Before sundown my pilot was looking for the change of
a five-dollar-piece; and we of the _Liberdade_ sat before a pot-pie, at
twilight, the like of which on the whole voyage had not been tasted,
from sea fowl laid about by our pilot while sailing through the meadows
and marshes. And the pilot himself, returning while the pot-pie was yet
steaming hot, declared it "ahead of coon."
A pleasant sail was this through the ditch that gran'ther dug. At the
camp fire that night, where we hauled up by a fishing station, thirty
stalwart men talked over the adventures of their lives. My pilot, the
best speaker, kept the camp in roars. As for myself, always fond of
mirth, I got up from the fire sore from laughing. Their curious
adventures with coons and 'gators recounted had been considerable.
Many startling stories were told. But frequently reverting to the voyage
of the _Liberdade_, they declared with one voice that "it was the
greatest thing since the wah." I took this as a kind of complimentary
hospitality. "When she struck on a sand reef," said the pilot, "why, the
captain he jumped right overboard and the son he jumped right over, too,
to tote her over, and the captain's wife she holp.
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