lf, possibly. But
we can talk of all these things to-morrow. A good night's rest will give
us cooler heads in the morning."

"I shall not sleep a wink for thinking of it. No, no--I'll make the old
lady pack up before breakfast, and we'll sail in the sloop. I'll take her
aboard the Dawn with me in town, and a comfortable time we'll have of it
in her cabins. She has as good state-rooms as a yacht."

There were no liners in those days; but a ship with two cabins was a
miracle of convenience.

"Your mother will hardly suit a ship, Moses; and a ship will hardly suit
your mother."

"How can any of us know that till we try? If I'm a chip of the old block,
they'll take to each other like rum and water. If I'm to go out in the
ship, I'm far from certain I'll not take the old woman to sea with me."

"You'll probably remain at home, now that you _have_ a home, and a mother,
and other duties to attend to. I and my concerns will be but secondary
objects with you hereafter, Mr. Wetmore."

"Wetmore be d----d! D'ye mean, Miles, that I'm to give up my calling,
give up the sea, give up _you_?"

"You wished to be a hermit once, and found it a little too solitary; had
you a companion or two, you would have been satisfied, you said. Well,
here is everything you can wish; a mother, a niece, a house, a farm,
barns, out-houses, garden and orchard; and, seated on that porch, you can
smoke segars, take your grog, look at the craft going up and down the
Hudson----"

"Nothing but so many bloody sloops," growled the mate. "Such in-and-in
fore-and-afters that their booms won't stay guyed-out, even after you've
been at the pains to use a hawser."

"Well, a sloop is a pleasant object to a sailor, when he can set nothing
better. Then there is this Mr. Van Tassel to settle with--you may have a
ten years' law-suit on your hands, to amuse you."

"I'll make short work with that scamp, when I fall in with him. You're
right enough, Miles; that affair must be settled before I can lift an
anchor. My mother tells me he lives hard by, and can be seen, at any
moment, in a quarter of an hour. I'll pay him a visit this very night."

This declaration caused me to pause. I knew Marble too well, not to
foresee trouble if he were left to himself in a matter of this nature, and
thought it might be well to inquire further into the affair. Sailors do
everything off-hand. Mrs. Wetmore telling me that her son's statement was
true, on my going back to the house