train and she sobbed
on, while Billy made the most of the time to take up his neglected task.

"It was just the kind of shoal yer little bark was like t' steer fur,"
he went on, never raising his hand from her dear head, "an' I oughter
have told ye. I allus have thought that most of us would keep off rocks
an' shoals if we knowed they was there. Janet, I've got t' tell ye
somethin' 'bout yer mother! It oughter come to ye from a woman, God
knows, but there ain't no likely woman t' hand, an' I must do my best.
She, yer mother, was powerful 'fraid ye might wreck yerself on the same
kind o' reef what she struck. She wanted ye should be a boy 'long o'
that fear, but she 'lowed if ye were a girl, I was t' tell ye in time if
I saw danger, an', Janet, I ain't done my duty!" Billy's voice was
hoarse from intense feeling.

"Cap'n Daddy!" Janet's voice shook with sobs. "Don't you blame yourself.
You're the one perfect thing I have in my life. I know it now; I always
knew it, and I never wanted to leave you."

"Shuttin' yer eyes from danger ain't strength-givin', Janet; keep a
watch out, an' be ready. That's what life means." His voice drew the
girl from the shelter of her arms, she looked steadily at him through
wet lashes. "Janet, yer mother sunk 'long o' lovin' a man--a man--well,
like him--on the Hills!"

"What!" The girl bent forward and the fire of her passion dried the
tears from the troubled eyes. She would hold her news back. Billy had
the right of way.

"Yes, yes." Billy let go his grip of the present. He forgot the girl
opposite, and her personal claim upon him. He was back in his own youth,
and in arms to defend the one woman of his love, while of necessity he
must use her against herself.

"'T ain't no harm in lovin', if love on both sides means right.
Mary--that was her name--Mary was cursed, yes, cursed, with a handsome
face an' a lovin' little heart what she didn't know how t' steer true.
That's what she always stuck t' later, that eddication would have
teached her t' know better. She was the heartsomest gal that ever was
raised in these parts. Her an' Susan Jane was 'bout as friendly as any,
an' I will say fur Susan Jane, that with all her cantankerousness, she
stood by Mary. David an' me never sot our fancy on any one but Susan
Jane an' Mary; an' Davy an' me warn't doomed t' happiness! Least, not in
our own way, though 't was give t' us both t' help when everythin' else
failed. Mary, she went t' the city an