complacency, became really timid when she noticed a
heavy squall coming towards us from the outer sea; and until the
sail had been lowered, and our bow hove round to meet the breeze
and let it pass, I believe she was not quite confident that I was
able to manage the boat in safety.

Thora had often referred to this pleasant sail, and the few
primroses I had gathered for her on the banks of a rivulet running
down one of the Graemsay glens she had worn at her neck for many
days. Many a time when, from our place in the class, she had seen
through the window the red-sailed fishing boats battling with the
sudden gusts of wind in the rapid currents of the Sound, she would
look as though she would remind me of the way we had managed the
dinghy in the same dangerous flow. Thus did she begin to trust me,
as mariners trusted my father.

If it had not been that during the lessons, in common with his
pupils, Andrew Drever took a secret pleasure in looking through the
little window across Stromness harbour, and, from his position at
the desk, watching the movements of the shipping, it is probable he
would have erected some curtain there. The window offered a
distraction to us all, for it often took our attention from our
tasks, and caused many interruptions in the course of the day. But,
as I have indicated, Andrew was not a severe taskmaster, and that,
perhaps, was one reason of our affection for him.

This morning his glances were divided between the empty bird cage
at the door and the barque now making ready for sea. His poor
jackdaw with its chattering--a sound once so monotonous and
wearying, now most earnestly wished for--was gone, but the murderer
of his pet, the brutal Baudrons, was now closely stowed away under
the main hatches of the Lydia, and the dominie had his revenge.

There was at least one other pair of eyes watching the trim barque,
as her unfurled canvas caught the breeze and she sped away like a
graceful gull. To my sister Jessie, whom, after school, I found
sitting by the little pier at the Anchor Close, the vessel seemed
to be carrying away one who had suddenly awakened in her a new
interest in life. Captain Gordon had spoken but little with her, he
was still but a stranger, but so seldom did she have speech with
any man, that this meeting with one so brave and handsome as the
captain of the Lydia naturally made a deep impression upon her.

I should not, however, have remarked anything unusual in
Jessie