"Ay, ay, sir--I mean, ma'am!" cried one of the men forward as he sprang to obey the order. Mary went below and worked out her reckoning, while her father eyed her lovingly as she thumbed the navigation tables and the nautical almanac. "It's three hundred and thirty miles west nor'west to Sandy Hook, father. The wind is sou' sou'west, and we can lay our course." The Captain smiled faintly, for he was in much pain, and murmured, "Bless you!" [Illustration: "ALL HANDS MAKE SAIL!"] Mary went on deck and shouted, "All hands make sail!" Every able man in the crew, including the cook, sprang on deck with the activity of cats, eager to show their willingness to serve her. The bark was still under the flying-jib, maintopmast stay-sail and reefed spanker which she had carried through the end of the gale. The men were anxious to know how their young skipperess would go to work. The girl's face was calm and confident. Her cheeks glowed and her eyes burned. In a clear musical voice she cried: "Shake out the reefs in the spanker! Hoist the jib and haul out the spanker!" As soon as these orders were executed she cried again, "Loose the foretop-sail and maintop-gallant sail!" The men danced aloft to attend to these orders. "Stand by! Let fall! Sheet home and hoist away!" The men flew about like bees. "That's sail enough till the sea goes down," she said. "Brace sharp up and haul out the tacks! West nor'west," she added to the man at the wheel. "Three cheers for Miss Captain Kent!" cried one of the men, and they were given with a will. Two days later the bark _Bunker Hill_ went up the Swash Channel behind a tug, and dropped anchor off Quarantine, where the ship-news reporters learned of her remarkable story and filled the papers with Mary's fame. In the following summer Mary was granted a master's license, and when Captain Kent went to rest in the old churchyard, his daughter took command of his ship, and was one of the few women sea-captains in the world. RICK DALE. BY KIRK MUNROE, AUTHOR OF "SNOW-SHOES AND SLEDGES," "THE FUR-SEAL'S TOOTH," "THE 'MATE' SERIES," "FLAMINGO FEATHER," ETC. CHAPTER XXXIII. LAID UP FOR REPAIRS.