"'There ain't no lamp at Ozaukee,' says I.

"'That's what the First High said,' says he. So you see I was
whipsawed. I get nothing."

"P-p-politics!" interprets the mascot."

"Perhaps I understand," says the widow. Withal, she can see David
Lockwin sitting his last hours on that lounge. How unhappy he was!
Ah! could he only have read her letter!

"I don't just remember what I did after I found I wasn't fixed. It
flabbergasted me, don't you forget it! I know I sneezed--and you must
excuse me out there a while ago--and a big first mate he tried to put
the hoodoo on me. No, that's not politics, but life is too short. We
go out on deck."

"To make the raft?"

"Oh, that's all poppycock! Don't you believe no newspaper yarn. You
just listen to me. I'm giving it to you straight. We go out on deck,
and then I don't see Lockwin till we git the wood-choppers. How many
of them wood-choppers, Noey?"

"Ei-ei-eight!"

"Mrs. Lockwin, them wood-choppers was no earthly use. It didn't pay to
pull 'em in. I know it was me who hurt Lockwin with the oars. I
didn't know for hours that he was aboard. He showed up at daybreak,