I had quite made up my mind that the so-called harbor-master was a
demented darky--wandered from, Heaven knows where--perhaps shipwrecked
and gone mad from his sufferings. Still, it was far from pleasant to
know that the creature was strongly attracted by the pretty nurse.

She, however, persisted in regarding the harbor-master as a
sea-creature; she earnestly affirmed that it had gills, like a fish's
gills, that it had a soft, fleshy hole for a mouth, and its eyes were
luminous and lidless and fixed.

"Besides," she said, with a shudder, "it's all slate color, like a
porpoise, and it looks as wet as a sheet of india-rubber in a
dissecting-room."

The day before I was to set sail with my auks in a cat-boat bound for
Port-of-Waves, Halyard trundled up to me in his chair and announced
his intention of going with me.

"Going where?" I asked.

"To Port-of-Waves and then to New York," he replied, tranquilly.

I was doubtful, and my lack of cordiality hurt his feelings.

"Oh, of course, if you need the sea-voyage--" I began.

"I don't; I need you," he said, savagely; "I need the stimulus of our
daily quarrel. I never disagreed so pleasantly with anybody in my
life; it agrees with me; I am a hundred per cent. better than I was