Page:Stringer - Lonely O'Malley.djvu/313

 vessel. A pensive shadow flitted across his leonine old eyes.

"Henery, as I 'm an old sinner, them be pirates—out an' out pirates!"

And again mirth overcame him, and he struggled with a tendency to choke, and wagged his head helplessly from side to side. Then he stopped and mopped his brow.

"And sech a day, Henery, sech a day!"

And still again the old stick smote the planks as his eye followed the gyrations of eight unwieldy sweep-oars, silhouetted against the glaring shimmer of the water.

The two old men slowly climbed the bank once more, puffing back to their seats under the shade of the maples.

"Pirates they be, Silas!" assented the other, almost sorrowfully. "Armed to th' teeth, an' a-lookin' for something to capture!"

He gazed regretfully after the odd little black craft. A leaf or two, untimely withered, drifted lazily down from the green boughs above their heads.

"Mind them days, Silas? Mind them days, when we was up to such jinks?" he asked, musingly.