“A little while after that we overhauled Eben Watkins. Eben, you know, used to brag some about that vessel of his one time, but now he was under a storm trys’l. ’Twas kind of thick--we’d lost sight of the _Nannie_--and the Skipper was goin’ on by without intendin’ to say anything, but Eben hails him. “‘Where were you about two hours ago?’ “‘Roundin’ the Cape,’ says the Skipper. “‘What sail d’y’ have on her?’ “‘What she’s got now.’ “‘That stays’l?’ “‘That stays’l--yes.’ “‘Get that squall?’ “‘Oh, a little puff.’ “‘A little puff?’ says Eben, and he stretches his head at us--‘a little puff. And how’d she stand it?’ “‘Just wet our rail--just wet our rail.’ “‘Go to hell!’ says Eben--‘just wet your rail.’ And I don’t blame him, for the _Colleen_ was down to her hatches then. ‘I s’pose Tommie Ohlsen just wet his rail too,’ says Eben. ‘All we could see of him goin’ by a while ago was the weather-side of his deck.’ “‘’Tis Tommie I’m after,’ hollers back the Skipper and gets out of hearing. “I don’t know whether we gained or lost on the _Nannie O_, but we carried our stays’l every foot of the way from Cape Cod to Eastern Point and we carried into the harbor just the same’s we came across the bay. Did you see her beatin’ in? No? Well, it was a scandal. Her deck was slidin’ back and forth under our feet--we could feel it, and you’ve seen a soap-box with the top and bottom gone floatin’ about in the tide? Yes? And how it lengthens out sometimes when a sea hits it broadside? Well, that’s the way the _Colleen_ was shiftin’ back and forth comin’ in the harbor. She was that loose ’twas immoral. ‘She’s ten feet longer when she stretches herself real well,’ says Jerry. ‘She is a bit loose,’ says the Skipper, ‘but she sails better loose. When she lengthens out like that, she’s doin’ her best reachin’.’ “And that’s the way she came in. When we came to anchor the Skipper went into her peak with a lantern, tryin’ to find out what it was. ‘I think she’s a little more loose than ordinary this trip,’ he says--‘it must be the calkin’. But before he got through he discovered that it was her iron band had dropped off altogether. And then it was he told me to go ashore to see about a place for her on the railway. And I guess I’d better hurry along. But afore we go, Peter, just a little touch to the _Colleen Bawn_, for God bless her, loose as she is, there’s nothing like her out the port.” “And are you goin’ to stay on her and she like that?” “And she that way? And why not? He’s going to put four-inch joists in her fore and aft this time on the railway, and then she’ll be all right. She’ll leak a little maybe, but what’s a little leak? And anyway I’d rather be lost in her with Tom O’Donnell than live a thousand years with some. And so here’s to her, Peter-boy. One thing, you know you’re alive on her--and here’s to the _Colleen Bawn_.” “To the _Colleen Bawn_, Tommie, and I don’t know but what you’re right.”