"Not so bad?" repeated the mate. "Not so bad? Why"--his voice trembled--
"ain't you going to give 'im the chuck, then?"

"I shall try him for another vy'ge, George," said the skipper. "It's
hard lines on a youngster if he don't have a chance. I was never one to
be severe. Live and let live, that's my motto. Do as you'd be done by."

"You're turning soft-'arted in your old age," grumbled the mate.

"Old age!" said the other, in a startled voice. "Old age! I'm not
thirty-seven yet."

"You're getting on," said the mate; "besides, you look old."

The skipper investigated the charge in the cabin looking-glass ten
minutes later. He twisted his beard in his hand and tried to imagine how
he would look without it. As a compromise he went out and had it cut
short and trimmed to a point. The glass smiled approval on his return;
the mate smiled too, and, being caught in the act, said it made him look
like his own grandson.

It was late when the cook returned, but the skipper was on deck, and,
stopping him for a match, entered into a little conversation. Mr.
Jewell, surprised at first, soon became at his ease, and, the talk
drifting in some unknown fashion to Miss Jewell, discussed her with
brotherly frankness.

"You spent the evening together, I s'pose?" said the skipper,
carelessly.