"Oh," groaned remorseful Nancy, her teeth chattering, "it 's all
because I 'm such a sinner! I made a likeness of Gran'ther Wattles in
the sand and said dreadful things about the prophet Elijah, or mayhap
't was Elisha, and Dan said a bear might come to eat me up just like
the forty and two children, and instead of a bear we both were almost
swallowed by the tide!"

"Well, now," said the stranger, comfortingly, "ye see instead of
sending bears the Lord sent me along to fish ye out, just the same as
He sent the whale to swallow Jonah when he was acting contrary! Looks
like He meant to let ye off with a scare this time. Come now, my lass,
there 's salt water enough aboard and if ye cry into the boat, ye 'll
have to bail her out. Besides," he added whimsically, looking up at
the sky, "there 's another squall coming on, and two at a time is too
many for any sailor. If I 'm to cast you up on the shore same as the
whale, ye 'll have to tell me which way to go, and who ye are."

"Our father is Josiah Pepperell," answered Dan, "and our house is
almost a mile back from shore near Cambridge."

"So you 're Josiah Pepperell's children! To be sure, to be sure! Might
have known it. Ye do favor him some," said the fisherman. "Well! well!
The ways of the Lord are surely past finding out! Why, I knew your
father way back in England. He came over here for religion and I came
for fish. Not that I ain't a God-fearing man," he added hastily,
noticing a look of horror on Nancy's face, "but I ain't so pious
as some. I 'm a seafaring man, Captain Sanders of the Lucy Ann,
Marblehead. Ye can see her riding at anchor out there in the bay. I
have n't set eyes on your father since he left Boston and settled in
the back woods up yonder."