the slip, following my plans closely, and be sure to choose the
timber with the greatest care; the framework is to be of cedar and pine
and every inch of wood must be sound. When the ship is finished she
shall be named _Union_, and the day she is launched my daughter shall
become your bride."

[Illustration]

Joy filled the youth's heart, and, turning his head, he caught sight of
the maiden standing before her father's door. Young and fair was the
Master's daughter, with golden hair and sparkling eyes, and, as he
gazed at her, he felt that no task could be too difficult for him to
accomplish, since he had the promise of a reward so fair as this. Love
is a splendid master; no task seems too difficult when love fills the
heart and guides the hand, and he who is urged by love far outstrips all
others.

And thus it was with this youth; love of his bride and love of his work
made him strong and skillful, and, so impatient was he to see the
completion of the ship, that he summoned his workmen and set about his
noble task without an instant's delay. Soon the sound of axes and
mallets plied by sturdy arms was heard on all sides of the ship-yard.
Before the shadows of evening fell, the oaken keel of a noble ship was
lying ready stretched along the blocks. The work was well begun and all
seemed to promise fair for a happy ending.

When the long hot day was over, the young man and his promised bride sat
before the door of the Master's house while the old man rested within
the sheltered porch and recounted tales of wrecks which had taken place
at the time of the great September gales, and of pirates who had made
the Spanish seas a place of danger for harmless merchant ships; then he
spoke of ships which had sailed for distant shores but had never
returned, and of the chances and changes of a sailor's life. The Master
himself had sailed to many far-off lands and he told his attentive
listeners of their wondrous charm; of their palms and shining sands, the
coral reefs and the dark-skinned natives who dwelt there in savage
freedom. And, as he related these tales of the dark and cruel sea,
which, like death, unites man to his fellows and yet holds them far
asunder, the maiden held her breath and clung to her lover, dreading the
days when perchance they too might be divided by the pitiless ocean. The
three sat for a while in thoughtful silence as the darkness deepened
around them, broken only from time to time by the fitful gleam of