We have left the party so long in their boat, that they have had ample time to “trim” or sink her. Neither of these events, however, took place; and after pulling round a Swedish brig, an enormous tub, very _wholesome_-looking, as Hairblower said, and holding a polyglot conversation with an individual in a red night-cap, who grinned at the ladies, and offered them “schnapps,” they turned the little craft’s head towards the shore, and taking “the flood,” as Charlie had previously threatened, bent themselves to their work, and laid out upon their oars in a style that satisfied even the seaman, and enraptured the lad. “What a dear boy it is!” thought Mrs. Kettering, as she looked at Charlie’s open countenance, and his fair golden curls, blowing about his face, browned by the weather to a rich manly hue, and lit up with the excitement and exercise of his work. Many qualms of conscience crossed Mrs. Kettering’s mind, in the transit of that mile and a half of blue water which sparkled between “the Swede” and the shore. Much she regretted her want of decision and habits of delay in not completing the important document that should at once make that handsome boy the head of his family; and firmly she resolved that not another week should pass without a proper consultation of the universal refuge, “her family man-of-business,” and a further legal drawing-up of her last will and testament. Then she remembered she had left one unfinished, that would make an excellent rough draft for the future document; then she wondered where she had put it; and then she thought what a husband the handsome cousin would make for her own beautiful girl; and rapidly her ideas followed each other, till, in her mind’s eye, she saw the wedding--the bridesmaids--the procession--the breakfast--and, though last, not least, the very bonnet, not too sombre, which she herself should wear on the occasion. Not one word did Mrs. Kettering hear of a long-winded story with which Hairblower was delighting Blanche and Charlie; and which, as it seemed to create immense interest and sympathy in his young listeners, and is, besides, a further example of the general superstition of sailors as to commencing any undertaking on a Friday, we may as well give, as nearly as possible, in his own words.