er own pleading ones as if he, too,
longed for the gift of speech and he licked her cheek as if he would
comfort her. Then he threw back his own head, howled dismally, and
dejectedly curled himself down beneath the captain's hammock.

Little Take-a-Stitch pondered a moment what she had best do in order to
find her grandfather and, having decided, made haste to dress. The cold
water from the spigot in the corner refreshed her and seemed to clear
her thoughts, but she did not stop to eat anything, though she offered a
crust of the dry loaf to the dog. He, also, refused the food and the
little girl understood why. Patting him on the head she exclaimed:

"We both of us can't eat till he comes, can we, Bo'sn dear? Well, smart
doggie, put on your sharpest smeller an' help to track him whichever way
he went. You smell an' I'll look, an' 'twixt us we'll hunt him
quick's-a-wink. Goin' to find grandpa, Bo'sn Beck! Come along an' find
grandpa!"

Up sprang the terrier, all his dejection gone, and leaped and barked as
joyfully as if he fully understood what she had said. Then, waiting just
long enough to lock the tiny door and hide the key in its accustomed
place, so that if the captain came home before she did he could let
himself in, she started down the Lane, running at highest speed with
Bo'sn keeping pace. So running, she passed the basement window where
Meg-Laundress was rubbing away at her tub full of clothes and tossed
that good woman a merry kiss.

"Guess the old cap'n's back, 'less Glory never 'd look that gay,"
thought Meg, and promptly reported her thought to Posy Jane who was just
setting out for her day's business. She was already over-late and was
glad to accept Meg's statement as fact and thus save the time it would
have taken to visit the littlest house and learn there how matters
really stood. It thus happened that neither of Glory's best friends knew
the truth of the case nor that the child had set off on a hopeless
quest, without food or money or anything save her own strong love and
will to help her.

"But we're goin' to find grandpa, Bo'sn, an' we don't mind a thing else.
Don't take so very long to get to that old 'Harbor,' an' maybe he might
have a bite o' somethin' saved up 'at he could give us, though we don't
neither of us want to eat 'fore we get him back, do we, doggie?" cried
the child as they sped along and trying not to notice that empty feeling
in her stomach.

But they had gone no further than