He started off at a quick pace, but a few minutes later, Sprite saw, from her window, that the captain had met his friend when but halfway to the wharf.
"Oh, Ma, Jack has come up halfway to meet Pa. I guess he was coming up to see if Pa had forgotten about going down to look at the new fishing smack.
"Why, Ma, they're shaking hands. They never do that. Why, they are both coming back!"
Mrs. Seaford knew that something more than usual had happened. She hurried to the door, just as the two men reached it, and then, the captain grasped both her hands, crying out in his excitement:
"It has come in, dear! It has come in! The vessel that I've been looking for, longing for, worrying for is in safe and sound, and the cargo, if my friend Jack isn't wild, is even more valuable than I had dreamed!
"Sprite! Sprite! Little girl, your dream has come true!"
What a day of rejoicing it was!
"The dream came true! The dream came true! The golden ship has come in!" cried Sprite, dancing about like a little wild thing, while Mrs. Seaford laid her slender hands on the captain's shoulders, her eyes filled with happy tears as she quietly said:
"For your sake, dear, I am so glad."
Jack Windom, hardy sailor, and bluff, kindly friend, was more moved than he cared to admit. He drew the back of his hand across his eyes, remarking that the sun was "tur'ble glarin'," but his friends knew that he was fully in sympathy with them, and that his honest eyes had filled with tears, as happy as their own, because of the good luck that had come to them.