“And so maybe y’are, if you’re so round-bowed and flat-bottomed a craft you can’t sail closer than seven or eight points. Anyway, I’m starb’d tack.” “Well, who in--” The other peered up. “Why, hello-o, Peter!” “What! Well, well, Tommie Clancy! the _Colleen Bawn_ in already?” “To anchor in the stream not two minutes ago. I hurried ashore on an errand for her.” “And what kind of a trip did y’ have?” “Oh, nothing extra so far as the fish went, but good and lively every other way. Stayed out in that breeze week before last and left Georges last night with that latest spoon-bow model and I guess she’s still a-comin’. Some wind last night comin’ home, Peter.” “M-m-- I’ll bet she came a-howlin’.” “Oh, maybe she didn’t. Peter boy, but if you only could’ve seen her hoppin’ over the shoals last night and comin’ up to Cape Ann this mornin’! But let’s step inside, and have a little touch.” “Well, I don’t mind, seein’ the kind of a day it is, Tommie. And I want to ask you about that little fellow you shipped-- Jimmie Johnson.” “Ho, ho--‘Your oilskins are too loose,’ says the Skipper to him. Ho, ho--wait and I’ll tell you about him, Peter--‘Your oilskins too loose--’ ho, ho.” “What did he mean by that?” “Wait, till I tell you, Peter-boy. But let’s sit down and drink in comfort. There y’are. Here’s a shoot. G-g-g-h-! m-m-! but ain’t it fine to feel that soaking into your inside planking after you’ve been carryin’ a dry hold for sixteen days? Ain’t it? What? You bet! And about the little lumper-man--it was funny from the start. I was down the end of the dock the mornin’ we left, with the dory, waiting for the Skipper, when along comes this little fellow lookin’ like something sad’d happened. I kind of half knew him from seein’ him around the dock now and again. He seemed to be lookin’ for some good sympathetic party to tell his troubles to and I let him pour them into me. He talks away and I listens and before he’s through I begin to see what the trouble was. ‘What you need is a couple of drinks,’ I says--‘What d’y’ say if we step up the dock and have a litle touch?’ “‘No, no,’ says he, ‘I ain’t drunk a drop since I got married--and I never will whilst I am married.’ “‘Then if you don’t hurry up and get a divorce, I can see that you are goin’ to carry around an awful thirst,’ I says, but the way he took it I see he didn’t want any foolin’. And then, to soothe him, I asked why he didn’t go a haddockin’ trip, and forget it.” “‘Do you think I’d forget it?’ he asks, eager-like. “‘Well,’ I said, ‘I can’t say. Some people remember things a long time, but you go a trip with Tom O’Donnell, and you’ll stand a pretty good chance ’specially ’bout this time o’ year,’ I says. ‘And maybe it’ll teach people a lesson,’ I insinuates. And just then down the dock comes the Skipper, with big Jerry Sullivan. Ain’t he a whale though--big Jerry?” “Yes, and gettin’ bigger every day.”