“It’s Miss Frances!” burst forth Brandon at length.
“It is her, my lad. An’ hain’t I right erbout her bein’ a mighty trim one?”
“She is, indeed! She’s splendid!” cried Brandon enthusiastically, seizing his friend’s mighty palm.
Mr. Coffin also offered his congratulations, but went away afterward with rather a dazed look on his face.
He was pretty well acquainted with the old seaman, and he wondered, as did Brandon, how under the sun Caleb had ever plucked up the courage to ask Adoniram Pepper’s sister for her hand.
“Yes, lad,” said the old man gravely; “I’ve been floating about from sea to sea and from land to land for the better part of fifty years, an’ now I’m goin’ ter lay back an’ take it easy for the rest of my days.”
And as Brandon wrung his hand again he felt that the old seaman fully deserved it all.
In good time the whaleback, with her tow, the derelict brig, arrived in New York, where the Silver Swan was at once sent to the shipyard for repairs, and is now doing her owner good service as a merchantman.
Adoniram Pepper & Co.’s scheme of recovering derelicts in general and towing them in for their salvage, has never amounted to anything yet, for directly following the trip of Number Three (rechristened the Milly Frank, by the way), the owner received a good offer for putting the whaleback in the European trade, and she is still carrying grain to England, with Mr. Coffin as commander.