And it seemed to the boy that, as she ceased, a star dropped out of the
sky and poised itself above the fir-tree on her maintopmast; and that
the bare mast beneath it put forth branches, while upon every branch, as
it spread, a globe of fire dropped from the star, until a gigantic
Christmas-tree soared from the deck away up to heaven. In the blaze of
it the boy saw the miracle run from ship to ship--the timber bursting
into leaf with the song of birds and the scent of tropical plants.
Across the avenue of teak which had been the _Nubian's_ bulwarks he saw
the Dutchman's galley, now a summer-house set in parterres of tulips.
Beyond it the sails of the _Maria Stella Maris_, shaken from the yards,
were piling themselves into snowy mountains, their foot-ropes and braces
trailing down and breaking into leaves and clusters of the vine.
He heard the murmur of streams flowing, the hum of bees, the whetting of
the scythes--even the stir of insects' wings among the grasses.
From truck to keelson the ships were wavering, dissolving part from part
into remote but unforgotten hiding-places whence the mastering
adventurer had torn them to bind and yoke them in service. Divine the
service, but immortal also the longing to return! "But there the
glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams;
wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass
thereby."

The boy heard the words; but before he understood them a hand was on his
shoulder, and another voice speaking above him.

"God bless us! it's you, is it? Here's a nice tale to tell your father,
I must say!" He opened his eyes, and above Captain Tangye's shoulder
the branches faded, the lights died out, and the masts stood stripped
and bare for service against the cold dawn.

THE KEEPERS OF THE LAMP.

It was in a purple twilight of May that I first saw the lamp shining.
For me, a child of seven, the voyage had been a tiring one: it seemed
many hours since, with a ringing of bells, and hearts adventurously
throbbing with the screw of our small steamboat, we had backed and
swung, casting our wash in waves along the quay-walls, and so, after a
pause during which we held our breath and drifted from the line of
watching faces, had headed away for the great empty sky-line beyond
which the islands lay. I knew that they lay yonder; for, the evening
before, my father had led me up a tall hill and pointed them out to me--
black specks in th