“Go to New Orleans?  Go to Jericho!” exclaimed Captain Nutter.  “You’d look pretty, you two, philandering off, like the babes in the wood, twenty-five hundred miles, ’with all the world before you where to choose!’”

And the Captain’s features, which had worn an indignant air as he began the sentence, relaxed into a broad smile.  Whether it was at the felicity of his own quotation, or at the mental picture he drew of Pepper and myself on our travels.

I couldn’t tell, and I didn’t care.  I was heart-broken.  How could I face my chum after all the dazzling inducements I had held out to him?

My grandfather, seeing that I took the matter seriously, pointed out the difficulties of such a journey and the great expense involved.  He entered into the details of my father’s money troubles, and succeeded in making it plain to me that my wishes, under the circumstances, were somewhat unreasonable.  It was in no cheerful mood that I joined Pepper at the end of the wharf.

I found that young gentleman leaning against the bulkhead gazing intently towards the islands in the harbor.  He had formed a telescope of his hands, and was so occupied with his observations as to be oblivious of my approach.

“Hullo!” cried Pepper, dropping his hands.  “Look there!  Isn’t that a bark coming up the Narrows?”

“Where?”

“Just at the left of Fishcrate Island.  Don’t you see the foremast peeping above the old derrick?”

Sure enough it was a vessel of considerable size, slowly beating up to town.  In a few moments more the other two masts were visible above the green hillocks.

“Fore-topmasts blown away,” said Pepper.  “Putting in for repairs, I guess.”

As the bark lazily crept from behind the last of the islands, she let go her anchors and swung round with the tide.  Then the gleeful chant of the sailors at the capstan came to us pleasantly across the water.  The vessel lay within three quarters of a mile of us, and we could plainly see the men at the davits lowering the starboard long-boat.  It no sooner touched the stream than a dozen of the crew scrambled like mice over the side of the merchantman.

In a neglected seaport like Rivermouth the arrival of a large ship is an event of moment.  The prospect of having twenty or thirty jolly tars let loose on the peaceful town excites divers emotions among the inhabitants.  The small shopkeepers along the wharves anticipate a thriving trade; the proprietors of the two rival boarding-houses—­the “Wee Drop” and the “Mariner’s Home”—­hasten down to the landing to secure lodgers; and the female population of Anchor Lane turn out to a woman, for a ship fresh from sea is always full of possible husbands and long-lost prodigal sons.

But aside from this there is scant welcome given to a ship’s crew in Rivermouth.  The toil-worn mariner is a sad fellow ashore, judging him by a severe moral standard.