and from a curious grass-woven basket which he carried slung to his
side, produced sundry curiosities in the way of beads, shell-work,
feather-work, and a hatchet of stone, and even a curious armlet of
soft, dull gold, with pearls set in it. This he had, with great
difficulty, obtained on purpose for Mistress Talbot, who had once
cured him of a bad festering hurt received on board ship.

The children clustered round in ecstasies of admiration and wonder as
they heard of the dark brown atives, the curious expedients by which
barter was carried on; also of cruel Spaniards, and of savage fishes,
with all the marvels of flying-fish, corals, palm-trees, humming
birds--all that is lesson work to our modern youth, but was the most
brilliant of living fairy tales at this Elizabethan period. Humfrey
and Diccon were ready to rush off to voyage that instant, and even
little Ned cried imitatively in his imperfect language that he would
be "a tailor."

Then their father came home, and joyfully welcomed and clasped hands
with his faithful mate, declaring that the sight did him good; and
they sat down to supper and talked of voyages, till the boys' eyes
glowed, and they beat upon their own knees with the enthusiasm that
their strict manners bade them repress; while their mother kept back
her sighs as she saw them becoming infected with that sea fever so
dreaded by parents. Nay, she saw it in her husband himself. She
knew him to be grievously weary of a charge most monotonously dull,
and only varied by suspicions and petty detections; and that he was
hungering and thirsting for his good ship and to be facing winds and
waves. She could hear his longing in the very sound of the "Ays?"
and brief inquiries by which he encouraged Goatley to proceed in the
story of voyages and adventures, and she could not wonder when