Prue, we be suffering for some young person about the house. Now,
hold on! 'Twarn't for us to have children. That warn't meant. We've
been all through that, and it's settled. But that don't change the
fact that we need somebody to live with us if we're going to live
comfortable."

"Oh, dear, if my niece Sarah had lived! She used to stay with me
when she was a gal and you was away," sighed Prudence.

"But she married and had a gal of her own. She brought her here that
time I was home after my first v'y'ge on the _Susan Gatskill_. A
pretty baby if ever there was one."

"Ida May Bostwick! Bostwick was Sarah's married name. I heard
something about Ida May only the other day."

"You did?" exclaimed Cap'n Ira, much interested.

"Yes, Ira. Annabell Coffin, she who was a Cuttle, was visiting his
folks in Boston, and she learned that Sarah Bostwick's daughter was
working behind the counter in some store there. She has to work for
her livin', poor child."

"I swan!" ejaculated the captain.

Much as he had been about the world, Cap'n Ira looked upon most
mundane affairs with the eyes of the true Cape man. Independence is
bred in the bone of his tribe. A tradesman or storekeeper is, after
all, not of the shipmaster caste. And a clerk, working "behind the
counter" of any store, is much like a man before the mast.