outh, leisurely produced his
pipe, and proceeded to fill it with tobacco shaved from a chunky plug.

"What d'you smoke them things for?" he asked contemptuously, referring
to the cigarette. "Nobody but dudes and sissies smoke that kind of
truck. Here, take this pipe, and smoke like a man."

Josiah looked askance at the proffered pipe.

"Oh, no!" he said magnanimously, "you'll want it yourself. I'll get
along with these things till I git ashore; then I'll buy a pipe of my
own."

"Never you mind 'bout me. I've got two or three more below there,
some'eres. Take it and light up."

The "able seaman" took the reeking, nicotine soaked affair, placed it
gingerly between his teeth, held a match to the bowl and coughingly
emitted a cloud of ill-smelling smoke. The pipe wheezed and gurgled, and
the Mary Ellen rocked and rolled.

"Now, then," said Captain Eri, "we've sojered long enough. Go below, and
bring up the bait bucket and the lines."

Josiah staggered into the little cabin, reappeared with the heavy cod
lines and the bucket of mussels, and watched while the Captain "baited
up."

"All ready!" said the skipper. "Two lines apiece, one over each side.
Watch me."

The cod bit almost immediately, and for ten minutes the work was
exciting and lively. The Captain, watching from the corner of his eye,
noticed that his assistant's pipe was wheezing less regularly, and that
his lines were thrown over more and more listlessly. At length he said,
"Haven't stopped smokin' so quick, have you? What's the matter--gone
out? Here's a match."

"I guessed I've smoked enough for now. I can't fish so well when I'm
smokin'."

"Bosh! If you want to be a reel sailor you must smoke all the time.
Light up."

Reluctantly the boy obeyed, and puffed with feverish energy. Also he
swallowed with vigor. The cod smelt fishy; so did the bait, and the
catboat rolled and rolled. Suddenly Josiah pulled in his lines, and took
the pipe from his lips.

"What's the matter?" inquired the watchful skipper.

"I--I guess I won't fish any more, Cap. Kind of slow sport, ain't it?
Guess I'll go in there and take a snooze."

"I guess you won't! You shipped to fish, and you're goin' to fish. Pick
up them lines."

The boy sullenly turned toward the cabin door. Was he, who had just
declared himself independent of school restraint, he who had once
been the thorn in the flesh of every policeman in the --th ward, to be
ordered about by this Cape Cod country