ing out of the usual run, but that
has always seemed to me clear grit and nothin' else. 'Twa'n't savin'
life neither; 'twas jest a matter of bus'ness.

"It happened up off the coast of Maine 'long in the seventies. I was
actin' as sort of second mate on a lumber schooner. 'Twas a pitch-black
night, or mornin' rather, 'bout six o'clock, blowin' like all possessed
and colder 'n Greenland. We struck a rock that wa'n't even down on an
Eldredge chart and punched a hole in the schooner's side, jest above
what ought to have been the water line, only she was heeled over so that
'twas consider'ble below it most of the time. We had a mean crew aboard,
Portugees mainly, and poor ones at that. The skipper was below, asleep,
and when he come on deck things was in a bad way. We'd got the canvas
off her, but she was takin' in water every time she rolled, and there
was a sea goin' that was tearin' things loose in great shape. We shipped
one old grayback that ripped off a strip of the lee rail jest the same
as you'd rip the edge off the cover of a pasteboard box--never made no
more fuss about it, either.

"I didn't see nothin' to do but get out the boats, but the skipper he
wa'n't that kind. He sized things up in a hurry, I tell you. He drove
the crew--ha'f of 'em was prayin' to the Virgin and t'other ha'f
swearin' a blue streak--to the pumps, and set me over 'em with a
revolver to keep 'em workin'. Then him and the fust mate and one or two
of the best hands rousted out a spare sail, weighted one edge of it to
keep it down, and got it over the side, made fast, of course.

"Then him and the mate stripped to their underclothes, rigged a sort of
bos'n's chair over where the hole in the side was, took hammers and a
pocketful of nails apiece, and started in to nail that canvas over the
hole.

"'Twas freezin' cold, and the old schooner was rollin' like a washtub.
One minute I'd see the skipper and the mate h'isted up in the air,
hammerin' for dear life, and then, swash! under they'd go, clear under,
and stay there, seemed to me, forever. Every dip I thought would be the
end, and I'd shet my eyes, expectin' to see 'em gone when she lifted;
but no, up they'd come, fetch a breath, shake the salt water out of
their eyes, and go to work again.

"Four hours and a quarter they was at it, four hours, mind you, and
under water a good ha'f of the time; but they got that sail nailed fast
fin'lly. We got 'em on deck when 'twas done, and we had to ca