A. T. Quiller-Couch

“ I might do for the coasting trade—that was all; and in that I've remained.”
“Owners are rogues for the most part,” commented the Danish barquentine, rubbing against the Touch-me-not's fender as if to nudge her. “There's the Maria Stella Maris yonder can tell us a tale of the food they store us with. She went through a mutiny once, I've heard.”
“I'd rather not talk of it,” put in the Italian hastily, and a shudder ran through her timbers. “It's a dreadful recollection, and I have that by my mizzen-mast which all the holy-stone in the world can never scour.” ”

“ But I have studied my reflexion often enough in calm weather, and begin to see what men have in mind when they admire us.”
“And the talisman?” asked the Nubian again.
“The talisman? There is no one cure for useless regret, but each must choose his own. With me it is the thought of the child after whom I was christened. The day they launched me was her first birthday, and she a small thing held in the crook of her mother's arm: when the bottle swung against my stern the wine spurted, and some drops of it fell on her face. ”

“ It seems strange to us, who carry the thought of the forests we have left, and on warm days, when the sap awakes in us and tries to climb again, forgetting its weakness, we miss the green boughs and the moss at our feet and the birds overhead. ”

“ He soon came to know them all—French brigs and chasse-marées, Russian fore-and-afters, Dutch billy-boys, galliots from the East coast, and Thames hay-barges with vanes and wind-boards. He could tell you why the Italians were deep in the keel, why the Danes were manned by youngsters, and why these youngsters deserted, although their skippers looked, and indeed were, such good-natured fellows; what food the French crews hunted for in the seaweed under the cliff, and when the Baltic traders would be driven southward by the ice. ”

“ But the worst villainy was to come; for my owner, pretending that he had opened up a profitable trade, and having his ivory to show for it, sold me to a London firm, who loaded me with real gunpowder and sent me out, six months later, to the same river, but with a new skipper and a different crew. The natives knew me at once, and came swarming out in canoes as soon as we dropped anchor. ”

“ This is the twelfth Christmas I've spent at home, and I assure you I quite look forward to it: that's a confession, eh?—from one who has sailed under Nelson and smelt powder in his time.” The boy knew that he must be listening to the Touch-me-not, whose keelson came from an old line-of-battle ship. “To be sure,” the voice went on graciously, “a great deal depends on one's company.”
“Talking of powder,” said the Nubian, creaking gently on her stern-moorings, “reminds me of a terrible adventure. ”

“ On week-days as a rule he hoisted two flags—an ensign on the gaff, and a single code-flag at the mast-head; but on Sundays he usually ran up three or four, and with the help of the code-book spelt out some message to the harbour. Sometimes, too, if an old friend happened to take up her moorings at the red buoy below, he would have her code-letters hoisted to welcome her, or would greet and speed her with such signals as K.T.N., “Glad to see you,” and B.R.D., or B.Q.R., meaning “Good-bye,” “A pleasant passage.” ”

“ Because of it, and because our names are alike, her parents think of us together; and sometimes when one begins to talk of “Theckla,' the other will not know for a moment which of us is meant. They drink my health, too, on her birthday, which is the fourteenth of May ”