o you, that's true; but
still you have done me a wrong in your turn, you say?"

"I hope God will forgive me," said the harbor master.

"No doubt of that, little man. But maybe you would feel none the worse
for doing me a favor, feeling as you do."

"Yes, yes."

Her hand sought his. "You see me--how I am. I shall not survive my
child, for my mother did not before me. Listen. You are town clerk. You
write the names of the new born on a sheet of ruled paper and that is
their name?"

Rackby nodded.

"So much I knew--Come. How would it be if you gave my child your
name--Rackby? Don't say no to me. Say you will. Just the scratching of a
pen, and what a deal of hardship she'll be saved not to be known as Cad
Sills over again."

Her hand tightened on his wrist. Recollecting how they had watched the
tide horse over Pull-an'-be-Damned thus, he said, eagerly, "Yes, yes, if
so be 'tis a she," thinking nothing of the consequences of his promise.

"Now I can go happy," murmured Cad Sills.

"Where will you go?" said the harbor master, timorously, feeling that
she was whirled out of his grasp a second time.

"How should I know?" lisped Caddie Sills, with a remembering smile. "The
sea is wide and uncertain, little man."

The door opened again. A woman appeared and little Rackby was thrust out
among the able seamen.

Three hours later he came and looked down on Cad Sills again. Rain still
beat on the black windows. Her lips were parted, as if she were only
weary and asleep. But in one glance he saw that she had no need to lie
northeast and southwest to make certain of unbroken sleep.

To the child born at the height of the storm the harbor master gave a
name, his own--Rackby. He was town clerk, and he gave her this name when
he came to register her birth on the broad paper furnished by the
government. And for a first name, Day, as coming after that long night
of his soul, perhaps.

When this was known, he was fined by the government two hundred dollars.
Such is the provision in the statutes, in order that there may be no
compromise with the effects of sin.

The harbor master did not regret. He reckoned his life anew from that
night when he sat in the dusk with the broad paper before him containing
the names of those newly born.

So the years passed, and Day Rackby lived ashore with her adoptive
father. When she got big enough they went by themselves and reopened the
house on Meteor Island.

The man was still master