"The thought that since infinite space--" The thought seemed to stall, take breath, and start again--"since infinite space is lighted only by the stars, the rush and roll of this universe through space is forever and ever--in the large--a night scene--an eternal starlight. Is that absurd--to you?" The father smiled: "Why, no. I merely--doubt it. All starlight is sunlight--near enough by." "Yes. But between stars there is no near-by, is there?" "That depends on who's looking, I think. We mustn't impute human eyes to God--or angels--or saints. You remember the word: 'Darkness and light are both alike to thee'?" "Yes," pensively said Hugh, rejoicing in this converse yet wondering why it made him feel so childish to speak his best while Hayle's twins showed up in so manly a fashion when they spoke their worst. "Yes, I thought of that, too. Yet I was glad to believe there will always be plenty of starlight for those who love it----" "Wow!" yelled Ramsey in his ear. With a gulp he whirled and faced her where, limp with laughter, she hung and swung on the captain's chair. Its occupant quietly rose. The old nurse wrung her hands, and Ramsey, in an agony of mirth and dismay, cringed back on her. Suddenly the maiden stood at her best height and with elaborate graciousness said: "I _hope_ I haven't interrupted!" The father's hand appeasingly touched the son's while playfully he said: "You have a hopeful nature, Miss Ramsey." And then, as her disconcerted eyes widened, he asked: "Where did you come from just now?" He saw that if she spoke she must weep. Instead she jauntily waved a whole arm backward and upward to the pilot-house. Then, her self-command returning, she remarked, for Hugh in particular: "It's nice up there. They don't snub you." She twitched a shoulder at him, made eyes to his father, and once more tinkled her laugh, interiorly, as though it were a door-bell. The captain was amused, yet he gravely began to ask: "Does your mother----?" "Know I'm out? She doth. First time I've been out o' bed this late in all my long and checkered career." "If she does, Miss Ramsey, will you go up to the pilot once more and tell him to land the boat at the wood-yard just this side of Bonnabel plantation?" Her mouth fell open: "Who, me? Tell the--?" She swept the strategist with a quick, hurt glance, but beamed again beneath his kind eyes. "_I get your idea_," she said, snatched the nurse's arm, and hurried off with her, humming and tripping the song she had quoted. The captain looked again into "infinite space." The wide scene was shifting. High beyond the _Votaress's_ bow the stars of the west swung as if they shifted southward. The moon crossed her silvering wake from larboard quarter to starboard. The _Antelope_ shone close ahead. "To me, Hugh," he lightly resumed, "this boat, full of all sorts of people, isn't so much like your swarm of stars as it is like just one little whole world."