"Will you? God, but he'll like that--Bud'll sure like that. And now,
here you go--

"May the wind be always fair for you
Whatever the course you sail!

"An' you an' me and all of us we'll be like we used to be, an' Bud'll
like it, I know. An' now one to Bud himself. I know 'twill please him to
see us doin' it. Here's to Buddie, Bowen. Is it a go?"

"Let her run!"

"Run it is, and a gale behind her--Christmas to Bud!"




Captain Blaise


Two years now since Mr. Villard had come home, and not a soul on the
plantation but believed that at last the new master had given up his
mysterious voyages and was home to stay. But one day I had business in
Savannah, and while there, hearing that the bark _Nereid_ was in from
the West African coast, I strolled down to the river front; and
presently I was approached and addressed by the master of the _Nereid_,
a seaman-like and rather shrewd-looking man who had a message for Mr.
Villard, he said--from the West Coast.

"I am charged to ask him to pass the word to Captain Blaise," said the