fro for warmth) from the first blink of the sun till eight or nine
at night under the clear stars. The merchants or Captain Sang would
sometimes glance and smile upon us, or pass a merry word or two and give
us the go-by again; but the most part of the time they were deep in
herring and chintzes and linen, or in computations of the slowness of
the passage, and left us to our own concerns, which were very little
important to any but ourselves.

At the first, we had a great deal to say, and thought ourselves pretty
witty; and I was at a little pains to be the _beau_, and she (I believe)
to play the young lady of experience. But soon we grew plainer with each
other; I laid aside my high, clipped English (what little there was of
it) and forgot to make my Edinburgh bows and scrapes; she upon her side,
fell into a sort of kind familiarity; and we dwelt together like those
of the same household, only (upon my side) with a more deep emotion.
About the same time, the bottom seemed to fall out of our conversation,
and neither one of us the less pleased. Whiles she would tell me old
wives' tales, of which she had a wonderful variety, many of them from my
friend red-headed Niel. She told them very pretty, and they were pretty
enough childish tales; but the pleasure to myself was in the sound of
her voice, and the thought that she was telling and I listening. Whiles,
again, we would sit entirely silent, not communicating even with a look,
and tasting pleasure enough in the sweetness of that neighbourhood. I
speak here only for myself. Of what was in the maid's mind, I am not
very sure that ever I asked myself; and what was in my own, I was afraid
to consider. I need make no secret of it now, either to myself or to the
reader: I was fallen totally in love. She came between me and the sun.
She had grown suddenly taller, as I say, but with a wholesome growth;
she seemed all health, and lightness, and brave spirits; and I thought
she walked like a young deer, and stood like a birch upon the mountains.
It was enough for me to sit near by her on the deck; and I declare I
scarce spent two thoughts upon the future, and was so well content with
what I then enjoyed that I was never at the pains to imagine any further
step; unless perhaps that I would be sometimes tempted to take her hand
in mine and hold it there. But I was too like a miser of what joys I had
and would venture nothing on a hazard.

What we spoke was usually of ourselves or