long as ever I knew her, and I expect I know full's much about her as
anybody round here. 'Twas a-settin' here on this very beach at low water,
just's we be now, that the old man told me fust how he picked her up. It
took a wonderful holt on him, there's no doubt about that. He told it to
me more 'n once before the time come when he was to put the finish on to
it; but in a gen'ral way the cap'n wan't much of a talker, and he was
shy of this partic'lar business, for reasons that I expect nobody knows
much about. But a man most always likes to talk to somebody, no matter
how close-mouthed he may be. 'Twas just about this time o' year, fall
of '27, the year Parson Flavor was ordained, Cap'n Green had gone
a-mack'rel-fishin' with his two boys off Isle au Haut, and they did think
o' cruisin' out into Frenchman's Bay if the weather hel' steady. They was
havin' fair luck, hangin' round the island off and on for a matter of a
week, when it thickened up a little and set in foggy, and for two days
they didn't see the shore. The second evenin' the wind freshened from the
south'ard and east'ard and drove the fog in shore a bit, and the sun, just
before he set, looked like a big yellow ball through the fog and made a
sickly kind of a glimmer over the water. They was a-lyin' at anchor, and
all of a sudden, right to the wind'ard of 'em, this old ship loomed up,
driftin' in with the wind and flood-tide. They couldn't make her out,
and I guess for a minute the old cap'n didn't know but it was the Flyin'
Dutchman; but she hadn't a rag o' sail on her, and as she got nearer they
could see there wan't a man on board. The cap'n didn't like the looks of
her, but he knew she wan't no phantom, and he and one of his boys down with
the punt and went alongside. 'Twan't more 'n a quarter of a mile to her.
They hailed and couldn't git no answer. They knew she was a furriner by her
build, and she must 'a' been a long time at sea by her havin' barnacles
on her nigh as big's a mack'rel kit. Finally, they pulled up to her
fore--chains and clum aboard of her. I never see a ship abandoned at sea,
myself, but I ain't no doubt but what it made 'em feel kind o' shivery when