first name, because of the Captain's
invariably answering when the baby was wanted and not answering when he
himself was wanted. Sophronia would have liked to call him Joash, but
her husband wouldn't hear of it. At length the father took to calling
him "Dusenberry," and this nickname was adopted under protest.

Captain Hiram sang the baby to sleep every night. There were three songs
in the Captain's repertoire. The first was a chanty with a chorus of

John, storm along, storm along, John,
Ain't I glad my day's work's done.

The second was the "Bowline Song."

Haul on the bowline, the 'Phrony is a-rollin',
Haul on the bowline! the bowline HAUL!

At the "haul!" the Captain's foot would come down with a thump. Almost
the first word little Hiram Joash learned was "haul!" He used to shout
it and kick his father vigorously in the vest.

These were fair-weather songs. Captain Hiram sang them when everything
was going smoothly. The "Bowline Song" indicated that he was feeling
particularly jubilant. He had another that he sang when he was worried.
It was a lugubrious ditty, with a refrain beginning:

Oh, sailor boy, sailor boy, 'neath the wild billow,
Thy grave is yawnin' and waitin' for thee.

He sang this during the worst of the teething period, and, later, when
the junior partner wrestled with the whooping cough. You could always
tell the state of the baby's health by the Captain's choice of songs.

Meanwhile Dusenberry grew and prospered. He learned to walk and to talk,
after his own peculiar fashion, and, at the mature age of two years and
six months, formally shipped as first mate aboard his father's dory. His
duties in this responsible position were to sit in the stern, securely
fastened by a strap, while the Captain and his two assistants rowed out
over the bar to haul the nets of the deep water fish weir.

The first mate gave the orders, "All hands on deck! 'Tand by to det ship
under way!" There was no "sogerin'" aboard the Hiram Junior--that was
the dory's name--while the first officer had command.

Captain Hiram, always ready to talk of the wonderful baby, told the
depot master of the youngster's latest achievement, which was to get the
cover off the butter firkin in the pantry and cover himself with butter
from head to heel.

"Ho, ho, ho!" he roared, delightedly, "when Sophrony caught him at it,
what do you s'pose he said? Said he was playin' he was a slice of bread
and was