patiently carded the wool into little wisps ready to be wound on a
spindle and spun into yarn by the mother's skillful hands.

Meanwhile Daniel was standing on the deck of the Lucy Ann, drinking
in the fresh salt breeze and eagerly watching the shores as the boat
passed between Charlestown and Boston and dropped anchor in the harbor
to set the Captain's lobster-pots. All the wonderful bright day they
sailed past rocky islands and picturesque headlands, with the Captain
at the tiller skillfully keeping the vessel to the course and at the
same time spinning yarns to Daniel and his father about the adventures
which had overtaken him at various points along the coast. At
Governor's Island he had caught a giant lobster. He had been all but
wrecked in a fog off Thompson's Island.

"Ye see that point of land," he said, waving his hand toward a rocky
promontory extending far out into the bay. "That 's Squantum. Miles
Standish of Plymouth named it that after an Indian that was a good
friend of the Colony in the early days. Well, right off there I was
overhauled by a French privateer once. 'Privateer' is a polite name
for a pirate ship. She was loaded with molasses, indigo, and such from
the West Indies, and I had a cargo of beaver-skins. If it had n't been
that her sailors was mostly roarin' drunk at the time, it 's likely
that would have been the end of Thomas Sanders, skipper, sloop, and
all, but my boat was smaller and quicker than theirs, and, knowing
these waters so well, I was able to give 'em the slip and get out into
open sea; and here I be! Ah, those were the days!"

The Captain heaved a heavy sigh for the lost joys of youth and was
silent for a moment. Then his eyes twinkled and he began another
story. "One day as we was skirtin' the shores of Martha's Vineyard,"