have never seen. I have repeatedly known
him to lift and walk off with anchors weighing five and six hundred
weight; and those big, thick hands of his could twist any horseshoe as
if it were a girl's wreath. Certainly he was not in the least graceful;
that 'ponderosity' of his could in no way be repressed. But he was still
of rude comeliness, his shape being squarely fitted and tolerably
proportioned, while his broad, red-maned visage wore a constant glow of
plain, though sincere, kindliness and good-humor.

As his physical man was uncommon, so he had uncommon mental endowments.
He was the only 'soundser' I ever knew who understood farming. He had
inherited a farmstead of some twenty-five or thirty acres, and this he
soon had blooming as the rose. When occasion required, he wrought on
it, day and night. He divided it, with truest judgment, into proper
fields, experimented successfully with various kinds of novel manures
(most of which he obtained from the sea), grew stock, planted, in
rotation, and, with only here and there a sympathizer, gave in his full
adherence to the theory of root culture. And he was a mechanic. He could
build house or barn to the last beam, and ship or boat to the last
joint; nay, he once devised the model of a self-righting life-boat,
which I have often heard shipmasters, and even real shipwrights, descant
upon in the highest terms of praise. Moreover, I can affirm that he was
a navigator. It is true that the _science_ of seamanship, as set forth
in books, he had never mastered. But he knew right well what winds of a
certain force and direction foretold, what waves of a certain height and
aspect meant; and this knowledge, combined with a squint, now and then,
at his pocket compass, sufficed to enable him to take a vessel with
safety anywhere along our coast.

But while my old pal showed high abilities in other arts, as a
'soundser' and wrecker he was not to be matched. He brought to the first
of these pursuits a clearness of observation which would have met the
approbation of many an acknowledged man of science. He knew every sort
of food which bird and fish fed upon, where it was to be found, and the
circumstances favorable to its production. He knew why the game resorted
to certain spots yesterday, and avoided them to-day; what
circumstances--and they are very many--impelled it to joyousness or
quietude; and what were most of its minor instincts. And all this was
done _thoroughly_, withal. T