Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III " BULLY BLAKE " KITTY THE " SPRITE " — AN UNSYMPATHETIC RECEPTION — ALEC SIZES UP THE OLD MAN AND GIVES TOM SOME ADVICE A VERY PLEASANT DAY A WET BLANKET — BULLY BLAKE SHOWS HIS TEETH TOM FINDS HIMSELF FRIENDLESS One bright June morning, Captain Rufus Blake was busily scanning letters in his private office. He was a rather short, square man, with thick grizzled hair, beetling brows and a firm jaw. He was now senior captain and manager of a line of sailing-vessels, mostly employed in the trade between Portland, Maine, and South American ports. While at sea he had earned the nickname of " Bully Blake," and though it stuck to him as nicknames will, he was now so eminently respectable that it was never applied to him openly. It was only used by the disgruntled, behind his back, for Captain Blake was powerful as well as respectable. His daughter and only child, Kitty, stood near him watching from the window the busy scene on the wharf below, where stevedores " wrestled " with heavy bales, boxes, and barrels; while truckmen, whowere continually bringing or taking away the valuable merchandise, drove their horses recklessly among the men. The result was an interchange of billingsgate that would have terribly shocked almost any other young person; but Kitty Blake had been familiar with it all her life. She disliked it, of course, but would have been surprised at missing it. It was to her merely a natural adjunct of the scene; as much so as the red flannel shirts and soiled and ragged overalls. She was quite a slip of a girl, fifteen years of age, rather tall, quick, and active. Her brown cheeks and bright eyes told a tale of robust health, due to abundant out-door exercise. As she stood there, an occasional sidelong glance at her father, and a nervous tapping of...