"Come one o' those days, with the old _Sally_ just loafin' along,"
pursued Cap'n Amazon, sucking hard on his pipe, "when I spied a flicker
o' wind comin', and the mate he sent the men gallopin' up the shrouds.
I'd forgot the dog. So had Nigger Bill, I reckon.
"Bill was one o' the best topmen aboard. He was up there at work
before the dog woke up and started ki-yi-ing. He bayed Bill like a
beagle hound at the foot of a coon tree. Then, jumping, he caught the
lower shrouds with his forepaws.
"The new slant of the wind struck us at the same moment. The old
_Sally S._ heeled to larboard and that Newfoundland was jerked over the
rail."
"The poor thing!" Louise cried.
"You'd ha' thought so. I wouldn't have felt no worse if one of the men
had gone over. Owner's business, or not, I sung out to the second to
get his boat out and I kicked off my shoes, grabbed a life-ring, and
jumped myself."
"You! Uncle Amazon?" gasped his niece.
"Yep. The mate had the deck and I was the only man free. There wasn't
much of a sea runnin', anyway.
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