By four o'clock the grown folks were home, tired and smelling of
fish; Dick and Rose-Ellen were prancing on tiptoe to go, and
even Jimmie was ready.

"This is what he is like," said Rose-Ellen, "the man who said
we could." She stuck in her chin and threw out her chest and
tried to stride.

"That's the Big Boss, all right," Daddy said, laughing. "Guess
it's O.K. But mind your _p_'s and _q_'s."

"And stick together. Specially in a strange place." Grandma
wearily picked up the baby.

The Big Boss saw them as soon as they tiptoed into the
oyster-house. "Ez," he called, "here's some nice kids. Show 'em
around, will you?"

Ez was opening clams with a penknife, and spilling them into his
mouth. "Want some?" he asked.

The children shook their heads vigorously.

He closed his knife and dropped it into his pocket.

"Well, now first you want to see the dredges come in from the
bay." He took them through the open front of the shed to the
docks outside. The boats had gone out at three o'clock in the
morning, he said, in the deep dark. They were coming in now