course, she wants to marry someone else. Me an' 'er mother we put our
'eads together and decided for her to come away. When she's at 'ome,
instead o' being out with Towson, direckly her mother's back's turned
she's out with that young sprig of a clerk."

"Nice-looking young feller, I s'pose?" said the mate somewhat anxiously.

"Not a bit of it," said the other firmly. "Looks as though he had never
had a good meal in his life. Now my friend Towson, he's all right; he's
a man of about my own figger."

"She'll marry the clerk," said the mate, with conviction.

"I'll bet you she don't," said the skipper. "I'm an artful man, Jack,
an' I, generally speaking, get my own way. I couldn't live with my
missus peaceable if it wasn't for management."

The mate smiled safely in the darkness, the skipper's management
consisting chiefly of slavish obedience.

"I've got a cabinet fortygraph of him for the cabin mantel-piece, Jack,"
continued the wily father. "He gave it to me o' purpose. She'll see that
when she won't see the clerk, an' by-and-bye she'll fall into our way of
thinking. Anyway, she's going to stay here till she does."

"You know your way about, cap'n," said the mate, in pretended
admiration.

The skipper laid his finger on his nose, and winked at the mainmast.
"There's few can show me the way, Jack," he answered softly; "very few.