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226 grow an' praisin' the Lord fer the beauty of her. An' the day she was la'nched, she went down the ways an' took the water like the lady she was, an' Sam he jest smiled at her kind o' dreamy-like an' went back to his sail-loft an' his whittlin'. But she was the last he ever built. Pore Sam! He's be'n gone ten years now. I'm glad he went afore she did.

"Wal, she was owned by a firm up to the City,—one o' them consarns thet manages their affairs from a roller-top desk an' a tellyphone, an' wouldn't know one o' their own ships ef she come sailin' in at the door. Wal, ma'am, my dream come true, an' they made me master o' the Bella S. Sackett, the S stood fer, after the gal Sam Cooper married when he was a young feller, an' she died afore a month was gone. She was my j'y, thet schooner. I hadn't got no wife ner child ner kin, an' she made up to me fer all on 'em. I useter stand up for'ard an' listen to the water round her foot thet was like a tune, an' I'd look aft an' up an' see the new cloths of her, shinin' white, an' the bright varnished sticks, an' hear the singin' thet she made fer me from the wind in her riggin'. Oh, she was a handy one in all weathers, an' one that'd obey without workin' an' coaxin'. She