s jackets, and so they'd pass an evenin' happy as could
be,--my father singin' a sea-song, or a love-song, maybe, first or last.

"We lived in the last house o' the Row,--the housen was all poor enough,
you mind, but ourn was the very poorest on 'em, and then we had the top
floor,--one room and a pantry bein' all, exceptin' the ruf, which was
flat, and which we had the privilege on for a yard, in consideration of
a dollar extra a month. 'Have the ruf, be sure, Katura!' my father would
say. 'What's a dollar?' and he'd slap his hand down as though 't was
full o' dollars, but 't wa' n't, and mother always paid the extra dollar
out of her own airnin's, but feelin' all the time a'most as if he'd paid
it, just because of the generous way he had o' speekin'. I remember the
last time father sailed with the Dauphin, as I was sayin'
afore,--remember it just as though it was yesterday. It was a mornin' in
winter,--the twenty-third o' December, and snow a-lyin' on the ground. I
could see his tracks along the walk for a week arter he was gone, and
then the snow begun to melt; thawin' and freezin' together at first, and
then a clean thaw, so the tracks filled up with water, and arter another
week I couldn't find no trace on 'em.

"'Take good care o' your mother, my lad!' he said, 'take the best o'
care on her! I'll be home afore long, for good and all, to take care on
her myself; it won't be but two or three year at the outside,'--and he
give my shoulder a little shake, and then he slipped a quarter-dollar
into my hand. And then he turned to her. 'Three year ain't long,
Katura,' he says; 'why, they'll fly round just like so many hours,
a'most, and fust thing you know you'll hear my step a-comin' up the
stair! Have everything you want, good wife, and don't work hard; you
know its agin my will that you should,--these pale cheeks make me a
little afeard; but, arter all, you'll come round with the daisies, I
guess.' And with that he turned from her, and writ a little with his
finger on the table, and then he chirked up like, and buttoned his
jacket quick, and went out the door just as though he wa' n't a-goin' no
furder than across the street.

"The minute follerin', mother went up to the house-ruf. She wanted to
see arter the washed things, she said, how they was a-dryin' and all;
but I knowd well enough she wanted to see arter him, and didn't pull at
her skirt and foller, as I generally did. I stayed down stairs, and, to
kind o' brea