g was warm: the fire had burned down low in the grate, and both
windows were wide open. The wind which entered, though raw, had a breath
of spring in it. The scraggy plum trees outside were covered with deep
pink blossoms, yellow dandelions blazed up out of the grass, and even in
the muddy walks: a half-frozen bee buzzed among them feebly for a while,
and then lost his way into the room and fell with a thump on the table.

Jane dropped her tools, and put out her finger for him to crawl upon. "Now
you are too early afoot: you're greedy, you fellow," she said. "You are in
too great a hurry to be rich. Haven't you a comfortable house? And plenty
of honey?" She carried him to the window and set him in the sun on the
sill. "He'll fall in some puddle and be frozen to death; and serve him
right! I hate your early birds and ants and bees, always at work."

"It is work you hate, Jenny. Now tack this strip in place, child, and then
paste on the muslin. We must finish this before night, and there is more
than a day's work on it."

Jane tacked and measured diligently a while, and then dropped her elbows
on the table and rested her chin on her palms. Her face was just in front
of her father's. "I was thinking--"

"Yes."

"I mean that I saw in the paper this morning that there was a school of
black-fish on the coast, the largest for years. I suppose the Lantrims
will be out for them?"

"No doubt. The old captain wrote to me that he had bought Sutphen's
Tuckerton skiff."

"Aha? You did not tell me that. What else did he say?"

"Oh, nothing. 'Crabs would be scarce this season; and couldn't we come
down?' The larks were beginning to rise in the marshes."

Jane nodded thoughtfully: "A Tuckerton skiff? Now, I'm surprised at that,
father. I should prefer something heavier--a yawl, say--for coming in on
that beach. Well--The wind must be dead sou'-west to-day. It would bring
the spray right up into your face if you were lying on the sand."

She was silent for some time, looking steadily out of doors.

The captain glanced uneasily once or twice at the dark blue eyes and at a
ray of sunlight glistening in the loose yellow hair. "It _is_ sou'-west.
It really does begin to feel like summer," he said, dropping his pencil
and fumbling for his tobacco.

Jane brought his pipe and lighted it for him. "I am dreadfully tired!"
stretching her arm out, pushing up the sleeve, and looking at it as if it
had done a day's ploughing. "Now, I sup