240 
CAPE COD. 
night, in the same storm in which the St. John was 
wrecked. He had been at work as a carpenter in Maine, 
and took passage for Boston in a schooner laden with 
lumber. When the storm came on, they endeavored to 
get into Provincetown harbor. It was dai’k and misty,” 
said he, and as we were steering for Long Point Light 
we suddenly saw the land near us, — for our compass 
was out of order, — varied several degrees [a mariner 
always casts the blame on his compass], — but there be¬ 
ing a mist on shore, we thought it was farther off than 
it was, and so held on, and we immediately struck on the 
bar. Says the Captain, ^We are all lost’ Says I to 
the Captain, ‘ Now don’t let her strike again this* way; 
head her right on.’ The Captain thought a moment, 
and then headed her on. The sea washed completely 
over us, and wellnigh took the breath out of my body. 
I held on to the running rigging, but I have learned to 
hold on to the standing rigging the next time.” “ Well, 
were there any drowned ? ” I asked. ‘‘ No ; we all got 
safe to a house at Wood End, at midnight, wet to our 
skins, and half frozen to death.” He had apparently 
spent the time since playing checkers at the hotel, and 
was congratulating himself on having beaten a tall fellow- 
boarder at that game. ‘‘ The vessel is to be sold at 
auction to-day,” he added. (We had heard the sound 
of the crier’s bell which advertised it.) “ The Captain is 
rather down about it, but I tell him to cheer up and he 
will soon get another vessel.” 
At that moment the Captain called to him from the 
wharf. He looked like a man just from the country, 
with a cap made of a woodchuck’s skin, and now that I 
had heard a part of his history, he appeared singularly 
destitute, — a Captain without any vessel, only a great- 
