"There was a boy, but I paid him off.

Sarah takes the helm from this night forth.

You wouldn't believe it, but she can swig upon a rope too: and as for pulling an oar--" He went on to tell me that she had been rowing a pair of paddles when his eye first lit on her: and I gathered that the courtship had been conducted on these waters under the gaze of Saltash, the male in one boat pursuing, the female eluding him in another, for long indomitable, but at length gracefully surrendering.
My handiness with the ropes, when I volunteered to help in hoisting sail, surprised and even perplexed him.

"But I thought you was a chimney-sweeper ?" he insisted.

I told him then of my voyages with Mr.Trapp, yet without completely reassuring him.