Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

278 RAMBLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH.
their capacious baskets. The whortleberries, too, each as
plump and round, and almost as large as buck shot-if
memory, which perhaps it may, does not magnify them
through its perspective glass-are not forgotten. Bartlett
pears were not then known in the world of horticulture,
but there were the St. Michael's," and plenty of the more
common sorts, all as good as they were cheap, A schoolboy could fill the pockets of his round about, or the youngster taking his first lessons in trade, those of his' longtailed blue," fox less than it costs now-ardays, in some seasons, to buy a single specimen of the choicer pear varieties. Those semi-aquatic ladies, who, from all points on the
Kittery shore between BoilingiRock and Pepperell's Cove,
drove their light barks so skillfully across the Piscataqua,
have all passed away. Another branch of the Kittery
trade, distinct from that at the market, was in the line of
stocking yarn and milk. Queer tricks were sometimes
played by young rogues upon the venders of these necessary articles, as they journeyed, through town, stopping
from door to door to dispose of their goods. One was to
attach atorpedo to the rapper of a doorwhen one of tbem
was seen approaching, and enjoy from a distance, the start
of surprise that followed the explosion sure to occur.
(P ortsmouth boys were always sad rogues.)
Foremost among the fishermejn was that vy.eerable individual known as "Cap Spinney." His peculiar taste in
dress, including his woolen cap, and a pea-jacket, that like
the garment of the " Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," had been
patched with so many different colors it was difficult to decide which was the original, rendered him at all times an
object of interest. He might readily have been taken, indeed, from his stalwart figure, and rough, weather beaten
visage, as he landed from his boat, for old Neptune himself
had he not brandished, instead of a tridant, his cocoa-nut
shell. It was a fixed principle with him, as you state, un