"I'm glad for ye, all three of ye, and I wish I could hev lent a hand ter hurried her in, but she's here now, and I'm as glad as you be that she's in safe an' sound. It's a great day fer ye, Cap'n, an' I'm glad, I declare I am."
Captain Seaford again started for the wharf, this time to see not only the new fishing smack, but the vessel that had brought such great cheer to the little home, and with his arm locked in Jack Windom's he hurried down the beach.
Mrs. Seaford and Sprite sat down to talk of their good fortune, and after a time little Sprite said:
"I know I'm not to believe in signs or dreams, but truly I did see the new moon over my right shoulder, and I did dream of a golden ship."
"So you did, dear," Mrs. Seaford said, "and you cheered me wonderfully last evening just by your telling of your lovely dream."
"That's why I told it," Sprite said.
"I thought while I was telling that, you'd not hear the gale, and by to-day the storm would have cleared away, and maybe the ship would come in, and it did."
For a few moments the two sat thinking, then Sprite spoke again of the thoughts that filled her mind.
"Yesterday I tried to read a story in my fairy book, called 'The Gift Ship,' but the ship's masts were studded with jewels, and its figurehead was of pure gold, and some way it seemed too grand, too fine, while Pa was longing for just a plain ship like the other ships that we see every day. I knew it was its cargo that he was anxious about, but the story seemed too good to be true, and I didn't care to read it.
"Now, oh, now I can read it, and enjoy it, too, for no matter how grand the story ship is, Pa has seen the one that he has been looking for, and now we are happy."