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276
BEACHED KEELS

without fear and strongly comforted; but the youthful sense of justice rebelled within her, and, forgetting the stern conditions of this our race, she wondered why he, who kept the faith, could not finish the course without the burden of a late sorrow. She longed for a chance to lighten it.

And so when one day the captain, chopping a frozen log, cut his foot with a glancing blow, it was not wholly a misfortune. With an excuse to leave her lodgings at Mrs. Gildersleeve's, she at once moved into the captain's house, took charge, and managed the restless prisoner like a child.

"Now don't you dare," she commanded, before each morning tramp to school, "don't you dare take it down off that chair! Stand by!"

"Aye, aye," returned the captain comfortably. He sat by the window, the bandaged foot elevated on cushions, and one of her books at his elbow. "Stand by it is, marm!" And when she reached the gate again at noon, a big hand waving in the window showed him still at his post.