worse this morning than he did last night. He looks bad. I told the
old gentleman that if he got into any trouble at Try-East, or any of
the ports where we touched, he shouldn't set foot on my ship again.
But I guess he'll keep pretty straight. He hasn't got any money, for
one thing."

Staniford laughed. "He stops drinking for obvious reasons, if for no
others, like Artemus Ward's destitute inebriate. Did you think only
of us in deciding whether you should take him?"

The captain looked up quickly at the young men, as if touched in a
sore place. "Well, there again I didn't seem to get my bearings just
right. I suppose you mean the young lady?" Staniford motionlessly and
silently assented. "Well, she's more of a young lady than I thought
she was, when her grandfather first come down here and talked of
sending her over with me. He was always speaking about his little
girl, you know, and I got the idea that she was about thirteen, or
eleven, may be. I thought the child might be some bother on the
voyage, but thinks I, I'm used to children, and I guess I can manage.
Bless your soul! when I first see her on the wharf yesterday, it most
knocked me down! I never believed she was half so tall, nor half so
good-looking." Staniford smiled at this expression of the captain's
despair, but the captain did not smile. "Why, she was as pretty as
a bird. Well, there I was. It was no time then to back out. The old
man wouldn't understood. Besides, there was the young lady herself,
and she seemed so forlorn and helpless that I kind of pitied her.
I thought, What if it was one of my own girls? And I made up my mind
that she shouldn't know from anything I said or did that she wasn't
just as much at home and just as much in place on my ship as she would
be in my house. I suppose what made me feel easier about it, and took