of which I very profoundly thought and believed, but all of
which--for I was a shy lad with women-kind--I kept very devoutly to
myself.

I wonder if the girl had any idea of my devotion. I thought she had; I
felt sure that my love must be as patent to her as it was to myself, and
that she must needs prize it a little. I believe, indeed, that I never
talked to her very much during those happy times when she would come out
on to the creaking terrace and speak to me of the things which she never
seemed to weary of--the sea, and ships, and seamen. As for me, who would
not have wearied of any theme that gave her pleasure, had it even been
books and lessons, I was overjoyed that my sea longings could help me on
with her.

Then her black eyes would follow the river's course to where the estuary
widened to the sea, and search the horizon and point out to me the sails
that starred it here and there, and sometimes say with a laugh: 'Perhaps
one of those is my ship.'

But when I asked her what was her ship she would smile and shake her
head and say nothing; and once, when I asked her if it was her father's
ship, she laughed loudly and said yes, it was her father's ship she
longed for.

So late spring slipped into early summer; and, as the year grew kinder,
so every day my boy's heart grew hotter with its first foolish passion.
Somewhere about the middle of June, as I knew, her birthday was; and in
view of that saint's day of my calendar I had hoarded my poor pocket
money to buy her a little toy from the jeweller in the Main Street,
whose show seemed to me more opulent than the treasures of Aladdin.

The day found me all of a tremble. I had sat up half the night looking
at my token and kissing it a thousand times. It was a little locket that
was fashioned like a heart, and on the one side her name was engraved,
and on the other mine, for I thought by this to show what I dared not
say.

It was early when I stole from our shop, little less than ten, and I
calculated that I would look in at Mr. Davies's on my way back and make
some excuse for my truancy, and so be back in time for noonday dinner;
and I knew if I were a little late my mother would forgive me. Lord, how
I ran along the quays! I seemed to fly, and yet the road seemed endless.
As I ran I noted that some new ships had entered the night before, and
men on the wharves were busy unloading, and sailors were lounging round
with that foreign air which Jack always has afte