And so, by what seemed the merest chance, that lovely afternoon,
little Star went with Bob Peet, in his old black boat, to see the
steamer _Huntress_ aground on a sand-bank off the main shore.

The sea lay all shining and dimpling in the afternoon light, and not
a cloud was to be seen overhead. Here and there a white gull was
slowly waving his wings through the clear air, and little fish came
popping their heads out of the water, just for the pleasure of popping
them back again. Star dipped her hands in the blue crystal below,
and sang little snatches of song, being light of heart and without
a care in the world. They were no nursery songs that she sang, for
she considered herself to have outgrown the very few Mother Goose
ditties which Captain January had treasured in his mind and heart
ever since his mother sang them to him, all the many years ago. She
was tired of:

"Jacky Barber's coming to town:
Clear away, gentlemen! clear away, gentlemen!
One foot up and t'other foot down,
Jacky Barber's coming to town."

But she loved the scraps of sea-song that the old Captain still hummed
over his work: "Baltimore," and "Blow a Man Down," and half a dozen
other salt-water ditties: and it might have been strange to less
accustomed ears than Bob Peet's to hear the sweet child-voice
carolling merrily:

"Boney was a warrior,
Weigh! heigh! oh!