– Okay, old man. Get ready! Tomorrow either two days later, we go out to sea.
He easily got up from his chair , which creaked piteously without listening to the grateful words of the old man, gently stroked Uncle Egor on the dry shoulder, not daring to kiss him on the hard and sunken unshaven cheek, since the old man did not like such a manifestation of feelings, calling them "womanish" and unworthy of a sailor. Then he walked quickly from the terrace. Only when he stepped onto the stairs leading down from the terrace to the foot of the hill on which the house was built, he looked back for a moment – and if the old sailor could see, he would have guessed the unspoken word "goodbye" by his trembling lips. But he did not see and even more he couldn’t hear what wasn’t spoken out loudly.
Nor did the old man see that two hours later a ship with the beautiful and proud outfit lines was leaving the port, the only one of the those many ships that had stuck at the berths waiting for good weather. The old sailor was asleep. He was dreaming about the sea… And that was just him who really knew it best of all along the whole coast.
