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“‘Jes you lay to for a while,’ said Sam, ‘and I’ll tell you all about it.’ And then, noticing that Mrs. Sickles was glancing toward the captain and his companion as if she thought to join them, he dashed out upon her to cut her off.

“Meanwhile Miss Denby, with glowing eyes, was saying: ‘Yes, I do love to sail, and to sail in a small boat, close to the water, almost as if I were in it, skimming like a bird with my wings dipping. Oh, it is grand! And you have a sail-boat?’

“And the captain answered: ‘Indeed I have, and there’s none better, either for sailing on the wind, or before the wind, or with next to no wind at all.’

“‘How wonderfully you must sail it! I could not keep my eyes off you as you brought us over here. It was grand! You made her do anything you pleased.’

“The captain smiled and nodded. ‘But I think of my house as much as I do of my boat, miss,’ said he. ‘I’ve got a mighty nice parlor that’s as good as any ship’s cabin. And now let me put this p’int to you: if you had a big king conch-shell, the prettiest you ever seed, and it was on the middle of the mantelpiece, and you had a gilded idol in another place, would you put the idol where the conch-shell was, and the conch-shell where the idol was, or would you leave ’em both jes where they was afore?’

“The young woman laughed merrily. ‘What kind of an idol would it be?’ she asked. ‘A beautiful piece of carving?’

“”Tain’t that,’ said Captain Abner; ‘it’s jes a piece of wood whittled out by a heathen; but it used to be in a temple, and it’s gilded all over.’

“‘Oh, dear!’ said she, ‘I don’t think much of that sort of an idol. I might like to be a gilded idol myself, if I had the right person to worship me. But as for a wooden idol, I wouldn’t put that on the mantelpiece, and I am of the same opinion as to the conch-shell.’

“‘But it’s a king conch-shell,’ said the captain.

“‘I don’t care,’ said she; ‘king or queen, it would be all the same to me. But if I were you I think I’d be most of the time in the boat. What 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.