spoils that a treacherous sea had thrown upon the beach; a sea so
disastrous to many, but so friendly to the Barnegat wrecker,--who, by
the way, is not so black a character as Mistress Rumor paints him. A
tar-like odor everywhere prevailed, and I wondered, while breathing
this wholesome air, why this surf-man of daring and renown had left
his proper place upon the beach near the life-saving station, where
his valuable experience, brave heart, and strong, brawny arms were
needed to rescue from the ocean's grasp the poor victims of misfortune
whose dead bodies are washed upon the hard strand of the Jersey shores
every year from the wrecks of the many vessels which pound out their
existence upon the dreaded coast of Barnegat? A question easily
answered,--political preferment. His place had been filled by a man
who had never pulled an oar in the surf, but had followed the
occupation of a tradesman.

Thus Honest George, rejected by "the service," had left the beach, and
crossing the wide bays to the main land, had taken up his abode under
the willows by the marshes, but not too far from his natural element,
for he could even now, while he hammered away on his sneak-boxes, hear
the ceaseless moaning of the sea.

A verbal contract was soon made, and George agreed to build me for
twenty-five dollars the best boat that had ever left his shop; he to
do all the work upon the hull and spars, while the future owner was to
supply all the materials at his own cost. The oars and sail were not
included in the contract, but were made by other parties. In November,
when I settled all the bills of construction, cost of materials, oar-
locks, oars, spars, sail, anchor, &c., the sum-total did not exceed
seventy-five dollars; and when the accounts of more than twenty boats
and canoes built for me had been looked over, I concluded that the