"It was just that. I'll tell you:"
"It happened eighteen or twenty years ago, on the old _Early and
Late_--yes, twenty years come Christmas, for I mind that my eldest
daughter was expectin' her first man-child, just then. You saw him
get aboard just now, praise the Lord! But at the time we was all
nervous about it--my son-in-law, Daniel, bein' away with me on the
East Coast after the herrings. I'd as good as promised him to be
back in time for it--this bein' my first grandchild, an' due (so well
as we could calculate) any time between Christmas an' New Year.
Well, there was no sacrifice, as it happened, in startin' for home--
the weather up there keepin' monstrous, an' the catches not worth the
labour. So we turned down Channel, the wind strong an' dead foul--
south at first, then west-sou'-west--headin' us all the way, and
always blowin' from just where 'twasn't wanted. This lasted us down
to the Wight, and we'd most given up hope to see home before
Christmas, when almost without warnin' it catched in off the land--
pretty fresh still, but steady--and bowled us down past the Bill and
halfway across to the Start, merry as heart's delight.
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