I don't say you haven't plenty of
sense. You are doing very well here. Jolly sight better than I
expected, though I liked your looks from the first.'
It was in the trade-winds, at night, under a velvety, bespangled sky; a
great multitude of stars watching the shadows of the sea gleaming
mysteriously in the wake of the ship; while the leisurely swishing of the
water to leeward was like a drowsy comment on her progress. Mr. Powell
expressed his satisfaction by a half-bashful laugh. The mate mused on:
'And of course you haven't known the ship as she used to be. She was
more than a home to a man. She was not like any other ship; and Captain
Anthony was not like any other master to sail with. Neither is she now.
But before one never had a care in the world as to her--and as to him,
too. No, indeed, there was never anything to worry about.'
Young Powell couldn't see what there was to worry about even then. The
serenity of the peaceful night seemed as vast as all space, and as
enduring as eternity itself. It's true the sea is an uncertain element,
but no sailor remembers this in the presence of its bewitching power any
more than a lover ever thinks of the proverbial inconstancy of women.
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