Page:Rideout--Beached keels.djvu/313

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CAPTAIN CHRISTY
299

could n't! I could n't! Don't you see—you never asked— I have plenty for the first year myself—more than four hundred dollars that I 've saved. You old angel! No, I won't listen; it's wrong, wicked."

"No, Joyce," objected the captain sturdily; "the world's for the young, ye know."

"It is n't, either!" she protested, shaking him. "It's for all kinds, and you 're the best in it! Now listen, you dear old goose." …

It was a long combat; but happy, resolute youth, guided by woman's wit, at last conquered. "So," she concluded, "we can both be independent. And whether I fail or go ahead, I 'll come home when you—when you 've had voyages enough. So we can each have our wish, father."

"Why—I guess—you 're right!" declared the captain. "So we can!" Transfigured, he swung her in his arms, high to the crossbeams of the ceiling. "Both of us! Hooray!"

And Zwinglius, to whom this world was never clear, entered upon a mad scene of double jigs and capers before the fire.