A feeble voice is heard to answer from the galley,--"Ay, ay, sir; comin', sir, comin'"; and the plum-duff head and the sausage legs follow feebly in after the voice, looking surprised.
"Ay, ay, sir," responds Main Brace; and the plum-duff head lets fall its lower jaw, and looks amazed, the Captain is so much in earnest.
"Some bait, Main Brace! Do you hear, my lad? Be lively, boy, and get some bait; and then overhaul the _Alice_, and stand by to be ready when I come down. We'll go a-fishing to-day,--do you hear, my boy? And we'll have a jolly time,--do you hear that? So be lively now, and be off with your plum-duff head and your sausage legs. I tell you, away, away! for we'll go a-sailin'. Away, away! for we'll go a-sailin', a-sailin', a-sailin'. Away, away! for we'll go a-sailin',--a-sailin' on the sea."
Without another word the sausage legs made off with the plum-duff head, which had no sooner got outside the door than it began to let out in dislocated fragments, from a mouth that gradually expanded until it reached from ear to ear, "Away, away! we'll go a-fishin', a-fishin', a-fishin'; away, away! we'll go a-sailin', a-sailin', a-sailin'; away, away! we'll all be jolly, jolly, jolly,--we'll all be jolly"; and so on until the sausage legs had carried the plum-duff head and the refrain together so far down among the trees, towards the water, that all the other "jollys" and the sailin's and the "fishin's," and the rest of it, were blown clean away by the wind.
And off went the Captain, too, hurrying up to the top of the hill behind the cottage, as if the cosey little thing was all afire, and the dear old soul was running up for help; and when he reached the top of the hill, he began swinging round his old tarpaulin hat, making the long blue ribbons fairly whistle and speak, as if they would say, "Old man, old man, stop a bit, and take breath!--can't you now? and say, what's this all about, for goodness' sake!"
[Illustration: The Ancient Mariner becomes excited, and Main Brace makes an effort.]
But the old man knew well enough himself what it was all about; for he was signalling his little friends; and every circle of his big arm, and every shake of his long gray beard, and every swing of his old tarpaulin hat, seemed to sing out, "Hurrah, hurrah, for a jolly day! hurrah, hurrah, my children gay! hurrah, hurrah, let's up and away, upon the bright blue waters!"