There had been a shower just before daylight, and this had
discouraged us a little, but now the sun was coming through the
clouds, and there were white spirals of mist rising from the
water. Across the river, on Fisher's Island, two or three men were
moving about their dories, and smoke poured steadily from the
chimneys of the houses. A man's head looked out of the cabin of
the "Hoppergrass."

"There's someone on board her," said Jimmy Toppan.

"Yes," replied Captain Bannister, "it's Clarence. He's havin' some
breakfast, I guess. He helped me bring her up river last night,
and he slept on board. He aint goin' with us, but he'll help us
with this stuff."

Then he shouted: "Hey! Clarence!"

The "Hoppergrass" was Captain Bannister's boat,--he had just
bought her. He did not like the name, but as yet he had not found
any way of changing it. Captain Bannister was a retired seaman,
but I do not know whether he had ever been a full-fledged captain
of a ship. In our town it was often the custom to call a man
"Captain" if he had ever risen as high as mate. The Captain was a
short, red-faced man, with such bowed legs that you could have
pushed a barrel, end-ways, right between them. Ed Mason thought
that the Captain's legs were bowed like that because he had been
made to sit for hours astride a barrel. Ed believed that this was
a favorite form of punishment on board ship,--especially in the
navy.