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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Voyage of the Hoppergrass
by Edmund Lester Pearson
(#2 in our series by Edmund Lester Pearson)

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Title: The Voyage of the Hoppergrass
Author: Edmund Lester Pearson
Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5064]

[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]

[This file was first posted on April 12, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE VOYAGE OF THE HOPPERGRASS ***

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THE VOYAGE OF THE HOPPERGRASS
BY EDMUND LESTER PEARSON
AUTHOR OF "THE BELIEVING YEARS"

TO PHILIP RICHARDSON PEARSON
Dear Philip,--

This is the book you have asked me about,--once or twice. You
remember "The Believing Years," don't you? That was a book about
some boys I knew, and although it was written for grown-up
readers, there were boys--yourself amongst them--who claimed to
have read it.

This story is about boys and men. There are two kinds of pirates
in it. One kind is for readers from about eight years old to, say,
sixteen. The other kind is recommended from sixteen up to ninety-
seven, or eight. There are other things beside the pirates, of
course.

It would do no harm, I think, after you have read the book, to let
your Father try it. And if Elizabeth and Katharine think they
would like it, why, give them 'a chance to find out. That is an
advantage girls have over us,--they usually like our books, while
we seldom care very much for theirs. I have sent Constance a copy,
so you will not have to lend this one to her.

Your uncle,
EDMUND LESTER PEARSON
July 28, 1913
(The anniversary of the sailing of the "Hoppergrass.")

CONTENTS
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE VOYAGE
II. A MAN ON A DESERT ISLAND
III. THE LAST OF THE PIRATES
IV. WELL BURIED TREASURE
V. MIDNIGHT BURGLARS
VI. WE ARE OFFERED LODGINGS
VII. BUT WE DECIDE TO GO
VIII. HUNTING THE HOPPERGRASS
IX. THE GOLD COMPANY
X. MR. SNIDER
XI. PIRATES IN TROUBLE
XII. THE VOYAGE BEGINS AGAIN
THE VOYAGE OF THE HOPPERGRASS
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNING OF THE VOYAGE

It was a lucky thing that the "Hoppergrass" was a large boat. When
we started there were only four of us,--counting Captain
Bannister. But we kept picking up passengers--unexpected ones--
until the Captain said "we'd have the whole County on board." It
was not as bad as that, but we were glad before we came home
again, that we had a comfortable cabin, with plenty of sleeping
room.

She was a big, white cat-boat, with her name in gilt letters on
the stern. On the day when our voyage began she lay quietly at
anchor, well out toward the middle of the river. It was still
early,--shortly after five of a morning in July. The river was
quiet, with only one or two boats moving,--as quiet as the streets
of the town through which we had walked on our way to the wharf.
There had been a shower just before daylight, and this had
discouraged us a little, but now the sun was coming through the
clouds, and there were white spirals of mist rising from the
water. Across the river, on Fisher's Island, two or three men were
moving about their dories, and smoke poured steadily from the
chimneys of the houses. A man's head looked out of the cabin of
the "Hoppergrass."

"There's someone on board her," said Jimmy Toppan.

"Yes," replied Captain Bannister, "it's Clarence. He's havin' some
breakfast, I guess. He helped me bring her up river last night,
and he slept on board. He aint goin' with us, but he'll help us
with this stuff."

Then he shouted: "Hey! Clarence!"

The "Hoppergrass" was Captain Bannister's boat,--he had just
bought her. He did not like the name, but as yet he had not found
any way of changing it. Captain Bannister was a retired seaman,
but I do not know whether he had ever been a full-fledged captain
of a ship. In our town it was often the custom to call a man
"Captain" if he had ever risen as high as mate. The Captain was a
short, red-faced man, with such bowed legs that you could have
pushed a barrel, end-ways, right between them. Ed Mason thought
that the Captain's legs were bowed like that because he had been
made to sit for hours astride a barrel. Ed believed that this was
a favorite form of punishment on board ship,--especially in the
navy.

I had a different idea about the Captain's legs. It was my belief
that they were what sailors call "sea-legs." I had often read, in
stories about the ocean, of people who were very sick and unhappy
until the got their "sea-legs." After that, as near as I could make

of 00

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