The cause of these comments was a very small and very hungry looking boy who was perched up on the cargo, which had been piled two or more feet above the gunwale, and was now staring at the scene before him with eyes that seemed many sizes too large for his thin face.
"Now why do you s'pose the old man has brought home that little monkey?" Mr. Rowe said half to himself, making no move toward going to the shore, and Sam, a moment later, cried as if believing he had made an important discovery:
"I know what's up! Uncle Ben has found a new member of the family! Come on, let's go down an' see him. Say, but ain't he been playin' in hard luck!" and Sam, followed by Tommy and Mr. Rowe, ran at full speed to the shore.
"I was kinder wonderin' why you didn't lend a hand at unloadin' this boat," Uncle Ben said laughingly as he scrambled ashore with the little stranger in his arms. "Kinder s'prised at seein' this present I've brought yer, eh? Wa'al, what do you think of that?" and the old man gently dropped the strange boy, who looked almost like a baby, on the sand.
"Who is he? Where'd you find him?" Sam cried, going shyly up to the stranger, who stood silent and motionless, as if not quite decided whether to laugh or cry.
"His name is Joey Sampson; he's been livin' out at the poor farm, an' the s'lectmen got so mighty economical they cooked up the idee Southport couldn't afford to feed him any longer, so was countin' on sendin' the poor little creeter down to St. Johns, where somebody said his father's cousin lived. Never tried to find out if that 'ere cousin would take him in or not, but jest allowed to ship him off. I told 'em I'd adopt the child as a new member of my family, an' they was mighty glad to get rid of him. Wa'al, Joey, what do you think of Apple Island?"
"It's a pretty place, sir," the little stranger said in a tearful voice, and straightway Sam's heart went out to him.
"It's better than pretty, Joey," he said, taking the little fellow in his arms, for, as Mr. Rowe afterward declared, "he wasn't bigger'n a shirt button." "If the only home you've had has been the poor farm, you'll soon come to know that you was mighty lucky when Uncle Ben run across your track. Here's Tommy, an' Mr. Rowe, an' me, who hadn't any home till we were given the chance to stay here, an' it's a mighty comfortable place, with the best man for the head of the family that ever lived, as you'll find out before bein' here many days."
"There, there, Sammy," Uncle Ben interrupted, "have done with your fairy tales. Take Joey up to the shanty, an' the rest of us will tote what of the stuff needs to go under cover. Supper ready?"
"It will be in five minutes, for then the biscuit'll be done," and away Sam ran toward the shanty, petting Joey as if he was really the baby he looked to be. "You'll get on here famously," he said when they were come to the building, "for it'll only be a case of settin' still an' seein' yourself grow fat. Then when our schooner is afloat what great times you'll have fishin'!"