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Ruth sat silent, looking about her as if she saw a new heaven and earth, and had no words in which to tell the feeling that made her eyes so soft, sent the fresh color back into her cheeks, and touched her lips with something sweeter than a smile.

Captain John rowed very slowly, watching her with a new expression in his face; and when she drew a long breath, a happy sort of sigh, he leaned forward to ask, as if he knew what brought it,–

“You are glad to be alive, Ruth?”

“Oh, so glad! I didn’t want to die; life’s very pleasant now,” she answered, with her frank eyes meeting his so gratefully.

“Even though it’s hard?”

“It’s easier lately; you and dear Miss Mary have helped so much, I see my way clear, and mean to go right on, real brave and cheerful, sure I’ll get my wish at last.”

“So do I!” and Captain John laughed a queer, happy laugh, as he bent to his oars again, with the look of a man who knew where he was going and longed to get there as soon as possible.

“I hope you will. I wish I could help anyway to pay for all you’ve done for me. I know you don’t want to be thanked for fishing me up, but I mean to do it all the same, if I can, some time;” and Ruth’s voice was full of tender energy as she looked down into the deep green water where her life would have ended but for him.

“What did you think of when you went down so quietly? Those women said you never called for help once.”

“I had no breath to call. I knew you were near, I hoped you’d come, and I thought of poor Grandpa and Sammy as I gave up and seemed to go to sleep.”

A very simple answer, but it made Captain John beam with delight; and the morning red seemed to glow all over his brown face as he rowed across the quiet bay, looking at Ruth sitting opposite, so changed by the soft becoming colors of her dress, the late danger, and the dreams that still lingered in her mind, making it hard to feel that she was the same girl who went that way only a day ago.

Presently the Captain spoke again in a tone that was both eager and anxious,–

“I’m glad my idle summer hasn’t been quite wasted. It’s over now, and I’m off in a few days for a year’s cruise, you know.”

“Yes, Miss Mary told me you were going soon. I’ll miss you both, but maybe you’ll come next year?”

“I will, please God!”

“So will I; for even if I get away this fall, I’d love to come again in summer and rest a little while, no matter what I find to do.”

“Come and stay with Aunt Mary if this home is gone. I shall want Sammy next time. I’ve settled that with the Skipper, you know, and I’ll take good care of the little chap. He’s not much younger than I was when I shipped for my first voyage. You’ll let him go?”

“Anywhere with you. He’s set his heart on being a sailor, and Grandpa likes it. All our men are, and I’d be one if I were a boy. I love the sea so, I couldn’t be happy long away from it.”

“Even though it nearly drowned you?”

“Yes, I’d rather die that way than any other. But it was my fault; I shouldn’t have failed if I hadn’t been so tired. I’ve often swum farther; but I’d been three hours in the marsh getting those things for the girls, and it was washing-day, and I’d been up nearly all night with Grandpa; so don’t blame the sea, please, Captain John.”

“You should have called me; I was waiting for you, Ruth.”

“I didn’t know it. I’m used to doing things myself. It might have been too late for Milly if I’d waited.”