strong from the fish-houses,
and the men shouted and the mates swore, and our baby ran about deck
a-play with everybody (he was a cunning little chap with red stockings
and bare knees, and the lads took quite a shine to him), "Jake," his
mother would say, with a little sigh,--low, so that the captain never
heard,--"think if it was _him_ gone away for a year in company the like
of that!"

Then she would drop her shining needles, and call the little fellow back
sharp, and catch him up into her arms.

Go into the keeping-room there, Tom, and ask her all about it. Bless
you! she remembers those days at dock better than I do. She could tell
you to this hour the color of my shirt, and how long my hair was, and
what I ate, and how I looked, and what I said. I didn't generally swear
so thick when she was about.

Well; we weighed, along the last of the month, in pretty good spirits.
The Madonna was as stanch and seaworthy as any eight-hundred-tonner in
the harbor, if she was clumsy; we turned in, some sixteen of us or
thereabouts, into the fo'castle,--a jolly set, mostly old messmates, and
well content with one another; and the breeze was stiff from the west,
with a fair sky.

The night before we were off, Molly and I took a walk upon the wharves
after supper. I carried the baby. A boy, sitting on some boxes, pulled
my sleeve as we went by, and asked me, pointing to the Madonna, if I
would tell him the name of the ship.

"Find out for yourself," said I, not over-pleased to be interrupted.

"Don't be cross to him," says Molly. The baby threw a kiss at the boy,
and Molly smiled at him through the dark. I don't suppose I should ever
have remembered the lubber from that day to this, except that I liked
the looks of Molly smiling at him through the dark.

My wife and I said good-by the next morning in a little sheltered place
among the lumber on the wharf; she was one of your women who never like
to do their crying before folks.

She climbed on the pile of lumber and sat down, a little flushed and
quivery, to watch us off. I remember seeing her there with the baby till
we were well down the channel. I remember noticing the bay as it grew
cleaner, and thinking that I would break off swearing; and I remember
cursing Bob Smart like a pirate within an hour.

The breeze held steadier than we'd looked for, and we'd made a good
offing and discharged the pilot by nightfall. Mr. Whitmarsh--he was the
mate--was aft with the captain.