For two weeks Faith had been aboard the _Sally Sims_, making ready the
tiny quarters that were to be her home. When she came down into the
cabin now, it was with a sense of familiarity. The plain table, built
about the butt of the mizzenmast; the chairs; the swinging, whale-oil
lamps.... These were old friends, waiting to replace those other friends
she had left behind in her bedroom at home. She stood for a moment, at
the foot of the cabin companion, looking about her; and she smiled
faintly, her hand at her throat....
She was not lonely, not homesick, not sorry.... But her smile seemed to
appeal to these inanimate surroundings to be good to her.
Then she crossed the cabin quietly, and went into the smaller
compartment across the stern which was used by Cap'n Wing for his books,
his instruments, his scant hours of leisure.... This ran almost entirely
across the stern of the ship; but it was little more than a corridor.
The captain's cabin was on the starboard side, opening off this
corridor-like compartment. There was scant room, aft, aboard the _Sally
Sims_. The four mates bunked two by two, in cabins opening off the main
cabin; the mate had no room to himself. And by the same token, there was
no possibility of giving Faith separate quarters. There were two bunks
in the captain's cabin, one above the other. The upper had been built
in, during the last two weeks. That was all....
Faith had not protested. She was content that Noll was hers; the rest
did not matter. She found a measure of glory in the thought that she
must endure some hardships to be at his side while her man did his work
in the world. She was, after the first pangs, glad that she must make a
tiny chest and a half a dozen nails serve her for wardrobe and
dressing-room; she was glad that she must sleep on a thing like a shelf
built into the wall, instead of her high, soft bed with the canopy at
home. She was glad--glad for life--glad for Noll--glad for
everything....
She began, quietly, to prepare herself for bed. And while she loosened
her heavy hair, and began the long, easy brushing that kept it so glossy
and smooth, her thoughts ran back over the swift, warm rapture of her
awakening love for Noll. Big Noll Wing.... Her husband, now.... She, his
bride....
She had always worshiped Noll, even while she was still a school girl,
her skirts short, her hair in a long, thick braid. Noll was a heroic
figure, a great man who appeared at intervals from the distances of
ocean, and moved majestically about the little world of the town, and
then was gone again. The man had had the gift of drama; his deeds held
that element which lifted them above mere exploits and made them
romance. When he was third mate of the old _Bertha_, a crazy Islander
tried to knife him, and fleshed his blade in Noll Wing's shoulder, from
behind. Noll had wrenched around and broken the man's neck with a twist
of his hands. He had always been a hard man with his hands; a strong
man, perhaps a brutal man. Faith, hearing only glorified whispers of
these matters, had dreamed of the strength of him. She saw this strength
not as a physical thing, but as a thing spiritual. No one man could rule
other men unless he ruled them by a superior moral strength, she knew.
She loved to think of Noll's strength.... Her breath had caught in
ecstasy of pain, that night he first held her close against his great
chest, till she thought her own ribs would crack....
Not Noll's strength alone was famous. He had been a great captain, a
great man for oil. His maiden voyage as skipper of his own ship made
that reputation for the man. He set sail, ran forthwith into a very sea
of whales, worked night and day, and returned in three days short of
three months with a cargo worth thirty-seven thousand dollars. A cargo
that other men took three years to harvest from the fat fields of the
sea; took three years to harvest, and then were like as not to boast of
the harvesting. Oh, Noll Wing was a master hand for sperm oil; a master
skipper as ever sailed the seas....
He came back thus, cruise after cruise, and the town watched his
footsteps with pride and envy; he walked the streets with head high; he
spoke harshly, in tones of command; he was, Faith thought, a man....
She remembered, this night, her first sight of him; her first remembered
sight. It was when her father came home from his last voyage, his chest
crushed, himself a helpless man who must lie abed long months before he
might regain a measure of his ancient strength again. His ship came in,
down at the wharves, at early dawn; and Faith and Roy, at home with
their mother, had known nothing of the matter till big Noll Wing came up
the hill, carrying Jem Kilcup in his arms as a baby is borne. Their
mother opened the door, and Noll bore Jem upstairs to the bed he was to
keep for so long.... And Faith and Roy, who had always seen in their
father the mightiest of men, as children do, marveled at Noll Wing with
wide eyes. Noll had carried their father in his arms....
