“Yes, uncle, I'm here. Here I am,” said the girl. His fingers groped for her hand and seized it.
“Yes, yes, you're here,” murmured Captain Eben. “I—I—for a minute or so, I—I had an awful dream about you, Gracie. I dreamed—Never mind. Doc, answer me this now, true and honest, man to man: Can you keep me here for just a little spell longer? Can you? Try! Ten minutes, say. Can you?”
“Of course I can. Cap'n Hammond, what are you—”
“I know. That's all right. But I ain't a young one to be petted and lied to. I'm a man. I've sailed ships. I've been on blue water. I'm goin' to make port pretty soon, and I know it, but I want to get my decks clear fust, if I can. Gracie, stand still. Nat, run alongside where I can see you plainer. Keziah, you and the doctor stay where you be. I want you to witness this.”
“Cap'n,” protested Dr. Parker, “if I were you I wouldn't—”
“Belay! Silence there, for'ard! Nat, you're my boy, ain't you? You set some store by the old man, hey?”
“I—I guess I do, dad.”
“Yes, I guess you do, too. You've been a pretty good boy; stubborn and pig-headed sometimes, but, take you by and large, pretty good. And Gracie, you've been a mighty good girl. Never done nothin' I wouldn't like, nothin' mean nor underhand nor—”
“Hush, uncle! Hush! Please hush!”
“Well, you ain't; so why should I hush? In this—this dream I had, seems 'sif you—seems as if a man come to me and said that you was—It WAS a dream, wa'n't it?”