"A bark? I dunno. Always thought a bark was bigger. A scow's
more her size, ain't it?"

"Scow?" Cleggett frowned. The Jasper B. a scow! "You mean a
schooner, don't you?"

"Schooner?" Mr. Goldberg grinned good-naturedly at his departing
customer. "A kind of a schooner-scow, huh?"

"No, sir, a schooner!" said Cleggett, reddening, and turning in
the doorway. "Understand me, Mr. Goldberg, a schooner, sir! A
schooner!"

And standing with a frown on his face until every vestige of the
smile had died from Mr. Goldberg's lips, Cleggett repeated once
more: "A schooner, Mr. Goldberg!"

"Yes, sir--there's no doubt of it--a schooner, Mr. Cleggett,"
said Mr. Goldberg, turning pale and backing away from the door.

The ordinary man inspects a house or a horse first and buys it,
or fails to buy it, afterward; but genius scorns conventions;
Cleggett was not an ordinary man; he often moved straight towards
his object by inspiration; great poets and great adventurers
share this faculty; Cleggett paid for the Jasper B. first and
went back to inspect his purchase later.

The vessel lay about two miles from the center of Fairport. He
could get within half a mile of it by trolley. Nevertheless,
when he reached the Jasper B. again after leaving Mr. Goldberg it