Many 's the time I 've sat here and spun yarns , same 's I 'm doing tonight . '' Again there was a silence , while Captain Jim kept a passing tryst with visitants Anne and Gilbert could not see -- the folks who had sat with him around that fireplace in the vanished years , with mirth and bridal joy shining in eyes long since closed forever under churchyard sod or heaving leagues of sea . Here on olden nights children had tossed laughter lightly to and fro . Here on winter evenings friends had gathered . Dance and music and jest had been here . Here youths and maidens had dreamed . For Captain Jim the little house was tenanted with shapes entreating remembrance . `` It was the first of July when the house was finished . The schoolmaster began to count the days then . We used to see him walking along the shore , and we 'd say to each other , ` She 'll soon be with him now . ' `` She was expected the middle of July , but she did n't come then . Nobody felt anxious . Vessels were often delayed for days and mebbe weeks . The Royal William was a week overdue -- and then two -- and then three . And at last we began to be frightened , and it got worse and worse . Fin ` lly I could n't bear to look into John Selwyn 's eyes . D'ye know , Mistress Blythe '' -- Captain Jim lowered his voice -- `` I used to think that they looked just like what his old great-great-grandmother 's must have been when they were burning her to death . He never said much but he taught school like a man in a dream and then hurried to the shore . Many a night he walked there from dark to dawn . People said he was losing his mind .
Everybody had given up hope -- the Royal XXXXX was eight weeks overdue .
Anne Blythe D'ye Selwyn William days fro nights week years