y passin'
hereabouts.'

"'But look 'ee here, father,' said the boys--good boys they were,
too--'What's to happen if it comes on to blow from south or
sou'-west, same as it blew at the beginning of the week?'

"''Tisn't goin' to do any such thing,' said I, for I'd been studyin'
the weather. 'And, even if it should happen, I've signals aboard.
'Tisn't the first time, sonnies, I've sat out a week-end on board a
boat, alone wi' the Redeemer.'

"That settled it, sir. It relieved 'em a bit, too, when they spied
another lugger already lyin' inside the anchorage, and made her out
for a Porthleven boat, the_ Maid in Two Minds_, that had been after
the herrings with the rest of us up to a fortni't ago, or maybe three
weeks: since when we hadn't seen her. As I told you, the weather had
been cruel, and the catches next to nothing; and belike she'd given
it up earlier than we and pushed for home. At any rate, here she
was. We knowed her owners, as fishermen do; but we'd never passed
word with her, nor with any of her crew. I'd heard somewhere--but
where I couldn't recollect--that the skipper was a blasphemous man,
given to the drink, and passed by the name of Dog Mitchell; but 'twas
hearsay only. All I noted, or had a mind to note, as we dropped
anchor less than a cable length from her, was that she had no boat
astern or on deck (by which I concluded the crew were ashore), and
that Dog Mitchell himself was on deck. I reckernised him through the
glass. He made no hail at all, but stood leanin' by the mizen and
smokin', watchin' what we did. By then the dark was comin' down.

"Well, sir, I looked at my watch, and there was no time to be choice
about position; no time even for the lads to get aboard and pack
their bags. I ran forward, heaved anchor, cast off tow-line, an'
just ran below, and came up with an armful o' duds which I tossed
into the boat as she dropped back alongside. I fished the purse out
of my pocket, and two sovereigns out o' the purse. 'That'll take 'ee
home and back,' said I, passin' the money to Daniel. 'So long,
children! You haven't no time to spare.'

"Away they pulled, callin' back, 'God bless 'ee, father!' and the
like; words I shan't forget. . . . Poor Daniel! . . . And there, all
of a sudden, was I, left to spend Christmas alone: which didn't
trouble me at all.

"'Stead o' which, as you might say, havin' downed sail and made
things pretty well shipshape on deck, I went below and trimmed