If my hat wa'n't sloshin' around thirty mile astern, I snum if I wouldn't take it off to you this minute!' "'Nat,' stammers Zach, 'I must say I--' "Nat snapped him shut like a tobacco box.

'You needn't,' says he.

'But I'll say this to you, Zach Foster.

When I undertake to handle a vessel I handle her best I know how, and the fact that I don't own her makes no difference to me.

You just put that down somewheres so you won't forget it.' "And this mornin'," crowed Captain Zebedee, concluding his long yarn, "after that, mind you, that lubber Zach Foster is around town tellin' folks that his schooner had been over the course so often she COULDN'T get lost.