"Ain't you going to stay a while?" asked the captain. "You can't make church calls to-night."
Drew laughed.
"No," he said; "that's true. I'm out of that. But I'm going back on deck soon. I can't get enough of it: the world seems all sky and stars. I had lost sight of the fact that the earth is so trivial."
Captain March let his feet come slowly to the floor and picked up his hat.
"That's a good deal so," he said. "Still, there's enough earth lying loose around the Race to keep me from forgetting it, at least till we've dropped it astern. I guess I'll go take a look up on deck."
As her father disappeared, Hetty laid down her book and looked up.
"Where are we now?" she asked Drew.
"Little Gull Island light is just ahead of us," he answered.
"That will be our last sight of land, won't it?" she asked. "I'm going up to say good-by."
When she had gone, her mother dropped her knitting in her lap.