Beneath my palm-trees, by the river side,
I sat a weeping; in the whole world wide
There was no one to ask me why I wept, —­
And so I kept
Brimming the water-lily cups with tears
Cold as my fears. 
SHELLEY.

The dawn had fairly broken, but that was all, when Winthrop and old Mr. Cowslip met on the little wharf landing which served instead of courtyard to the house.  The hands clasped each other cordially.

“How do you do?  Glad to see you in these parts!” was the hearty salutation of the old man to the young.

“Thank you, Mr. Cowslip,” said Winthrop, returning the grasp of the hand.

“I don’t see but you keep your own,” the old man went on, looking at him wistfully.  “Why don’t you come up our way oftener?  It wouldn’t hurt you.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Winthrop.  “My business lies that way, you know.”

“Ah! —­ ’tain’t as good business as our’n, now,” said Mr. Cowslip.  “You’d better by half be up there on the old place, with your wife and half a dozen children about you.  Ain’t married yet, Governor, be you?”

“No sir.”

“Goin’ to be?”

“I don’t know what I am going to be, sir.”

“Ah! —­” said the old miller with a sly smile.  “Is that what you’ve got here in the sloop with you now?  I guessed it, and Hild’ said it wa’n’t —­ not as he knowed on —­ but I told him he didn’t know everything.”

“Hild’ is quite right.  But there are two ladies here who are going up to Shahweetah.  Can you give us a boat, Mr. Cowslip?”

“A boat? —­ How many of you?”

“Four —­ and baggage.  Your boat is large enough —­ used to be when I went in her.”

“Used to be when I went in her,” said the old skipper; “but there it is!  She won’t hold nobody now.”

“What’s the matter?”

“She took too many passengers the other day, —­ that is, she took one too many.  Shipped a cargo of fresh meat, sir, and it wa’n’t stowed in right, and the ‘Bessie Bell’ broke her heart about it.  Like to ha’ gone to the bottom.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why, I was comin’ home from Diver’s Rock the other day —­ just a week ago last Saturday —­ I had been round there up the shore after fish; —­ you know the rock where the horse mackerel comes? —­ me and little Archie; lucky enough we had no more along.  By the by, I hope you’ll go fishing, Winthrop —­ the mackerel’s fine this year.  How long you’re goin’ to stay?”

“Only a day or two, sir.”

“Ah! —­ Well —­ we were comin’ home with a good mess o’ fine fish, and when we were just about in the middle of the river, comin’ over, —­ the fish had been jumping all along the afternoon, shewing their heads and tails more than common; and I’d been sayin’ to Archie it was a sign o’ rain —­ ’tis, you know, —­ and just as we were in the deepest of the river, about half way over, one of ’em came up and put himself aboard of us.”