“Thou hast not told me, Captain, what voyage thou art about to undertake next,” said the Goodman, sucking a lobster-claw with relish.

The Captain loved to talk quite as well as he loved to eat, but his mouth was full at this moment, and he paused before replying.  “I ’m getting too old for long voyages, Josiah,” he said at last with a sigh.  “Kind o’ losing my taste for adventure.  Pirates is pretty plentiful yet, and for all I ’m a sailor I ’d like to die in my bed, so I have settled at Marblehead.  They ’re partial to fishermen along this coast.  The town gives ’em land for drying their fish and exempts ’em from military dooty.  But I can’t stay ashore a great while before my sea legs begin to hanker for the feel of the deck rolling under ’em, so I ’m doing a coasting trade all up and down the length of Massachusetts Bay.  I keep a parcel of lobster-pots going, some here and some Plymouth way, and sell them and fish, besides doing a carrying trade for all the towns along-shore.  It ‘s a tame kind o’ life.  There, now,” he finished, “that ’s all there is to say about me, and I ’ll just take a turn at these beans and give ye a chance to tell about yourself, Josiah.”

“’T is but a short tale,” answered the Goodman, “God hath prospered me.  I have an hundred acres of good farm land along this river, and I have a cow, and a flock of sheep to keep us in wool for the Good wife to spin.  I have set out apple trees, and there is wood for the cutting; the forest furnishes game and the sea is stored with food for our use; but the truth is there is more to do than can be compassed with one pair of hands.  The neighbors help each other with clearing the land, log-rolling, building walls, and such as that, but if this country is to be developed we must do more than make a living.  There are a thousand things calling to be done if there were but the men to do them.”

The Captain skillfully balanced a mouthful of beans on his knife as he considered the problem.  Finally he said, “Well, here ’s Dan’el, and, judging by the way he waded right into the tide after his sister, I calculate he ’d be a smart boy to have round.”

“He is,” said the Goodman, and Daniel blushed to his eyes, for his father seldom praised him, “but he is not yet equal to a man’s work, and moreover I want him to get some schooling.  The Reverend John Harvard hath promised his library and quite a sum of money to found a college for the training of ministers right here in Cambridge.  The hand of the Lord hath surely guided us to this place, where he may receive an education, and it may even be that Daniel will be a minister, for the Colony sorely needs such.”

“There, now,” said the Captain.  “Farming ain’t such plain sailing; is it?  Have ye thought of getting an Indian slave to help ye?”