ye, that every word is just gospel. My mates as ha' known me from a boy
tells me that I've 'bellished the yarn since I first told it, and that
all sorts of things have crept in which wasn't there first. That may
be so. When a man tells a story a great many times, naturally he can't
always tell it just the same, and he gets so mixed up atween what he
told last and what he told first that he don't rightly know which
was which when he wants to tell it just as it really happened. So if
sometimes it appears to you that I'm steering rather wild, just you put
a stopper on and bring me up all standing with a question."

There was a quiet humor about the boatman's face, and the boys winked
at each other as much as to say that after such an exordium they must
expect something rather staggering. The boatman took two or three hard
whiffs at his pipe and then began.

"It was towards the end of September in 1832, that's just forty years
ago now, that I went out with my father and three hands in the smack,
the Flying Dolphin. I'd been at sea with father off and on ever since
I was about nine years old, and a smarter boy wasn't to be found on the
beach. The Dolphin was a good sea boat, but she wasn't, so to say, fast,
and I dunno' as she was much to look at, for the old man wasn't the sort
of chap to chuck away his money in paint or in new sails as long as the
old ones could be pieced and patched so as to hold the wind. We sailed
out pretty nigh over to the French coast, and good sport we had. We'd
been out two days when we turned her head homewards. The wind was
blowing pretty strong, and the old man remarked, he thought we was in
for a gale. There was some talk of our running in to Calais and waiting
till it had blown itself out, but the fish might have spoil before the
Wind dropped, so we made up our minds to run straight into Dover and
send the fish up from there. The night came on wild and squally, and as
dark as pitch. It might be about eight bells, and I and one of the other
hands had turned in, when father gave a sudden shout down the hatch,
'All hands on deck.' I was next to the steps and sprang up 'em. Just as
I got to the top something grazed my face. I caught at it, not knowing
what it was, and the next moment there was a crash, and the Dolphin went
away from under my fe