After innumerable voyages aboard men-of-war and merchant-men , fishing-schooners and chebacco-boats , the old salt had become master of a handcart , which he daily trundled about the vicinity , and sometimes blew his fish-horn through the streets of Salem . One of Uncle Parker 's eyes had been blown out with gunpowder , and the other did but glimmer in its socket . Turning it upward as he spoke , it was his delight to tell of cruises against the French , and battles with his own shipmates , when he and an antagonist used to be seated astride of a sailor 's chest , each fastened down by a spike-nail through his trousers , and there to fight it out . Sometimes he expatiated on the delicious flavor of the liagden , a greasy and goose-like fowl , which the sailors catch with hook and line on the Grand Banks . He dwelt with rapture on an interminable winter at the Isle of Sables , where he had gladdened himself , amid polar snows , with the rum and sugar saved from the wreck of a West India schooner . And wrathfully did he shake his fist , as he related how a party of Cape Cod men had robbed him and his companions of their lawful spoil , and sailed away with every keg of old Jamaica , leaving him not a drop to drown his sorrow . Villains they were , and of that wicked brotherhood who are said to tie lanterns to horses ' tails , to mislead the mariner along the dangerous shores of the Cape . Even now I seem to see the group of fishermen , with that old salt in the midst . One fellow sits on the counter , a second bestrides an oil-barrel , a third lolls at his length on a parcel of new cod-lines , and another has planted the tarry seat of his trousers on a heap of salt , which will shortly be sprinkled over a lot of fish . They are a likely set of men . Some have voyaged to the East Indies or the Pacific , and most of them have sailed in Marblehead schooners to Newfoundland ; a few have been no farther than the Middle Banks , and one or two have always fished along the shore ; but , as Uncle Parker used to say , they have all been christened in salt water , and know more than men ever learn in the bushes . A curious figure , by way of contrast , is a fish-dealer from farup country , listening with eyes wide open to narratives that might startle Sindbad the sailor . Be it well with you , my brethren ! Ye are all gone , some to your graves ashore , and others to the depths of ocean ; but my faith is strong that ye are happy ; for whenever I behold your forms , whether in dream or vision , each departed friend is puffing his long-nine , and a mug of the right blackstrap goes round from lip to lip . But where was the mermaid in those delightful times ? At a certain window near the centre of the village appeared a pretty display of gingerbread men and horses , picture-books and ballads , small fish-hooks , pins , needles , sugar-plums , and brass thimbles , articles on which the young fishermen used to expend their money from pure gallantry . What a picture was Susan behind the counter ! A slender maiden , though the child of rugged parents , she had the slimmest of all waists , brown hair curling on her neck , and a complexion rather pale , except when the sea-breeze flushed it . A few freckles became beauty-spots beneath her eyelids . How was it , Susan , that you talked and acted so carelessly , yet always for the best , doing whatever was right in your own eyes , and never once doing wrong in mine , nor shocked a taste that had been morbidly sensitive till now ?
And whence had you that happiest gift , of brightening every topic XXXXX an unsought gayety , quiet but irresistible , so that even loomy spirits felt your sunshine , and did not shrink from it ?
After At as near of over though till to with