Once there was a journeyman who wandered the roads near Halifax, doing the odd work of the wives whose husbands were at sea. He was a lean sort, yet had enough muscle on him to do most jobs, and so when he was seen coming down the road the sight was much welcome.

In his pack, the journeyman had a jewel that he let no one else see. It was not a very big jewel. It was green, only about the size of a big man’s thumb, and the journeyman kept it wrapped in a white cloth in the bottom of his bag. It had been a gift from the captain of a schooner to Africa, as grateful payment for when the journeyman had saved his wife from a rowdy bunch intent on harm. He had taken the jewel from the captain and now held it as a treasured possession.

One day, as the journeyman walked down the road, he met another man. This man was a thinner man than he, reminiscent of a young sapling in a grove of great oaks. Being an amiable person, the journeyman walked with him. They chatted for a while. The journeyman found that the other man’s name was Jonathan Falcon, and that he had come from south of the border, originally from New York. He was wandering about, seeking what he might be able to see in the wide world. 

When they came to an inn, the journeyman offered to pay for Falcon to spend the night there with him. Falcon at first refused, saying that he could not take the money of one who so needed it himself. But the journeyman insisted, and at last Falcon did accept the offer, and they entered the inn together.

The room did not cost much, and the food and drink were good. Soon the bellies of the journeyman and Falcon were both full, and they sat by the fire as the air began to chill with the coming of the night. A few other travelers were there as well as those for whom the inn was the accustomed gathering place. Soon all there were engaged in telling tales that either they had seen themselves, or that had been relayed to them by a friend as a friend had relayed it to them. 

For the most part these were tales of the ocean, of ships that had gone to far distant ports in Indo-China or the South Seas or had vanished without a trace in the dark corners of the earth. While all had been heard before by most of those assembled, the tellers were able to add their own unique spices to them, and so the tales seemed to be rather new.