Sometimes he was tempted to run away, taking Bos'n with him.

But the captain had never run away from a fight yet; he had never abandoned a ship while there was a chance of keeping her afloat.

And, besides, there was another reason.
Phoebe Dawes had come to be his chief reliance.

He saw a great deal of her.

Often when she walked home from school, she found him hanging over the front gate, and they talked of various things--of Bos'n's progress with her studies, of the school work, and similar topics.