The snow ceased before morning; but at the peep of dawn a thick fog came up with the wind, and when the light came it added nothing to the range of vision from the bow. The night had been black; the dawn was gray. It was so thick that the man at the wheel could not see beyond the foremast. The lookout was lost in the fog ahead. Eyes were now of no more use than in the depths of a cloudy night.
But the schooner had weathered the night; and when the first light of day broke in the east, Skipper Job gave the wheel to the second hand, and went below with the cook to have a cup of tea.
"I've no mind t' lose her," said he, "so I'll leave her bowl along under short sail. If we strike, 'twill be so much the easier."
"'Twould be a sad pity t' lose her," said the cook, "when you've got her so near paid for."
"Ay, that's it," said the skipper.
The Rescue had been built for young Skipper Job, after Skipper Job's own model, by the Ruddy Cove trader. The trader was to share in the voyages—whether for Labrador fish or in the Shore trade—until she was paid for. Then she would belong to Skipper Job—to the young skipper, who had married the parson's daughter, and now had a boy of his own for whom to plan and dream.
That was the spring of his energy and caution—that little boy, who could no more than toddle over the kitchen floor and gurgle a greeting to the lithe young fellow who bounded up the path to catch him in his arms. The schooner was the fortune of the lad and the mother; and she was now all so nearly Job's own that another voyage or two—a mere four months—might see the last dollar of the obligation paid over.
"No," Skipper Job repeated, absently, when he had thought of the toddler and the tender, smiling mother, "I've no mind t' lose this here schooner."
Job dreamed of the lad while he sipped his tea. They must make a parson of him, if he had the call, the skipper thought; or a doctor, perhaps. Whatever, that baby must never follow the sea. No, no! He must never know the hardship and anxiety of such a night as that just past. He must be——