Good night, my love, good night."

Good night, _Votaress_! He could not know, nor Ramsey, nor any of those
among whom they stood, that these bends were never again to see you in
your beauty--though in tragedy, yes! yes! They knew that in the
shipyards of the Ohio you were to receive a beautiful rejuvenation; but
knew not that then, as a dove may be caught by a lynx, you were to be
caught by a great war, a war greater than the great river, and should
return to these scenes a transport; a poor, scarred, bedraggled consort
to gunboats; slow reptilian monsters of iron ugliness and bellowing
ferocity. They knew not of days when you must swarm with blue
soldiers--including Marburg--sometimes hot and merry for battle,
sometimes shot-torn, fever-wasted, yellow-eyed, a human rubbish of camp
and siege, lighter part of the deadly price of conquered strongholds and
fallen cities--Forts Henry and Donelson, Columbus, Island Ten, Fort
Pillow, Port Hudson, Vicksburg, Memphis; or that, after all, in
recovered decency, honored poverty, you should wear out a gentle old age
as a wharf-boat to your unspeakable inferiors. And neither could they,
those voyagers on the new steamer, foresee the happier vision of their
_Enchantress_ living through the war charmedly unscathed, sharing the
palmiest days of the Mississippi's navigation without ever being
surpassed in speed or beauty, even by younger Courteney boats, and at
last falling asleep peaceably at her moorings hard by the vast riverside
railway warehouses on the outskirts of a greater New Orleans.

All this forces its way through the mind while we see the meeting boats
cover half the run between them. On the _Enchantress_ a deck-hand
mounted the capstan.

"They're going to sing," hurriedly said Ramsey to Hugh. "I wish they'd
sing ''Lindy Lowe' that I've heard about!"

And whether by happy chance or on some signal dropped down from him or
because the chantey was a new one and the crew were glad to show it off,
it was chosen. The two steamers passed close with a happy commotion
throughout both and the song swelled. Then the wooded crest of the bar
hid each from each, and Hugh turned to Gideon: "Now, commodore, if Miss
Hayle is willing I'd like to take you both below and show you over the
boat--before supper."

When their descent brought them to the boiler deck the song was yet in
full swing. When, passing on down, they reached the engine room the fact
was amusingly clear to many