Page:Cup of Gold-1929.djvu/65

forted at all, and j¢’s a sad thing on me to be thinking of her crying there for my leaving.” The fulltears came into his eyes.

“I know,” said Tim softly. “I know it's a sad thing to a man to be leaving a girl and running off to sea. Haven't I left hundreds of them—and all beautiful? But here’s another cup to you, boy. Wine is better to 4 woman than all the sweet pastes of France, and a man drinking it. Wine makes every woman lovely. Ah! if the homely ones would only put out a little font of wine in the doors of their houses like the holy water to a church, there would be more marriage in the towns. A man would never know the lack they had for looks. But have another cup of the grand wine, sad boy, and it may be a princess, and you leaving her behind you."

They were starting for the Indies—the fine, far Indies where boys’ dreams lived, The great sun of the morning lay struggling in gray mist, and on the deck the Seamen swarmed like the angry populace of a broken hive. There were short orders and sailors leaping up the shrouds to edge along the yards. Circling men were singing the song of the capstan while the anchors rose out of the sea and clung to the sides like brown, dripping moths.

Off for the Indies—the white sails knew it as they flung out and filled delicately as silken things; the black ship knew it and rode proudly on the