And
I'm not sure I'm not dreaming now!"
"Don't worry," said the bartender. "We're all awake--and alive. And you
bet it's great to be alive again! Ain't it,"--he turned to the Finn
woman,--"you mother of eight?"
The Finn woman made no answer. She was nursing her baby.
Cogan Capeador
Eight bells had gone, the morning watch was done, it was almost time to
eat, and so Kieran, the pump-man, laid aside the tools of his berth and
came strolling aft; and swinging down the long gangway he sang:
"There was a girl,--I knew her well,--a girl in Zanzibar--
A bulgeous man of science said you bet her avatar
Was Egypt's Cleopatra--and from off a man-o'-war
I met her first--and O, her eyes! A blazing polar star!
From which you couldn't head away no more than you could fly--
Gypsy one of Zanzy! For you who wouldn't die!"
It was one of those fine days in the Gulf of Mexico. Abreast of the ship
the Florida reefs, low-crested, ragged, and white, loomed above the
smooth sea.
Kieran contemplated the line of reefs; presently he leaned over the
taffrail and stared down at the whirling propeller; from the screws his
gaze shifted to the whirling water above and about them, and thence to
the tow in their wake. He put his head to one side, studied the
spectacle of the straining hawser and the wallowing barge on the end of
it, as if it were a mysterious problem.
Pages:
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228