"Don't spoil the happiest evening of an old man's life." "You're right," she answered quickly; and when the plaudits ended, she thanked the captain in a very simple, pretty speech, which made him duck and grin,--a proud little benefactor.
"That ain't all," he cried gayly; then leveled a threatening finger, like a pistol, at her neighbor.

"Who poked fun at me, first and last?
Who always came out aboard to tell me what an old ass I was?
Fixed ideas, eh?
No go ?--Look you here.

What did I come so many hundred miles for?
To say what I always said: half-shares." The light-blue eyes, keen with sea-cunning and the lonely sight of many far horizons, suffered an indescribable change.

"My boy, the half's yours.

There's two rich men here to-night.