of mines ye can get for fish, and there never was such fishing in all
the seas as there is along this coast! My! my! I 've seen schools of
cod off the Cape making a solid floor of fish on the water so ye could
walk on it if ye were so minded, and as for lobsters, I 've caught 'em
that measured six and seven feet long! Farther down the coast there
are oysters so big one of 'em will make a square meal for four or five
people. It 's the truth I 'm telling ye."

Goodman Pepperell smiled. "Thomas," he said, "thou hast not lost thy
power of narration!"

Captain Sanders for an instant looked a bit dashed, then he said,
"Well, believe it or not, Josiah, it 's the truth for all that. Why,
talk about the land of Canaan flowin' with milk and honey! This here
water 's just alive with money! Any boy could go out and haul up a
shilling on his own hook any time he liked."

Daniel, his eyes shining and his lips parted, was just making up his
mind that he would rather be the captain of a fishing-smack than
anything else in the world, since he knew he could n't be a pirate,
when his mother came to the fireplace with a layer of corn-meal dough
spread on a baking-board. She placed the board in a slanting position
against an iron trivet before the glowing bed of coals, and set a pot
of beans in the ashes to warm. "Keep an eye on that johnny-cake," she
said to Daniel, "and don't let it burn." Then she turned away to set
the table.

[Illustration]

This task took but little time, for in those days there were few