s, apparently in deep study, approached
him with his hand extended.

"When I give a young man like you my hand, I gives him my heart, too. If
there's a man aboard of this ship what I respect, it's you, Mr.
Toodleburg. Yes, sir, I respect you for your mother's sake, as well as
for your worth as a sailor and a man." And he shook Tite cordially by
the hand, and spoke with such an emphasis.

Then setting his glass down on the binnacle, he took Tite by the arm,
and, whispering something in his ear, led him to the taffrail, as if he
had something of importance to communicate in private.

"You have a sweetheart at home, I take it, Mr. Toodleburg?" he said,
inquiringly, and assuming a very serious manner. "Every young man like
you should have a sweetheart at home. Somebody to think about. Somebody
to cheer one up. Them we leaves at home is all men like you and me go
through these hardships and disappointments for."

Tite blushed and smiled, and made an evasive reply.

"No use denying it, my hearty," he resumed. "Knew ye had a sweetheart
thinkin' of ye at home. Show her by yer conduct while yer away that yer
worthy of her when yer get home. My sweetheart, God bless her! is all
the sunlight I have in a voyage of this kind. My little wife is my
sweetheart, she is, Mr. Toodleburg. She an' the two little angels are
the sunlight of my heart. There ain't nobody sails the sea has a trimmer
little craft of a sweetheart nor I have." He paused for a minute, as if
to collect his distracted thoughts. "The man that would bring trouble to
her door while I'm away--he would'nt be a man, Mr. Toodleburg," he
resumed, still preserving a serious countenance. "Had an ugly dream last
night. That's what troubles me. Anything happens to me, Mr. Toodleburg,
you're the man I looks to as a friend to my little sweetheart and them
two angels at home."

Tite assured him that he would do as he desired, and at the same time
tried to dispel from his mind the gloomy forebodings impressed on it by
the dream.

"Never had an ugly dream of that kind that it did'nt foretell somethin'
bad, Mr. Toodleburg," he replied to a remark made by Tite, that it was
not wise to give one's self uneasiness concerning dreams. "There's
sharks a' land as well as sharks a' sea. Keep that in your mind, my
hearty. And I dreamed that my time had come, and my poor little
sweetheart at home was surrounded by sharks ready to devour her. Made my
blood boil, it did. Waked up feelin' fo