Any harm done ?" "Not a bit, not a bit--yet," chuckled the old man.

"And what's your business, Nat ?" "Sailing--mostly." "Ho, ho, ho! of course, I might have known it! Sailing--_mostly_.

Why, certainly you sail! And why do you carry a pistol on one side of you and a knife on the other, Nat ?" "Troublous times, Dad.

Some of the fisher-folk along the Northern End aren't very scrupulous.

They took a cargo of canned stuffs from me a year back." "And what use do you make of the four-pounder that's wrapped up in tarpaulin under your deck, Nat?
And what in the world are you going to do with five barrels of gunpowder ?" "How in blazes--" began Captain Plum.
"O, to be sure, to be sure--they're for the fisher-folk," interrupted Obadiah Price.