"Well," said old Roberts, "one of my captains, Brandegee, you know, who had the 'China,' got caught, one November, just as he was coming on the coast, in a gale from the eastward. He knew he was somewhere near Provincetown, but how near he couldn't say. It was snowing, and blowing, and ice-making all over the decks and rigging, and an awful night generally. He did not dare to run before it, because it was blowing at a rate to take him halfway in Worcester County in the next twenty-four hours. He couldn't stand to the south'ard, because that would put the back of Cape Cod under his lee. He was afraid to stand to the north'ard, not knowing precisely where the coast of Maine might be. So he hove the ship to, under as little sail as he could, and let her drift. I've heard him say, he heard the breakers a hundred times that night," ('I'll bet he did,' ejaculated the captain.) "and it seemed like three nights in one before morning came. When it did come, wind and sea appeared to have gone down. The lookouts were half dead with cold and sleep and all; but they made out to hail land on the weather bow. "'Good George!' said old Brandegee, 'how did land get on the _weather_ bow? We must have got inside of Cape Cod, and that must be Sharkpainter Hill.' "'Land on the lee quarter,' hailed the watch, again: and in a minute more, 'Land on the lee beam,--land on the lee bow.' "Brandegee sung out to heave the lead and let go both anchors, and he said that, but for the gale having gone down so, he should have expected to strike the next minute. Just as the anchors came home and the ship headed to the wind, the second mate came aft, rubbing his eyes and looking very queer. "'Captain Brandegee,' says he, 'if I was in Boston Harbor, I should say that there was Nix's Mate.' "'Well, Mr. Jones,' says the old man, dropping out the words very slowly, 'if--that's--Nix's Mate,--Rainsford Island--ought--to--be--here away, and--as--I'm--a--living--man, THERE IT IS!' "Half-frozen as they were, there was a cheer rung out from that crew that waked half the North-End out of their morning nap. "'Just my plaguy luck!' said the old fellow to me, as he told it. 'If I'd held on to my anchors another half-hour, I might have come handsomely alongside of Long Wharf and been up to the custom-house before breakfast.' "He had drifted broadside square into Boston Harbor, past Nahant, the Graves, Cohasset Rocks, and everything." "I've heard of that," said the captain,--"and as it's my opinion it couldn't be done twice, I don't mean to try it." "I hear the noise about thy keel, I hear the bell struck in the night, I see the cabin-window bright, I see the sailor at the wheel,"-- repeated Fred ----, in my ear. "Come below out of this wet and rain," added he. We passed the door of the mate's state-room as we went below, and, seeing it ajar, and Mr. Pitman, the mate, sitting there, we looked in.