After this, Ben took me out to see his hens, and then we walked to the back of the beach and talked fish.

The forenoon was almost gone when I got back to the skiff.

The tide had ebbed so far that the lightkeeper and I had to pull the little boat twenty feet to launch her.
"There!" said Ben, "now you're afloat, ain't you.

Cal'late you'll have to go way 'round Robin Hood's barn to keep off the flats.

I forgot about the tide or I wouldn't have talked so much.