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278 while ye can watch everything jest as 't is—and see friends happy, and— No; things clip right along. That's all seems hard. They don't stop nor stay for ye."

The hand of the tall clock crawled through a quarter circle before either spoke again.

"Now me," the captain mused. A burnt log crashed into a ruin of rosy coals that lit up his whimsical smile. "I ben master sulky these days. Ever sence I sold the vessel—and She went."

Joyce reached up from her hassock, and captured one of his big fingers on the chair-arm.

"Master sulky," he continued. "The Book says, 'There remaineth a rest.' I know, too. That's so. But not yet, ye see, not right now. Work—that's what I want. As young 's I ever felt, and can't give up the sea yet a while. Why, ye would n't think, Joyce, the time I lay awake nights thinkin' how much I want to go another v'yage or two."

"I wish you could," said the girl sorrowfully.