I had not been long on the shore when I heard the patter, patter of a
horse's feet approaching along the hard beach, which ceased as it came
abreast of the sand-ridge where I lay sheltered from the wind. Looking
up cautiously, I saw mounted on a nag probably the most astonished boy
on the whole coast. He had found a sloop! "It must be mine," he
thought, "for am I not the first to see it on the beach?" Sure enough,
there it was all high and dry and painted white. He trotted his horse
around it, and finding no owner, hitched the nag to the sloop's
bobstay and hauled as though he would take her home; but of course she
was too heavy for one horse to move. With my skiff, however, it was
different; this he hauled some distance, and concealed behind a dune
in a bunch of tall grass. He had made up his mind, I dare say, to
bring more horses and drag his bigger prize away, anyhow, and was
starting off for the settlement a mile or so away for the
reinforcement when I discovered myself to him, at which he seemed
displeased and disappointed. "Buenos dias, muchacho," I said. He
grunted a reply, and eyed me keenly from head to foot. Then bursting
into a volley of questions,--more than six Yankees could ask,--he
wanted to know, first, where my ship was from, and how many days she
had been coming. Then he asked what I was doing here ashore so early
in the morning. "Your questions are easily answered," I replied; "my
ship is from the moon, it has taken her a month to come, and she is
here for a cargo of boys.
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