Faith was eleven, then; Roy not much more than half as old. While Noll's
ship remained in port, she and Roy had stolen down often to the wharves
to catch a stolen sight of the great man; they had hid among the casks
to watch him; they had heard with awe his thundering commands.... And
then he sailed away. When he came again, Faith was thirteen; and she
tagged his heels, and he bought her candy, and took her on his knee and
played with her.... Those weeks of his stay were witchery to Faith. Her
mother died during that time, and Noll was her comforter.... The big man
could be gentle, in those days, and very kind....
He came next when Faith was sixteen; and the faint breath of bursting
womanhood within her made Faith shy. When a girl passes from childhood,
and feels for the first time the treasures of womanhood within herself,
she guards that treasure zealously, like a secret thing. Faith was
afraid of Noll; she avoided him; and when they met, her tongue was
tied.... He teased her, and she writhed in helpless misery....
Nineteen at his next coming; but young Dan'l Tobey, risen to be fourth
mate on that cruise with Noll, laid siege to her. She liked Dan'l; she
thought he was a pleasant boy.... But when she saw Noll, now and then,
she was silent before him; and Noll had no eyes to see what was in the
eyes of Faith. He was, at that time, in the tower of his strength; a
mighty man, with flooding pulses that drove him restlessly. He still
liked children; but Faith was no longer a child. She was a woman; and
Noll had never had more than casual use for women. He saw her, now and
then; nothing more....
Nevertheless this seeing was enough so that Dan'l Tobey had no chance at
all. Dan'l went so far as to beg her to marry him; but she shook her
head.... "Wait ..." she whispered. "No. No.... Wait...."
"You mean--you will--some day?" he clamored. And she was frightened, and
cried out:
"No, I don't mean anything, Dan'l. Please--don't ask me.... Wait...."
He told her, doggedly, the day he sailed away, that he would ask her
again when he came home. And Faith, sure that she would never love
Dan'l, was so sorry for him that she kissed him good-by; kissed him on
the forehead.... The boy was blind; he read in that kiss an augury of
good, and went away with heart singing. He did not know the philosophy
of kisses. Let a girl permit a man to kiss her good-by--on cheek, or
forehead, or ear tip, or hand, or lip, or what you will--and there's
still a chance for him; but when she kisses him, sisterly, upon the
forehead, the poor chap is lost and has as well make up his mind to't,
Dan'l did not know, so went happily away....
Noll Wing, on that cruise, passed the great divide of life without
knowing it. Till then he had been a strong man, proud in his strength,
sufficient unto himself, alone without being either lonely or afraid;
but when he came home, there was stirring in him for the first time a
pang of loneliness.... This was the advance courier of age, come
suddenly upon him.
He did not understand this; he was not even conscious of the change in
him. He left his ship, and climbed the hill to his own house where his
sister waited for him; and he submitted to her timid ministrations as he
had never submitted before. He found it, somehow, faintly pleasant.... A
woman, puttering about him.... But comfortable, just the same, he told
himself. A man gets tired of men....
He had never tired of men before, never tired of himself before. Now
there was something in him that was weary. He wanted comfort. He was
worn with Spartan living; he was sick of rough life. He hungered for
soft ways, for gentle things.... Some one to mend his socks.... Always
wearing full of holes.... Some one to talk to, on ship board, besides
the rough crew and the respectful officers....
This unrest was stirring in him when he went to see old Jem Kilcup, and
Faith opened the door to him, and bade him come in.
He came in, tugging at his cap; and his eyes rested on her pleasantly.
She was tall, as women go; but not too tall. And she was rounded, and
strong, and firm. Her hair was thick, and soft; and her voice was low
and full. When she bade him good evening, her voice thrummed some cord
in the man. A pulse pricked faster in his throat....
He had come to see Jem; Jem was not at home. Faith told him this. In the
old days, he would have turned and stamped away. Now he hesitated; then
looked about for a chair, sat down. And Faith, who for the life of her
could not hold still her heart when Noll Wing was near, sat in a chair
that faced him, and they fell a-talking together.
