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Tales and Sketches - Part 3, from Volume V., the Works of Whittier: Tales and Sketches by John Greenleaf Whittier
page 60 of 162 (37%)
turned back to kiss his wife and children once more.

"In with you, man," said Pelatiah Curtis. "There is no time for kissing
and such fooleries when the tide serves."

And so they parted. Anna and the boys went back to their home, and
David to the Port, whence he sailed off in the Lively Turtle. And
months passed, autumn followed summer, and winter the autumn, and then
spring came, and anon it was summer on the river-side, and he did not
come back. And another year passed, and then the old sailors and
fishermen shook their heads solemnly, and, said that the Lively Turtle
was a lost ship, and would never come back to port. And poor Anna had
her bombazine gown dyed black, and her straw bonnet trimmed in mourning
ribbons, and thenceforth she was known only as the Widow Matson.

And how was it all this time with David himself?

Now you must know that the Mohammedan people of Algiers and Tripoli, and
Mogadore and Sallee, on the Barbary coast, had been for a long time in
the habit of fitting out galleys and armed boats to seize upon the
merchant vessels of Christian nations, and make slaves of their crews
and passengers, just as men calling themselves Christians in America
were sending vessels to Africa to catch black slaves for their
plantations. The Lively Turtle fell into the hands of one of these sea-
robbers, and the crew were taken to Algiers, and sold in the market
place as slaves, poor David Matson among the rest.

When a boy he had learned the trade of ship-carpenter with his father on
the Merrimac; and now he was set to work in the dock-yards. His master,
who was naturally a kind man, did not overwork him. He had daily his
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