Page:Stories by Foreign Authors (French III).djvu/142

132 "So said I:

"'Ah, well, young ones, you come to pay a visit to the old captain, eh? That's kind of you. I am taking you rather far away: but all the better, for we shall have the longer to make one another's acquaintance. I am sorry to receive madame with my coat off, but you see I am nailing this big scamp of a letter up here. If you would only help me a little?'"

"They were really good little children. The little husband took the hammer, and the little wife the nails, and they would hand them to me, as I asked for them: and she would say, 'To the right—to the left—captain!'—all the time laughing, because the knocking made my clock swing. I think I hear her yet, with her little voice, 'To the right—to the left—captain!" She was making fun of me. 'Ah, ha,' said I, 'you little puss, I'll make your husband scold you, you'll see.' Then she jumped upon his neck and kissed him:—they were indeed a charming pair, and so our acquaintance began. We were all at once good friends.

"We had a fine passage, too. The weather seemed always made on purpose for us. As I had never had anything but dark faces on board my vessel, I made my two little lovers come to my table every day. It put me in spirits. When we had eaten our biscuit and fish, the little wife and her husband would sit looking at one