Seems the Deborah S .-- that's the packet's name, Mr.Ellery--she hauled out of Boston night afore last on the ebb, with a fair wind and sky clear as a bell.

But they hadn't much more'n got outside of Minot's 'fore the fog shut down, thicker'n gruel for a sick rich man.

The wind held till 'long toward mornin'; then she flattened to a dead calm.

'Bije Perry, the mate, he spun the yarn to me, and he said 'twas thick and flat as ever he see and kept gettin' no better fast.
"They drifted along till noon time and then they was somewheres out in the bay, but that's about all you could say.

Zach, he was stewin' and sputterin' like a pair of fried eels, and Lafayette Gage and Emulous Peters--they're Denboro folks, Mr.Ellery, and about sixteen p'ints t'other side of no account--they was the only passengers aboard except Nat Hammond, and they put in their time playin' high low jack in the cabin.