only I couldn't part
company, so she came aboard as first mate, and I'm bound straight for
glory now.'

'Hush! that's silly, dear,' whispered Mary, trying in her turn to stop
him, with English shyness about tender topics. But he took the soft hand
in his, and proudly surveying the one ring it wore, went on with the air
of an admiral aboard his flagship.

'The captain proposed waiting a spell; but I told him we weren't like
to see any rougher weather than we'd pulled through together, and if we
didn't know one another after such a year as this, we never should. I
was sure I shouldn't be worth my pay without this hand on the wheel; so
I had my way, and my brave little woman has shipped for the long voyage.
God bless her!'

'Shall you really sail with him?' asked Daisy, admiring her courage, but
shrinking with cat-like horror from the water.

'I'm not afraid,' answered Mary, with a loyal smile. 'I've proved my
captain in fair weather and in foul, and if he is ever wrecked again,
I'd rather be with him than waiting and watching ashore.'

'A true woman, and a born sailor's wife! You are a happy man, Emil, and
I'm sure this trip will be a prosperous one,' cried Mrs Jo, delighted
with the briny flavour of this courtship. 'Oh, my dear boy, I always
felt you'd come back, and when everyone else despaired I never gave up,
but insisted that you were clinging to the main-top jib somewhere on
that dreadful sea'; and Mrs Jo illustrated her faith by grasping Emil
with a truly Pillycoddian gesture.

'Of course I was!' answered Emil heartily; 'and my "main-top jib" in
this case was the thought of what you and Uncle said to me. That kept
me up; and among the million thoughts that came to me during those
long nights none was clearer than the idea of the red strand, you
remember--English navy, and all that. I liked the notion, and resolved
that if a bit of my cable was left afloat, the red stripe should be
there.'

'And it was, my dear, it was! Captain Hardy testifies to that, and here
is your reward'; and Mrs Jo kissed Mary with a maternal tenderness
which betrayed that she liked the English rose better than the blue-eyed
German Kornblumen, sweet and modest though it was.

Emil surveyed the little ceremony with complacency, saying, as he looked
about the room which he never thought to see again: 'Odd, isn't it,
how clearly trifles come back to one in times of danger? As we floated
there, half-starved, and in despair, I used to th