Kate and I stood in the wide doorway, arm in arm, looking sometimes at the queer fisherman and the porgies, and sometimes out to sea.  It was low tide; the wind had risen a little, and the heavy salt air blew toward us from the wet brown ledges in the rocky harbor.  The sea was bright blue, and the sun was shining.  Two gulls were swinging lazily to and fro; there was a flock of sand-pipers down by the water’s edge, in a great hurry, as usual.

Presently the fisherman spoke again, beginning with an odd laugh:  “I was scared last winter!  Jack Scudder and me, we were up in the Cap’n Manning storehouse hunting for a half-bar’l of salt the skipper said was there.  It was an awful blustering kind of day, with a thin icy rain blowing from all points at once; sea roaring as if it wished it could come ashore and put a stop to everything.  Bad days at sea, them are; rigging all froze up.  As I was saying, we were hunting for a half-bar’l of salt, and I laid hold of a bar’l that had something heavy in the bottom, and tilted it up, and my eye! there was a stir and a scratch and a squeal, and out went some kind of a creatur’, and I jumped back, not looking for anything live, but I see in a minute it was a cat; and perhaps you think it is a big story, but there were eight more in there, hived in together to keep warm.  I car’d ’em up some new fish that night; they seemed short of provisions.  We hadn’t been out fishing as much as common, and they hadn’t dared to be round the fish-houses much, for a fellow who came in on a coaster had a dog, and he used to chase ’em.  Hard chance they had, and lots of ’em died, I guess; but there seem to be some survivin’ relatives, an’ al’ays just so hungry!  I used to feed them some when I was ashore.  I think likely you’ve heard that a cat will fetch you bad luck; but I don’t know’s that made much difference to me.  I kind of like to keep on the right side of ’em, too; if ever I have a bad dream there’s sure to be a cat in it; but I was brought up to be clever to dumb beasts, an’ I guess it’s my natur’.  Except fish,” said Danny after a minute’s thought; “but then it never seems like they had feelin’s like creatur’s that live ashore.”  And we all laughed heartily and felt well acquainted.

“I s’pose you misses will laugh if I tell ye I kept a kitty once myself.”  This was said rather shyly, and there was evidently a story, so we were much interested, and Kate said, “Please tell us about it; was it at sea?”

“Yes, it was at sea; leastways, on a coaster.  I got her in a sing’lar kind of way:  it was one afternoon we were lying alongside Charlestown Bridge, and I heard a young cat screeching real pitiful; and after I looked all round, I see her in the water clutching on to the pier of the bridge, and some little divils of boys were heaving rocks down at her.  I got into the schooner’s tag-boat quick, I tell ye, and pushed off for her, ‘n’ she let go just as I got there, ‘n’ I guess you never saw a more miser’ble-looking creatur’