The Voyage of the Hoppergrass | Page 5

single word he said.
This river was very different from the main stream. Narrow and muddy,
it ran between high banks which were covered with marsh grass. There
were sudden twists and turns, so that we never knew what might be
ahead of us. Sometimes we sailed so near the shore that the boom
swept along the bank, brushing the grass. Once we turned a corner
suddenly, and started up four crows, who were pecking at a dead fish,
and in another place a big crane jumped clumsily up from a pool, and
flapped heavily away. The dark, muddy water boiled up in thousands of
bubbles in our wake.
"We'll see if we can get a mess of clams at Pingree's Beach, an' then
we'll have a chowder for dinner,--what d'yer say, boys?"
We all said that the Captain's idea was a good one. There was a sharp
turn in the river just then, and he put the boat about to round a sort of
headland, where the banks were eight or ten feet high.
"Hard-a-lee! Look out for your heads," he shouted; and when the sail
had swung over he continued: "I come up through here one night two
years ago, in a boat that belonged to Dave Rodigrass,--I was bringing
her up from Little Duck Island, for him. It was thicker'n burgoo, an'
when I got the other side o' this pint, I heard a feller sing out from this
side that he was aground, an' he warned me off, an' when I got here I
couldn't see him, an' pretty soon he begun shoutin' from the other side. I
tell yer I thought I'd got 'em again, or something, an' I--"

The Captain's recollections stopped that instant, for a voice--a loud,
cheerful voice--arose only a few feet from us. It came from the other
side of the sail, and that was all we could tell about it.
"Look out there!" it shouted, "look out! Oh, I mean: ship ahoy! ship
ahoy!"
This hail came so suddenly that it made us jump, and Ed Mason, who
was standing up forward, nearly fell overboard. He grabbed the mast to
save himself, and then we all stooped to looked under the sail. The
shouting had begun again, and there was a great racket of "Ship ahoy!
Ship ahoy!"

CHAPTER II
A MAN ON A DESERT ISLAND
"All right, all right!" shouted Captain Bannister, "we hear yer. You
needn't ahoy so much."
But the voice continued to shout "Ship ahoy!" at a great rate, until the
"Hoppergrass" drew slowly ahead, and we could see what had been
hidden by the sail.
A sand-bar stuck out of the water, right in the middle of the river. Only
a few feet of it showed, and the island which it made was very small. It
was so small that the man who was sitting on it had his legs drawn up
till his knees came right under his chin, so as to keep his feet from
getting wet. He was a young man, about twenty years old. He had on
white trousers and a pink shirt, and he was slowly waving a white
canvas hat. His hair was sandy, and very much ruffled, and his big, pale
blue eyes were wide open, as though he were surprised about
something.
"Ship ahoy!" he remarked again, but in an ordinary conversational tone,
this time.

Then he climbed to his feet,--carefully, so as to keep the steep sides of
his little, sand island from giving way, and letting him down into the
water. As soon as he was standing up straight he raised one hand in the
air, as if he were in a play, and said: "Rescued at last!"
Then he turned toward us, and remarked: "Gentlemen, I thank you."
"You better wait till you're on board," said the Captain, "before you
begin thankin' us. I'll come about in a minute, an' then we'll fetch yer in
the tender."
Jimmy Toppan had already begun to pull the small boat alongside, but
before he could get into it, the young man called out: "That's all right!
I'll swim."
And he plunged into the water, and struck out toward us. Of course he
could not overtake a sail-boat, and we soon left him behind. He kept on
swimming, however, until his hat fell off. Turning around, he picked up
the hat, and jammed it on his head again. By this time the Captain had
put about, and started on a tack that brought us near the swimmer. The
young man came alongside, with a smile on his wet face.
"Don't try to grab the boat," shouted the Captain, "get hold of the
tender!"
So the swimmer let us pass him, seized the side of the small boat, and
after