es, which
for a moment she had closed, and, gazing into his face, she put her
arms around his neck. Then Captain Cephas came away, without thinking
of the little girl and the pleasure she would have in discovering her
Christmas stocking.

When he had been left alone, Captain Eli sat down near the kitchen
stove, close to the very kettle which he had filled with water to heat
for the benefit of the man he had helped bring in from the sea, and,
with his elbows on his knees and his fingers in his hair, he darkly
pondered.

"If I'd only slept with my hard-o'-hearin' ear up," he said to himself,
"I'd never have heard it."

In a few moments his better nature condemned this thought.

"That's next to murder," he muttered, "fer he couldn't have kept
himself from fallin' asleep out there in the cold, and when the tide
riz held have been blowed out to sea with this wind. If I hadn't heard
him, Captain Cephas never would, fer he wasn't primed up to wake, as I
was."

But, notwithstanding his better nature, Captain Eli was again saying to
himself, when his friend returned, "If I'd only slept with my other ear
up!"

Like the honest, straightforward mariner he was, Captain Cephas made an
exact report of the facts. "They was huggin' when I left them," he
said, "and I expect they went indoors pretty soon, fer it was too cold
outside. It's an all-fired shame she happened to be in your house,
cap'n, that's all I've got to say about it. It's a thunderin' shame."

Captain Eli made no answer. He still sat with his elbows on his knees
and his hands in his hair.

"A better course than you laid down fer these Christmas times was never
dotted on a chart," continued Captain Cephas. "From port of sailin' to
port of entry you laid it down clear and fine. But it seems there was
rocks that wasn't marked on the chart."

"Yes," groaned Captain Eli, "there was rocks."

Captain Cephas made no attempt to comfort his friend, but went to work
to get breakfast.

When that meal--a rather silent one--was over, Captain Eli felt better.
"There was rocks," he said, "and not a breaker to show where they lay,
and I struck 'em bow on. So that's the end of that voyage. But I've
tuk to my boats, cap'n, I've tuk to my boats."

"I'm glad to hear you've tuk to your boats," said Captain Cephas, with
an approving glance upon his friend.

About ten minutes afterwards Captain Eli said, "I'm goin' up to my
house."

"By yourself?" said the other.