Then the man looked up, smiling to me, lifted his hand in greeting,
and then straightway laid in the steering oar. Having found a
bailing bowl in the stern sheets, he set to work to clear out the
water that washed about in the bottom of the boat; then he replaced
the floor boards, and all things being shipshape, sat down quickly
in the stern, putting his head into his hands, and there bided
without moving, as if worn out and fain to rest for a while.

Now it was like to be a hard matter to get the boat alongside in
that sea, and we must needs wait till the man took in hand to help,
so we watched him as he sat thus, wondering mostly at the boat, for
it was a marvel to all of us. Sharp were her bows and stern,
running up very high, and her high stem post was carved into the
likeness of a swan's neck and head, and the wings seemed to fall
away along the curve of the bows to the carved gunwale, that was as
if feathered, and at last the stern post rose and bent like a fan
of feathers to finish all. Carved, too, were rowlocks and the ends
of the thwarts, and all the feathered work was white and gold above
the black of the boat's hull. Carved, too, was the baling bowl, and
the loom of the oar was carved in curving lines from rowlock
leather to hand. And as I thought of the chances of our losing her
as we crossed the bar among the following breakers, I was grieved,
and would have asked my father to let us try to get her on deck if
we could.

But now the man roused, and put his hands to his mouth, hailing us
to ask if we would suffer him to come on board, and my father
hailed him back to bid him do so. Then it would seem that our men
were ashamed, having once disobeyed my father whom they loved, not