to hurry themselves--on no account whatever; to take their time about
shoving out the plank; to send the rope ashore by post-office--write
him when it got there; begging them not to strain their backs; calling
them mister, colonel, major, general, prince, and your royal highness,
which was vastly amusing. At night, however, or when the little
convent girl was not there, language flowed in its natural curve, the
mate swearing like a pagan to make up for lost time.

The captain forgot himself one day: it was when the boat ran aground
in the most unexpected manner and place, and he went to work to
express his opinion, as only steamboat captains can, of the pilot,
mate, engineer, crew, boat, river, country, and the world in general,
ringing the bell, first to back, then to head, shouting himself
hoarser than his own whistle--when he chanced to see the little black
figure hurrying through the chaos on the deck; and the captain stuck
as fast aground in midstream as the boat had done.

In the evening the little convent girl would be taken on the upper
deck, and going up the steep stairs there was such confusion, to keep
the black skirts well over the stiff white petticoats; and, coming
down, such blushing when suspicion would cross the unprepared face
that a rim of white stocking might be visible; and the thin feet,
laced so tightly in the glossy new leather boots, would cling to each
successive step as if they could never, never make another venture;
and then one boot would (there is but that word) hesitate out, and
feel and feel around, and have such a pause of helpless agony as if
indeed the next step must have been wilfully removed, or was nowhere
to be found on the wide, wide earth.

It was a miracle that the pilot ever got her up into the pilot-house;