He talked, as men will do, of himself. Nothing could have pleased Faith
better. Nor Noll, for that matter.... He loved to talk of himself; and
for an hour they sat together, while his words bore her across the seven
seas, through the tumult of storm, through the bloody flurry of the
fighting whale, through the tense silence of a ship where sullen men
plan evil.... She trembled as she listened; not with fear for him, but
with pride in him. She was already as proud of Noll as though he
belonged to her.
Thus began their strange courtship. It was scarce conscious, on either
side. Noll took comfort in coming to her, in talking to her, in watching
her.... His pulses stirred at watching her. And Faith made herself fair
for his coming, and made him welcome when he came....
She was his woman, heart and soul, from the beginning. As for Noll, he
found her company increasingly pleasant. She was a better listener than
a man; his tales were fresh and new to her. At the same time, knowing
him better, she began to mother him in her thoughts, as women will. She
began to mother him, and to guide him. Men need guiding, ever. Noll
might never have known what he wanted; but Faith was no weak girl. She
had the courage to reach out her hand for the thing that was dear to
her; she was not ashamed of her heart....
They came together by chance one night when the moon played hide and
seek with dark clouds in the sky; they met upon the street, as Faith
came home with Bess Holt; and Noll walked with them to Bess's house, and
then he and Faith went on together. She led him to talk of himself, as
ever. When they came to her gate, some sudden impulse of unaccustomed
modesty seized the man. He said hoarsely:
"But pshaw, Faith.... You must be sick of my old yarns by now...."
She was silent for a moment, there before him. Then she lifted her eyes,
smiling in the moonlight, and she quoted softly and provokingly:
"'... She thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her....'"
Noll Wing was no man of little reading. He understood, and cried out
hoarsely....
'Twas then, the moon providentially disappearing behind a cloud, that he
caught her and held her till her ribs were like to crack, while his lips
came fumbling down to find her own....
Afterward, Faith hid her eyes in shame, and scolded herself for
frowardness until he reassured her; she bade him, then, pay court in due
form, at her feet. He knelt before her, the big, strong man.... And her
eyes filled, and she knelt with him.
It was in her heart that she was pledging herself sacredly, with this
man, forevermore.
* * * * *
Followed the swift days of preparation; a pleasant flurry, through which
Faith moved calmly, her thoughts far off. Old Jem Kilcup was wroth; he
knew Noll Wing, and tried to tell Faith something of this knowledge. But
she, proud and straight, would have none of it; she commanded old Jem
into silence, then teased him into smiles till he consented and bade her
take her man.
Roy was immensely proud of her. When it was decided that she should go
away with Noll upon the _Sally Sims_, Roy begged to go. Begged
fruitlessly, at first; for Noll Wing, having won the thing he wanted,
was already beginning to wonder whether he really wanted it at all. But
in the end, he consented.... Roy was to go with his sister....
Bess Holt.... Those were wild days for Bess; wild days of constant,
fluttering excitement. She buzzed about Faith like a humming bird about
a flower; and Faith quietly gave herself to the current of the days. She
was so happy that even Dan'l Tobey could not cloud her eyes. There was
one hot hour with Dan'l, when he accused, and swore, and begged. But
Faith had strength in her, so that in the end she conquered him and
held him.... He was silenced; only his eyes still accused her....
So.... Marriage! It was done, now. Done.... She was away, with Noll, the
world and life before them.... Brave Noll; strong Noll.... She loved him
so....
* * * * *
When he came down into the cabin, she was waiting for him. She had put
on a dressing-gown, a warm and woolly thing that she and Bess had made
of a heavy blanket, to protect her against the chill winds of the sea.
Her braids were upon her shoulders; her hair parted evenly above her
broad brow. Her eyes were steady and sweet and calm.... Noll, studying
her while his heart leaped, saw where the dressing-gown parted at her
throat a touch of white, a spray of broidered blossoms which Faith
herself had made, with every stitch a world of hope and dreams....
He took off his cap, and his coat and vest. He wore suspenders. When
Faith saw them, she shivered in spite of herself. They were such
hopelessly ugly things.... She lifted her eyes from them, came closer to
him. He took her roughly in his arms, and she lifted one arm and drew it
around his thick neck, and drew his face down.
"Ah, Noll ..." she whispered proudly.