The Man Behind the Angler 



have fetched it sure some time if it was ten miles. 

 The way it happened was this. He and a boy and 

 a cat was the crew of a coal schooner, and a sud- 

 den squall struck him afore he could cast off the 

 gaff topsail sheets, and over she went and down she 

 went, takin' the boy and the cat so sudden they 

 couldn't get out and afore Daniel knew where he was, 

 he was in the water, and with his ile skins on ; but he 

 got the whole rig off in the water, cast 'em off, and 

 started to swim in shore, a matter of ten miles. He 

 was nearer the Isles of Shoals or Boon Island, but he 

 knew he couldn't make anything so small on account 

 of the tide, so he just headed for sundown and swum 

 on, and as luck would have it, ran afoul me, and I'll 

 tell you what, don't ever tell this yarn, as they'll put 

 you down as a tarnation liar, to put it mild; but its 

 a fact." 



This was the true story of as brave and modest a 

 man as ever pulled an oar or gaffed a fish, and I 

 finally one day when we were fishing offshore, induced 

 him to relate it. He did not consider it out of the 

 ordinary, as he could swim all day and all night, and 

 he thought he could have made shore, but he saw 

 Captain Sam's schooner and luckily headed her off. 

 On my last day's fishing with Daniel I sat amidships 

 holding a trolling line as we ran in, watching him 

 holding the tiller in hand, steering by intuition, as he 

 was fast asleep. The great Gulf of Maine where it 

 begins to turn to the east is his grave; the endless 



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