"I suppose he knew the north star," he said, smiling.
"Oh, yes; he knew that. The others didn't seem to impress him. He said they were too shifty to be of much use."
"I think there are some folks who know so much that it kind o' clogs their brains and keeps them from working right," said Captain March, coming up behind her. "I have an idea that we can use just about so much, and all over and above that is just pure waste. I once had a mate that was like that. He could name all the stars, too, and knew a good many things of that sort that didn't help him much to find his longitude; but as for the look of the sky, or the heave of the sea, or the feel of the wind, that meant nothing more to him than so much blank paper. Now, when I walk the deck at night and look up and see the stars shining overhead, winter or summer, they're company for me. That's enough for me; what men call 'em I don't care. I suppose the good Lord's got his own names for them."
Hetty stayed on deck till Little Gull Island light came abreast; but when she had gone below the captain sought out Drew as he stood by the main-rigging and told him his daughter's desire. He made no mention of Medbury.
"Her mother thought you might help us," he concluded; "and I hope you can, for we're in sore trouble. Still, I don't ask you to advise against your conscience. Now I say, 'No,' to her; but if she feels she's got to go, and doesn't change, why, I shall say, 'Yes,' in the end. I know that. My father always wanted me to stay ashore, but I was wild to go to sea. It seemed that I had to go, and in the end I did. I don't know that I got all I expected, but I got what I wanted; and if my girl sets her heart on this as the only way for her to lead her life, why, I sha'n't put a stone in her way when once I'm sure. It wouldn't be right."
IV
Hetty had spread a shawl on the forward end of the house, and, with her arm resting on the slide of the companionway, sat with an unopened book in her lap and looked out across the shining sea. It was three bells or more, and the morning sun was warm upon her face, and painted with rainbow hues the spray that the fresh northwest wind clipped from every toppling wave. The brig was sliding down the seas like a boy let loose from school, now dipping her nose into a long roller with chuckling hawse-pipes, now sinking into the blue hollows, sending the sheeted spray outward for yards as her counter came home with a jarring thud. The spars whined unceasingly, but the sails, bellying in the steady breeze, made scarcely a sound, save when a sudden lurch spilled the wind from the canvas, and it snapped like a great whip.
The scene, with the vividness of its new sensations, now for the first time experienced, impressed itself upon Drew's mind as something wholly mysterious and strangely moving. After the first night, when there had been no sea, he had remained steadily below, too ill to rise; but the sickness had now passed, and it was with only the uncertainty of gait of one not yet accustomed to the motion of the vessel that he had made his way to the deck and looked out over the watery world.