"There's always a wise provision to relieve one's feelings when
sorrow comes unexpectedly," returns the nervous man, his hand
trembling as he draws forth the money to pay the waiter who answered
his call.
"Yes!" quickly rejoined the other, "but keep up a good heart, like a
sailor hard upon a lee shore, and all 'll be bright and sunny in a
day or two. And now we'll just make a tack down the bay-street-and
sight the Maggy. There's a small drop of somethin' in the locker,
that'll help to keep up yer spirits, I reckon--a body's spirits has
to be tautened now and then, as ye do a bobstay,--and the wife (she's
a good sort of a body, though I say it) will do the best she can in
her hard way to make ye less troubled at heart. Molly Hardweather
has had some hard ups and downs in life, knows well the cares of a
mother, and has had twins twice; yes"-adds the hardy seafarer-"we
arn't polished folks, nor high of blood, but we've got hearts, and
as every true heart hates slavery, so do we, though we are forced to
dissemble our real feelings for the sake of peace in the trade."
Here the delicate man took the sailor's arm, and sallied out to seek
the little Maggy Bell, the former saying the meeting was as strange
as grateful to his very soul. Down Market Street, shaded in
darkness, they wended their way, and after reaching the wharf,
passed along between long lines of cotton bales, piled eight and ten
feet high, to the end, where lay motionless the pretty Maggy Bell,
as clipper-like a craft as ever spread canvas.
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