me old man, the sedate youth, the girl, the nurse,
remained. Captain Courteney came along the deck and crossed toward the
four, eyed from head to foot by the girl even after he had stopped near
her. But her gaze drew no glance from him.

"Well, Hugh," he said.

The youth turned with a smile that bettered every meaning in his too
passive countenance: "Well, father?"

"Oh!" breathed the startled girl. She looked eagerly into the three male
faces, beamed round upon her dark attendant, and then looked again at
grandfather, father, and son. "Why, of course!" she softly laughed.

"John," said the older man, "this young lady is a daughter of Gideon
Hayle."

"I thought as much." The benign captain lifted his hat and accepted and
dropped again the dainty hand proffered him with childish readiness.
"Then you're the youngest of seven children."

Her reply was a gay nod. Presently, with a merry glint between her long
lashes, she said: "I'm Ramsey."

The captain's smile grew: "That must be great fun."

The girl looked from one to another, puzzled.

"Why, just to be Ramsey," he explained. "Isn't it?"

She gave him a wary, sidewise glance and looked out over the water. "My
three married sisters all live near this river," she musingly said; "one
in Louisiana, two in Mississippi." Her sidelong glance repeated itself:
"I know who it would be fun to be--for me--or for anybody!" Her eyes
widened as her brother's had done, though in an amiable, elated way.

"Your father?" asked the captain.

She all but danced: "How'd you know?"

"I saw him--in your eyes," was the placid reply. "Your father and I, and
your grandfather Hayle, and this gentleman here----"

"Ya-ass, ya-ass!" drawled the nurse in worshipping reminiscence, and
Ramsey laughed to Hugh, and all the while the captain persisted: "We've
built and owned rival boats----"

"Fawty yeah'!" murmured the nurse. "Fawty yeah'!"

"Yes, yes!" chirruped the girl. "Pop-a's up the river now, building the
_Paragon_! We're on our way to join him!"

"Law', missy," gently chid the nurse, made anxious by a new approach
which Ramsey was trying to ignore, "dese gen'lemens knows all dat."

Ramsey twitched her shoulders and waist. Her lips parted for a bright
question, but it was interrupted. The interrupters were the restless
twins, whose tread sounded peremptory even on the painted canvas of the
deck, and the fineness of whose presence was dimmed only by the hardy
lawlessness which,