shortly."

"Yes," said the girl, clapping her hands with delight, while her whole
face was lighted up with joy; "it is her, sure enough, for I see her
blue flag bordered with red, and the white square in the centre."

"Well," said the man, with a good-humored smile, "thine eyes must be a
good deal sharper than mine, lass, for I can barely see a flag at all,
much less its color; but certainly thou ought to know best, when it
happens to be the work of thine own hands."

A merry laugh was the response. "I shall hurry down to tell
mother,"--and with an agile step she bounded down the steep eminence,
and in a few moments reached the door of the dwelling, while the
fisherman hastened to the beach, to be first ready to greet the crew of
the schooner with a hearty welcome home.




CHAPTER IX.


"Ben," said the Captain of a smart-looking schooner, that under a heavy
weight of canvas was manfully breasting the breeze, almost conscious,
one might fancy, that it was steering for home.

"Ben," he inquired, addressing the mate, who had just come on deck,
"what is that strange looking thing yonder?" indicating by his finger
the direction of the object. The mate, a weather-beaten and experienced