At night he brought back a brighter face than had been seen in our house for many a long day. I was sitting up for him, and even I had stirrings in my heavy heart of a reviving interest in life. All day I had been thinking of our old voyage in the Racer--remembering the beautiful parts of it, forgetting all the rest. "Well, Polly," said he; "did you wonder what was keeping me so late? The old man"--he meant the head of his old firm--"insisted on my dining with him, and I couldn't well refuse. Talked about everything as frank and free as if I'd been his brother--all the business of the old shop--and said they'd give a hundred pounds to have me back again. By Jove, if it wasn't for you and the children--no, no, I don't mean that; we're happiest as we are--or will be when you are well and heartened up a bit. What do you think, Polly? I'm to take the old Bendigo her next trip. Watson hasn't had a spell for years, and there's a new baby at his place; I saw Watson first--he put me up to it--but the old man was ready to do anything I liked to ask him. 'Certainly,' says he; 'by all means, and whenever you choose. And bring the missus, of course--only too proud to have her company on any ship she fancies.' You know he always thought a deal of you, Polly; I declare he was quite affectionate in his inquiries after you--never thought he could be so kind and jolly. I could have got free passages for both of us easy enough, but it's pleasanter to work for them; and I don't think, somehow, that I could feel at home in the old Bendigo anywhere but on the bridge." "And I should not like to see you anywhere else," I said; "not if we paid full fares twice over. And how nice not to have to pay, when the farm is keeping us so short! How nice an arrangement altogether! I can be upstairs with you--the old man would wish me to do whatever I liked--and have more liberty than would be possible if another was in command, and so can you. It's a charming plan! And the Bendigo, too--our own old Bendigo! Oh, Tom, do you remember _that night!_" It was some years since he had left the boat on board of which he had been introduced to his eldest son; but whenever we recalled the time that he was captain of her our first thoughts pictured the moonlit bridge and the baby; at any rate mine did. And in my terribly deepened sense of the significance of motherhood nothing could have suited me better than to go back to the dear place where my mother-life began, for it did not properly begin until Tom shared it with me. I would sooner have chosen the Bendigo to have a trip in--if I had the choice--than the finest yacht or liner going.