Then it fell
away again, almost to a flat calm, and Daniel lost his temper.
I never allowed cursin' on board the Early and Late--nor, for that
matter, on any other boat of mine; but if Daniel didn't swear a bit
out of hearin', well then--poor dear fellow, he's dead and gone these
twelve years (yes, sir--drowned)--well then I'm doin' him an
injustice. One couldn't help pitying him, neither. Didn't I know
well enough what it felt like? And the awe of it, to think it's
happenin' everywhere, and ever since world began--men fretting for
the wife and firstborn, and gettin' over it, and goin' down to the
grave leavin' the firstborn to fret over _his_ firstborn! It puts me
in mind o' the old hemn, sir: 'tis in the Wesley books, and I can't
think why church folk leave out the verse--
"The busy tribes o' flesh and blood,
With all their cares and fears--"
Ay, 'cares and fears'; that's of it--
"Are carried downward by the flood,
And lost in followin' years."
"Poor Daniel--poor boy!"
Pilot Matthey sat silent for a while, staring out over the water in
the wake of the boats that already had begun to melt into the shadow
of darkness.
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