nset, midnight, and morning! You and I, Daddy, dear,
under the stars, or through storm! Ah, I've ached for just this!"

Billy felt his determination growing weak.

"I've made 'rangements, Janet; Cap'n David he's goin' to board ye, an'
ye can look about, an' if ye see an openin' t' get a chance t' better
yerself--not in the marryin' way, but turnin' a penny--why it will all
help, my girl, an' ye ought t' be havin' the chance with the city folks,
what all the others is havin'."

"Oh! you sly old Cap'n Daddy! And do you realize that Cap'n Davy's Susan
Jane isn't any joke to live with? You don't hear Davy tattling, but
other folks are not so particular. Daddy, dear, I just cannot!" And with
this the girl sprang into the net, rolled over and over and then lay
ensnarled in the meshes at Billy's feet, her laughing eyes shining
through the strands.

"Ye 'tarnal rascal!" cried Billy.

"You think you've caught me!" whined Janet, "you think you've got me!
Oh! Cap'n, I'm afraid of the city folks!"

"Fraid!" sneered Billy. "My Janet 'fraid o' anythin'!"

"Yes, honest true! I do not want to be near them. I scent danger; not to
them, but to me!"

Billy, bereft of his hands' occupation, looked out seaward. He was
well-nigh distracted. Always his duty to this girl was uppermost in his
simple mind; but his love and anxiety mingled with it. He no more
understood her than he understood the elements that made havoc along
the coast and necessitated his brave calling. He waged war with the sea
to save his kind; and he struggled against the opposing forces in Janet
that he in no wise understood, in order that she, as a girl among
others, should have her rights.

Wild little creature as she had always been, Billy had used all the
opportunities at hand to tame her into a similarity to the other
children of the Station; and when he had failed, he gloried in the
failure, and grew more distracted. Braving opposition in the girl and
the dangers of Nature, Billy had forced the child across the bay to the
school at the Corners. What there was to learn in that primitive
institution, Janet had learned, and much more besides in ways of which
Billy knew nothing.

For years the quaint seaside village had lain unnoticed in its droning
course. Ships, now and again, had been driven upon the bar outside the
dunes, and at such times the bravery of the quiet crew at the Government
Station was sung in the distant city papers.

Now and again the supe