a little, but I didn't catch anything, 'cept an old flounder, and
he winked at me, so I put him back. And then I thought a long
time--oh! a very long time, sitting like Patience on the doorstep.
And _suddenly_, Daddy Captain, I thought about those boxes of clothes,
and how you said they would be mine when I was big. And I measured
myself against the doorpost, and found that I _was very_ big. I
thought I must be almost as big as you, but I s'pose I'd forgotten
how big you were. So I went up, and opened one box, and I was just
putting the dress on when you came in. You knew where it came from,
of course, Daddy, the moment you saw it."

The Captain nodded gravely, and pulled his long moustaches.

"Do you suppose my poor mamma wore it often?" the child went on,
eagerly. "Do you think she looked like me when she wore it? Do I look
as she did when you saw her?"

"Wal," began the Captain, meditatively; but Star ran on without
waiting for an answer.

"Of course, though, she looked very different, because she was dead.
You are quite very positively sure my poor mamma was dead, Daddy
Captain?"

"She were," replied the Captain, with emphasis. "She were that, Pigeon
Pie! You couldn't find nobody deader, not if you'd sarched for a week.
Why, door nails, and Julius Caesar, and things o' that description,
would ha' been _lively_ compared with your poor ma when I see her.
Lively! that's what they'd ha' been."