is a house, no matter what it has in it, compared to a boat dancing
over the waves and speeding before the wind?'

"Captain Abner looked at her. 'I expect you'd like to learn to steer,
wouldn't you?'

"'Indeed I would,' she answered. 'There is nothing I would like better.'

"Captain Abner put his hands into his pockets and gently whistled, and,
leaving him, Miss Denby ran to join the toll-gate woman. Down swooped
Sam Twitty.

"'Is it all right?' he whispered to Abner.

"'All up,' the other answered, 'and I'm glad of it. She don't want no
gilded idol, and she don't want no king conch-shell. She wants her hand
on the tiller, that's what she wants. She's got too much mind for me.
After I've been workin' year in and year out a-gettin' my affairs the
way I wants them, I don't fancy anybody comin' down on me and takin' the
tiller out of my hands.'

"Sam made two or three steps forward, and then he stood gazing in the
direction of the setting sun. Resting on one slippered foot and
extending the other before him, he folded his arms and remained a few
moments wrapped in thought. Suddenly he turned.

"'Cap'n Abner,' he cried, 'it won't do to sink this chance! It'll never
pop up ag'in. You must have spoke pretty plain to that toll-gate woman,
considerin' the way she's been turnin' it over in her mind.'

"'Yes, I did,' said Captain Abner, 'and that's the way I found out what
she was. But I didn't ask her to ship with me.'

"'And you don't want her to?' said Sam.

"'No, I don't.'

"'And you don't want the other one, nuther?'

"'No, I don't,' replied Captain Abner, doggedly. 'I don't want nuther of
'em. And I say, Sam, the sun's gettin' down and it's about time for us
to be settin' sail.'

"'There's a good stretch of sky under that sun yet,' said Sam, 'and jes
you wait a bit, cap'n.'

"Sam Twitty walked slowly along the sandy beach; he looked as a
sheep-dog might look who was wondering within himself whether or not he
had brought back from the fields as many sheep as he had taken out. He
stopped, and looked about at the party. Captain Abner was walking toward
the boat; the minister and the Denby girl were standing together,
comparing shells; the toll-gate woman was strolling by herself a little
higher up the beach, still in a reflective mood. Sam gazed from his
companions to the sky, the water, the beautiful glistening sands.

"'It's a shame to lose all this,' he said to himself; 'it's a burnin'
shame to sink it al