She was a barque of some four or five hundred tons, with a broad, bluff- bowed hull that rose well out of the water on account of her not having completed loading her cargo. There was a long row of white ports along her side; and, as she rolled with the motion of the ground-swell, now setting inshore with the wind, she showed her bright copper sheathing almost to her keel. "Is that the ship, dad?" I asked my father, gazing at her with longing eyes and wondering how we were to reach her. "Yes, Tom, that's the vessel I told you of, and we must now see about getting aboard if we can," said he, preparing to dismount from his horse, whose bridle Jake had already taken hold of. "And what's her name, dad?" I then inquired, jumping down from Prince's back as I spoke and giving the reins also in charge of our darkey groom. "The _Josephine_ of London," he replied in regular ship-shape fashion; "Captain Miles, master and part owner." CHAPTER FOUR. THE "JOSEPHINE." "What!" I exclaimed joyfully; "Captain Miles! That jolly old fellow who came out to Mount Pleasant last year and showed me how to make a kite?" "The same," replied dad. "But remember, Tom, he's not much over my age; and I do not by any means call myself an old man yet! Besides, he and I are friends of long standing, and you should not speak of him so disrespectfully." "Oh, dad, I didn't mean that, and I beg his pardon, I'm sure," I interposed hastily at this. "What I wished to express was, that I thought him so nice and pleasant, that I was very glad to have the chance of seeing him again!" "My dear boy, I know what you meant," said dad kindly, with his usual bright smile, the sight of which eased my mind in a minute. "However, Tom," he added quizzingly, "we must now see about getting out to the old fellow." But this was sooner said than done. There was the ship, it was true, and there were we on the shore looking at her; but, there between us stretched an expanse of nearly two miles of blue water, which we certainly could not cross by swimming, although dad was a pretty good hand at that, and had made me, too, a fair adept in the art for my years. How to reach the vessel, therefore, was the question. Dad tried waving his handkerchief to attract the attention of those on board; but the crew of the _Josephine_ appeared to be all asleep, for nobody took any notice of the signal. Foiled in this hope, dad turned round to me again with a puzzled expression on his face, as if wondering what he should do next, though of course I could not suggest anything. Just then Jake, who had been looking at my father very attentively all this while, as if "taking stock" of his movements, so to speak, suddenly burst into one of his huge guffaws. "Yah, yah, massa, golly you no see for suah!" he cried out in an ecstasy of enjoyment at what he considered a rare joke. "You am look de wrong way. Look dere, look dere!"