We took refuge under the gallows over the booby-hatch, from which point we had as clear a view of the deck as it was possible to have anywhere except from the scuppers. The deck was anything but clear, and the man at the wheel saw the great butts of the masts, the try-works, and other things of a more temporary nature, but little of the deck, and of the sea before the ship and of the sky above nothing at all. There was no need for him to see either. He had an unobstructed view of the compass. The tug took us about twenty-five miles, but it seemed an unbearably short journey on that dull, rainy morning. The silence was broken only by the soft noise of the sea, and of the ship going through it, and by the creak and groan of the hawser on the bitts and of the yards in the slings as she rose and fell gently; and by the sound of the water dripping from the yards and rigging upon the deck, and now and then a voice. Altogether it was a silent, gray, dismal journey. Coils of rope hung from the belaying pins near me, and they swung regularly with the {26} motion of the ship. I wished that they would stop. They did not, of course, except for a moment, regularly; then they began again. The time was coming soon when the tug would cast off, and my father must go back. We got beyond Devil’s Bridge, with the Vineyard looming indistinctly, but scarcely visible, on our weather beam. The tug whistled, and Captain Nelson came to us. “Well, Tim,” he said, “I guess you ’ll have to get ready. It ’s too rough for the tug to come alongside, but I ’ll send you over in a boat. She ’s dropping us now.” My father said he was sorry to be so much trouble; and Captain Nelson said it was no matter, that it would be good practice for the crew. Then he looked at me, and put his hand on my shoulder. “Timmie,” he said gently, “you have n’t signed yet, and if you want to go back with your father I ’ll send you.” I shook my head furiously. “No, thank you, sir,” I said. “I ’ll sail with you—if you want me—if you ’ll take me.” How could I back out then? I should have been a laughing-stock for years, and I should never have a better chance. But I did want to go back with my father. Captain Nelson smiled. “I ’ll take you, and you ’ll get over your homesickness when we get a sight of the sun. It ’s a dismal day to start off.” They cast off the hawser, and backed the main topsail, and the vessel lay there with the seas beating upon her while the tug came up abeam, and lay rolling. And they came and cast loose the very boat we were standing under, and the men tailed on to the falls, and the boat was lowered until it was level with the rail; and two of the crew tumbled in to look after the falls, and my father gave me one hug, and I clung to him for a moment.