When that meal--a rather silent one--was over, Captain Eli
felt better. "There was rocks," he said, "and not a breaker to
show where they lay, and I struck 'em bow on. So that's the end
of that voyage. But I've tuk to my boats, cap'n, I've tuk to my
boats."

"I'm glad to hear you've tuk to your boats," said Captain
Cephas, with an approving glance upon his friend.

About ten minutes afterwards Captain Eli said, "I'm goin' up
to my house."

"By yourself?" said the other.

"Yes, by myself. I'd rather go alone. I don't intend to
mind anything, and I'm goin' to tell her that she can stay there
and spend Christmas,--the place she lives in ain't no place to
spend Christmas,--and she can make the little gal have a good
time, and go 'long just as we intended to go 'long--plum-duff and
mince-pie all the same. I can stay here, and you and me can have
our Christmas dinner together, if we choose to give it that name.

And if she ain't ready to go to-morrow, she can stay a day or
two longer. It's all the same to me, if it's the same to you,
cap'n."

Captain Cephas having said that it was the same to him,
Captain Eli put on his cap and buttoned up his pea-jacket,
declaring that the sooner he got to his house the better, as she