I realize it ain't like a play at
all. In a play dad comes home, havin' been snaked bodily out of the
jaws of the tomb by his coat collar, and the young one sings out 'Papa!
Papa!' and he sobs, 'Me child! Me child!' and it's all lovely, and
you put on your hat feelin' that the old man is goin' to be rich and
righteous for the rest of his days. But here it's different; dad's a
rascal, and anybody who's seen anything of the world knows he's bound to
stay so; and as for the poor little girl, why--why--"

He stopped, rose, and, striding over to the window, stood looking out.
After an interval, during which the good-natured attorney read a dull
business letter through for the second time, he spoke again.

"I hope you understand, Peabody," he said. "It ain't just selfishness
that makes me steer the course I'm runnin'. Course, Bos'n's got to be
the world and all to me, and if she's taken away I don't know's I care a
tinker's darn what happens afterwards. But, all the same, if her dad was
a real man, sorry for what he's done and tryin' to make up for it--why,
then, I cal'late I'm decent enough to take off my hat, hand her over,
and say: 'God bless you and good luck.' But to think of him carryin' her
off the Lord knows where, to neglect her and cruelize her, and to let
her grow up among fellers like him, I--I--by the big dipper, I can't do
it! That's all; I can't!"

"How does she feel about it, herself?" asked Peabody.

"Her? Bos'n? Why, that's the hardest of all. Some of the children at
school pester her about her father. I don't know's you can blame 'em;
young ones are made that way, I guess--but she comes home to me cryin',
and it's 'O Uncle Cy, he AIN'T my truly father, is he?' and 'You won't
let him take me away from you, will you?' till it seems as if I should
fly out of the window. The poor little thing! And that puffed-up humbug
Atkins blowin' about his Christianity and all! D--n such Christianity as
that, I say! I've seen heathen Injuns, who never heard of Christ,
with more of His spirit inside 'em. There! I've shocked you, I guess.
Sometimes I think this place is too narrer and cramped for me. I've been
around, you know, and my New England bringin' up has wore thin in spots.
Seem's if I must get somewheres and spread out, or I'll bust."

He threw himself into a chair. The lawyer clapped him on the shoulder.

"There, there, captain," he said. "Don't 'bust' yet awhile. Don't give
up the ship. If we lose in one cour