122 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES 



achievements of these phantom shipmasters. Per- 

 haps in some dark corner lies another story like 

 that of the Scarlet Letter. 



Along the street on which the custom house 

 faces passed the sea-faring traffic of the day, and 

 the buildings suggest Wapping Old Stairs or 

 some such quaint corner of old London near the 

 Thames. The smell of the sea lingers round all 

 corners, and in the little shop windows are crowded 

 for sale pictures of ships and fragments of ship 

 chandlery and curios from ports once a half-year's 

 sail away; wares that one fancies have waited a 

 century for customers. The street itself loves the 

 sea so well that it is always trying to reach it, 

 swerving toward the water line often and making 

 detours when blocked, and always sending down 

 little messenger side streets to bring it news from 

 the very shore, thus winding its way always east- 

 ward till it gets an unobstructed view of the harbor 

 entrance across Joppa flats and is no doubt content, 

 strolling there along the very margin with a blear 

 eye turned seaward for the ships that come no 

 more. 



In the debris the centuries have dropped along 



