“And it wouldn't do any better for me to climb over it, would it? I could do it easily.”
“No, I'm afraid that wouldn't answer.”
“Then, what are we going to do? There isn't any other way, I suppose,” with very evident despair.
“Oh, yes, there is, and I'll show it to you myself.”
Whereupon Marie-Celeste laid one little brown hand upon the captain's sleeve from an impulse of sheer gratitude, and the captain straightway laid a big brown hand atop of it.
“Now, that is what you wanted to ask first,” he said; “I am anxious to know what comes second.”
“No, I guess I won't bother you any more; I—”
“No, you shall not go till you have told me;” and the captain detained the little hand a prisoner beneath his own.
“Well, I was going to ask—you see, it is very much more interesting up here near the bow and the bridge and the crow's-nest—I was going to ask, if once in a while Chris could come over to the first cabin. You see, Chris doesn't know any one on board, excepting just me, and we're such good friends at home.”
“Well, that's a little different,” for the captain was puzzled to know how to answer, “and it's against the regulations; but it's very hard to refuse a little maid like you.”