prouted, and been sunburned into sparse hay. There were some places,
alas! where the planking had rotted away, and one could look down
through and see the clear, green water underneath, and the black,
sea-worn piles with their fringes of barnacles and seaweed. Captain
Crowe gave a deep sigh as he sat heavily down on a stick of timber;
then he heard a noise above, and looked up, to see at first only the
rusty windlass under the high gable, with its end of frayed rope
flying loose; then one of the wooden shutters was suddenly flung open,
and swung to again, and fastened. Captain Crowe was sure now that he
should gain a companion. Captain Witherspoon was in the habit of
airing the empty warehouse once a week--Wednesdays, if pleasant; it
was nearly all the active business he had left; and this was Thursday,
but Wednesday had been rainy.

Presently the Captain appeared at the basement doorway, just behind
where his friend was sitting. The door was seldom opened, but the
owner of the property professed himself forgetful about letting in as
much fresh air there as he did above, and announced that he should
leave it open for half an hour. The two men moved a little way along
the oak stick to be out of the cool draught which blew from the
cellar-like place, empty save for the storage of some old fragments of
vessels or warehouse gear. There was a musty odor of the innumerable
drops of molasses which must have leaked into the hard earth there for
half a century; there was still a fragrance of damp Liverpool salt, a
reminder of even the dyestuffs and pepper and rich spices that had
been stowed away. The two elderly men were carried back to the past by
these familiar, ancient odors; they turned and sniffed once or twice
with satisfaction, but neither spoke. Before them the great, empty
harbor spread its lovely, shining levels in the low afternoon light.
There were a few ephemeral pleasure-boats, but no merchantmen riding
at anchor, no lines of masts along the wharves, with great wrappings
of furled sails on the yards; there were no sounds of mallets on the
ships' sides, or of the voices of men, busy with unlading, or moving
the landed cargoes. The old warehouses were all shuttered and
padlocked, as far as the two men could see.

"Looks lonesomer than ever, don't it?" said Captain Crowe, pensively.
"I vow it's a shame to see such a harbor as this, an' think o' all the
back country, an' how things were goin' on here in our young day