Ramsey, with her eyes roaming over Hugh, faintly kept up her laugh, yet parallel with it her mother managed to continue: "Yes, that was in eighteen-thirty-three, Janawary. Because that was the winter when Jackson he conquer' Clay in the election and conquer' Calhoun in the nullification, and tha'z the cause why my 'usband he name' his boat the _Conqueror_. Ah, veree well I rimember that; how the _Quakerezz_ she came cre-eepingg in, out of that fog, an' like the fog so still an' white, cloze aggains' the _Conqueror_. And the firz' news they pazz----" The old nurse reappeared, laid thin shawls on the mother and daughter, and sat down on the deck close below Ramsey. "Firz' news they pazz," resumed the speaker, "'tis that Captain Courteney he's got with him his wife, from Philadelphia, and----" Ramsey broke in merrily: "Was _she_ the Quakeress? Was the _Quakeress_ named for her?" "Yes, and she's juz' have, they say, a li'l' son! An' my 'usband he di'n' like that! Because----" "But you had three little girls!" said Ramsey. "Girl', they di'n' count! Because those girl', you know, they can' never run those steam_boat_'." "I don't see why," said Ramsey. Hugh might sit silent if he chose; her silent sitting was over. "They di'n' count," repeated the lady. "And so my 'usband he di'n' want those Courteney' to be ahead of those Hayle' in having boys!" "He little knew what was coming," said Ramsey, and wondered why the remark was ignored, especially when---- "Me," said the pretty matron, "I was nearly ready to 'ave those twin', but Gideon Hayle he di'n' know they was goin' be twin', an' he di'n' know those twin' goin' be boys!" She gently laughed. The daughter stared as if in no light--or shade--could those twins be a laughing matter, but the mother spoke on gayly: "Never I 'ear my 'usband swear so hard--an' so manny way'--like that day--at everything--everybody. Not because that li'l babee--if that be all; but because he see that _boat_, that she's the mo' fine boat, that _Quakerezz_, an' when they ripport her run from Loui'ville, he's already affraid--to hisseff--that she's goin' to be the mo' fas'." "And was she?" asked the girl. "Barely," said the grandfather. "It took years to prove it and by that time your father had built another boat." "The _Chevalier_!" she exclaimed. "Yes, which beat the _Quakeress_ once or twice nearly every season until the _Quakeress_ burned." "Burned!" cried Ramsey, while Hugh, stirred to rise, yet remained. "Was it the _Quakeress_ that--?" But the old man was telling earlier history and she sank repiningly in her seat. "You're going backward," she softly whined. "In 'sixteen," he said, "I built the _Huntress_, and----" "We already know about that," sighed Ramsey, bracing her feet in old Joy's hands. "I know it from old nursie." "Ramsey!" murmured her mother. "In 'seventeen," said the chronicler, "Miss Ramsey's grandfather built the _Hunter_. In 'twenty he built the _Charioteer_----"