THE ROUGH-WINGS OF THE HERCULES. 



Tlie Hercules with lier ,^uns and war-paint taken off, was 

 our station tu.u; at Port Royal. A powerful old sea-o;oin*i tu,u 

 thoroughly refitted and just what we needed. 1 was on the 

 Nantucket then and came astern one morninii in the li^ht skiff 

 with the re.uular report. Forward on the Hercules was old 

 Johnn_\' Greek, who oidered me to moor m\' boat further aft so 

 as not to disturb his birds. He didn't seem to be as crusty as 

 usual, so 1 asked to see his birds, supposin^i he was tryinjj; to raise 

 some \-oun.Li Mockin,iilMri.ls. I was much amused when he 

 pointed out a pair of Kituiih-win^fed Swallows that \yerefrollick- 

 \n}l around aboye the Jivv dock that was just ahead of us. 

 Johnn\- stoutly asserted his claim to them, and in a minute or 

 two one had procured a straw and with much chatter and con- 

 ;i;ratulation from its mate, flew with it right into the port hawse- 

 pipe of the Hercules. This was somethin,^ new to me. 1 had 

 always seen the Rou.uh-w ings burrow in sand banks, thoujj;h 1 

 had read of their nestin.Li; under brid,u;es and in sheltered crannies. 

 The old Greek sailor I found was protecting them well. He 

 had the deck plu^i of the havyse-pipe neatly battened down and 

 vyould not let any of the crew handle the hose forward but him- 

 self when they washed down decks. He was worried about 

 their feed he told im.'. Said they wouldn't eat potatoes, or 

 e,!j;}^s or rice, and he was afraid they would ^o somewhere else 

 if he didn't furnish them with the proper dainties. 1 explained 

 the matter as well as 1 could to him, and every trip after we had 

 little consultations and he uaye me all the news about his pets 

 and their smart doings. They seemed to occupy a very bi,Li 

 place in his old heart. One day he called me in to back a letter 

 to his mother, w hich 1 used to do for him every pay day be- 



