“Well, run and ask them,” said he, rolling up his knitting and stuffing it under the cushion of his chair, “and I’ll go and look at that boat right away.”

So Corette ran home to her father and mother and told them all about the matter.  They listened with great interest, and her father said: 

“Well now, our little girl is not looking quite as well as usual.  I have noticed that she is a little pale.  A sea-trip might be the very thing for her.”

“I think it would do her a great deal of good,” said her mother, “and as to that Reformed Pirate, she’d be just as safe with him as if she was on dry land.”

So it was agreed that Corette should go.  Her father and mother were always remarkably kind.

The Reformed Pirate was perfectly delighted when he heard this, and he went hard to work to get his little vessel ready.  To sail again on the ocean seemed to him the greatest of earthly joys, and as he was to do it for the benefit of a good little girl, it was all perfectly right and proper.

When they started off, the next day but one, all the people who lived near enough, came down to see them off.  Just as they were about to start, the Reformed Pirate said: 

“Hello!  I wonder if I hadn’t better run back to the house and get my sword!  I only wear the empty scabbard now, but it might be safer, on a trip like this, to take the sword along.”

So he ran back and got it, and then he pushed off amid the shouts of all the good people on the beach.

The boat was quite a good-sized one, and it had a cabin and everything neat and comfortable.  The Reformed Pirate managed it beautifully, all by himself, and Corette sat in the stern and watched the waves, and the sky, and the sea-birds, and was very happy indeed.

As for her companion, he was in a state of ecstasy.  As the breeze freshened, the sails filled, and the vessel went dashing over the waves, he laughed and joked, and sang snatches of old sea-songs, and was the jolliest man afloat.

[Illustration:  THE REFORMED PIRATE IS THE JOLLIEST MAN AFLOAT]

After a while, as they went thus sailing merrily along, a distant ship appeared in sight.  The moment his eyes fell upon it, a sudden change came over the Reformed Pirate.  He sprang to his feet and, with his hand still upon the helm, he leaned forward and gazed at the ship.  He gazed and he gazed, and he gazed without saying a word.  Corette spoke to him several times, but he answered not.  And as he gazed he moved the helm so that his little craft gradually turned from her course, and sailed to meet the distant ship.

As the two vessels approached each other, the Reformed Pirate became very much excited.  He tightened his belt and loosened his sword in its sheath.  Hurriedly giving the helm to Corette, he went forward and jerked a lot of ropes and hooks from a cubby-hole where they had been stowed away.  Then he pulled out a small, dark flag, with bits of skeleton painted on it, and hoisted it to the top-mast.