Pretty faces peered out of the windows from the top to the bottom of the building, all smiling _bon voyage_.

Some hailed me to know where away and why alone.

Why?
When I made as if to stand in, a hundred pairs of arms reached out, and said come, but the shore was dangerous! The sloop worked out of the bay against a light southwest wind, and about noon squared away off Eastern Point, receiving at the same time a hearty salute--the last of many kindnesses to her at Gloucester.

The wind freshened off the point, and skipping along smoothly, the _Spray_ was soon off Thatcher's Island lights.

Thence shaping her course east, by compass, to go north of Cashes Ledge and the Amen Rocks, I sat and considered the matter all over again, and asked myself once more whether it were best to sail beyond the ledge and rocks at all.