"Don't say that name, Daddy!" interrupted the child. "You know I don't
like it. Say 'Captain January'!"

"I tell ye, Honeysuckle," said the old man, "I felt more like a
sea-cook than a cap'n _that_ night. A cap'n on a quarter-deck's a
good thing; but a cap'n on a p'int o' rock, out to sea in a northeast
gale, might just as well be a fo'c'sle hand and done with it. Wal,
as I was holdin' on thar, I seed a flash to windward, as wasn't
lightning; and next minute kem a sound as wasn't thunder nor yet wind
nor sea."

"The guns! the guns!" cried the child, in great excitement. "The guns
of my poor mamma's ship. And then you heard them again, Daddy?"

"Then I heard them agin!" the old man assented. "And agin! a flash,
and a boom! and then in a minute agin, a flash and a boom! 'Oh, Lord!'
says I. 'Take her by to the mainland, and put her ashore there!' I
says; 'cause there's a life-saving station thar, ye know, Blossom,
and there might be some chance for them as were in her. But the Lord
had His views, my dear, the Lord had His views! Amen! so be it! In
another minute there kem a break in the clouds, and thar she was,
comin' full head on, straight for Light Island. Oh! my little Star,
that was an awful thing to see. And I couldn't do nothin', you
understand. Not a livin' airthly thing could I do, 'cept hide my face
agin the rock I was clingin' to, and say, 'Dear Lord, take 'em easy!
It's Thy will as they should be took,' I says, 'and there ain't no
one to hender, if so be as they could. But take 'em easy, good Lord,
and take 'em suddin!'"