'I wish you would! What is your way?'

'To go to sea again.'

She had been the very one to keep him at home, hating the semi-widowed
existence of sailors' wives. But her ambition checked her instincts now,
and she said: 'Do you think success really lies that way?'

'I am sure it lies in no other.'

'Do you want to go, Shadrach?'

'Not for the pleasure of it, I can tell 'ee. There's no such pleasure at
sea, Joanna, as I can find in my back parlour here. To speak honest, I
have no love for the brine. I never had much. But if it comes to a
question of a fortune for you and the lads, it is another thing. That's
the only way to it for one born and bred a seafarer as I.'

'Would it take long to earn?'

'Well, that depends; perhaps not.'

The next morning Shadrach pulled from a chest of drawers the nautical
jacket he had worn during the first months of his return, brushed out the
moths, donned it, and walked down to the quay. The port still did a fair
business in the Newfoundland trade, though not so much as formerly.

It was not long after this that he invested all he possessed in
purchasing a part-ownership in a brig, of which he was appointed captain.
A few months were passed in coast-trading, during which interval Shadrach
wore off the land-rust that had accumulated upon him in his grocery
phase; and in the spring the brig sailed for Newfoundland.

Joanna lived on at home with her sons, who were now growing up into
strong lads, and occupying themselves in various ways about the harbour
and quay.

'Never mind, let them work a little,' their fond mother said to herself.
'Our necessities compel it now, but when Shadrach comes home they will be
only seventeen and eighteen, and they shall be removed from the port, and
their education thoroughly taken in hand by a tutor; and with the money
they'll have they will perhaps be as near to gentlemen as Emmy Lester's
precious two, with their algebra and their Latin!'

The date for Shadrach's return drew near and arrived, and he did not
appear. Joanna was assured that there was no cause for anxiety, sailing-
ships being so uncertain in their coming; which assurance proved to be
well grounded, for late one wet evening, about a month after the
calculated time, the ship was announced as at hand, and presently the
slip-slop step of Shadrach as the sailor sounded in the passage, and he
entered. The boys had gone out and had missed him, and Joanna was
sitting alone.