"Ruby," said the captain, after the candle was extinguished.
"Well, uncle?"
"I've bin thinkin', lad,——"
Here the captain drew a few whiffs to prevent the pipe from going out, in which operation he evidently forgot himself and went on thinking, for he said nothing more.
"Well, uncle, what have you been thinking?"
"Eh! ah, yes, I've bin thinkin', lad (puff), that you'll have to (puff)—there's somethin' wrong with the pipe to-night, it don't draw well (puff)—you'll have to do somethin' or other in the town, for it won't do to leave the old woman, lad, in her delicate state o' health. Had she turned in when you left the kitchen?"
"Oh yes, an hour or more."
"An' Blue Eyes,
'The tender bit flower that waves in the breeze,
And scatters its fragrance all over the seas'—
has she turned in too?"