- Helen: My mother was very beautiful, wasn't she, Cap?
- Capt. January: Mighty pretty, Star, according to her pictures.
- Helen: We're awfully lucky, aren't we?
- Capt. January: Lucky?
- Helen: I'd never have known what my mother looked like if it wasn't for that trunk. Did you swim out to get it, too?
- Capt. January: No, it just washed ashore.
- Helen: How can anyone sleep in the deep?
- Capt. January: That's the long last sleep, Star.
- Helen: Does everyone have to die?
- Capt. January: Yes, everyone does.
- Helen: Even you and me?
- Capt. January: Yes, when the time comes.
- Helen: Do you think we'll make it 'til Christmas?
- Capt. January: Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if we did.
- Helen: Good morning, Mrs. Croft.
- The Widow Mrs. Eliza Croft: Good morning, Star. Is Captain January with you today?
- Helen: No, ma'am.
- The Widow Mrs. Eliza Croft: Well, do tell the dear captain that I asked after him. Don't forget, now.
- Helen: I will. I mean, I won't.
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: Who is that child?
- Mary: She's the adopted daughter of Captain January, the lighthouse keeper. Isn't she a pretty little thing?
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: Does she go to school?
- Mary: Well, no. You see, the former truant officer wasn't very strict.
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: That's why she's the former truant officer. You schoolteachers will find me strict enough.
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: You should be taken home and spanked! What kind of man is this Captain January to allow you to run around?
- Helen: Cap's the finest man in the whole world! See that lighthouse down there? Well, Cap owns it... He saved a million ships in his day.
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: You go right home and tell him I'm coming to have a talk with him.
- Helen: Yes, ma'am. I'll bet SHE can't spit a curve in the wind.
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: Don't be impudent!
- Helen: I didn't mean to be! Cap always tells me to be polite to old ladies.
- Helen: Why do I have to do this?
- Capt. January: All nice little girls sew samplers.
- Helen: Well, it doesn't seem like anything I'll need in a sea-faring life.
- Capt. January: That's where you're wrong, Star. A good sailor has to be able to steer a needle.
- Helen: It's a cake! Cap made himself!
- Capt. Nazro: Really? Well then I guess I'll just eat the candles!
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: There is a compulsory education law in this state, and this child is old enough.
- Helen: How can she know how old I am? We don't even know ourselves.
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: From what I've observed, this child is being brought up completely without control. She's rude and undisciplined, like a little heathen. Look at the clothes she wears. Not even a dress!
- Capt. January: What business is that of yours? Star is mine!
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: You forget that Star is adopted, Captain January. It's well within the power of the school authorities to have her taken away from you and placed in an institution.
- Capt. Nazro: Star can read writing and write reading better than any six-year-old on this coast.
- Capt. January: Any six-year-old? Why, there ain't no seven- or eight-year-old that knows as much as Star. I've been learning her from the two best books there is, The Bible and Bowditch.
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: Bowditch? A book on navigation? Fine reading for a child of six!
- Capt. Nazro: Any objections to The Bible?
- Capt. January: There ain't no better reading in the world than The Bible and Bowditch. They both learn you to steer a straight course.
- Capt. Nazro: Star doesn't belong to you, you know.
- Capt. January: Doesn't belong to me?
- Capt. Nazro: You just took her in without saying anything to anybody. You never even adopted her.
- Capt. January: She's more than adopted. She's a part of me.
- The Widow Mrs. Eliza Croft: The poor dear needs a mother's care. Nothing can take the place of a mother, except another mother.
- Helen: Can you stop polishing and help me study for my school examination?
- Capt. January: In a minute, honey. Ships and lives depend on this light being just so. Suppose this light had been out on the night you washed ashore, where would you be then?
- Helen: Asleep in the deep.
- Capt. January: What are the four Gospels?
- Helen: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
- Capt. January: Correct! Do you remember the story of the Prodigal Son?
- Helen: He came home, and the father said, "Bring me the fattest calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry."
- Capt. January: But not everyone was merry, Star. There was another son and some neighbors. Who was sorry that the Prodigal Son came home?
- Helen: The fattest calf!
- Capt. January: Now, listen, Star, you've just got to pass this examination. You've just got to. It may mean they'll try to take you away from me if you don't. Now, I don't want to make you nervous...
- Capt. Nazro: No, he don't want to make you nervous.
- Helen: I'll do my best, Cap. I'm not worried.
- Cyril Morgan: I'll bet you don't even know who discovered America.
- Helen: Was it a sailor?
- Cyril Morgan: I don't know. I guess so.
- Helen: Cap did!
- Cyril Morgan: He didn't do no such thing! Christopher Columbus discovered America, and I know when he discovered it, too... it was in 1492... you don't know NUTHIN!
- The Widow Mrs. Eliza Croft: Wouldn't you like me to live here, so I could cut'em all down to fit'cha?
- Helen: No, I'd rather grow up to fit the dresses.
- The Widow Mrs. Eliza Croft: Oh! You mean you wouldn't like me to live here?
- Helen: Well, I like you, but you see, I'm the lady of the house, and we couldn't have two ladies of the house.
- Capt. Nazro: Miss Morgan was right! You ain't fit to look after a child!
- Capt. January: What?
- Capt. Nazro: You ain't fit to look after nothing! Star ought to be taken away from you!
- Capt. Nazro: In two days, January will be out of a job, and that's just what old Hatchet-Face has been waiting for.
- Mary: Of course it is.
- Capt. Nazro: Do you think I'm doing the right thing in sending for these folks?
- Paul Roberts: You never did anything righter in your life.
- Capt. Nazro: I hate to think of what January will do when he finds out.
- Mary: Well, if someone doesn't come to take Star, Miss Morgan is going to have her way.
- Capt. Nazro: But I don't even know anything about these Masons except what I read in Star's mother's album. They may not even be relatives.
- Mary: Whoever they are, they're better for Star than an institution.
- Paul Roberts: Certainly any instituion Miss Morgan would pick out.
- Capt. Nazro: Miss Morgan is on her way here now with a deputy from Salem. You've got to beat it! You don't want them to take Star away, do you?
- Capt. January: I'm not running away!
- Capt. Nazro: Don't you understand? If they find you with Star, they'll take her away as sure as you're standing here!
- Helen: What are they going to do to me?
- Capt. Nazro: Don't be stubborn, January. You can fight later. In the meantime, take Star and hide out.
- Paul Roberts: Here comes Star! Come on, Star, we've been waiting for you.
- Helen: Can't now, Paul, I'm on government duty. Got a job yet?
- Paul Roberts: No, but I've been promised one as soon as the halibuts start running.
- Helen: I hope they start running soon.
- Paul Roberts: Well, you can't rush a halibut.
- Helen: Well, don't give up the ship.
- Ira J. Slocum, storekeeper: Better watch out, Star. One day she'll tie a tow rope onto January, and you'll lose him.
- Helen: Not while I'm in charge of the lighthouse. We need another case of brass polish. We need it right away.
- Ira J. Slocum, storekeeper: [holding out a jar of lollipops] Here, have one on the house. They're all the same size, I checked.
- Helen: I know, but the black ones last longer. Now don't forget about our special prize. You know I'm giving you all our trade.
- Ira J. Slocum, storekeeper: I won't forget.
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: Disreputable sailors, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves, teaching a child to behave this way!
- Helen: Don't be mad at them. They always have fun with me like this. Did you know that Captain Joe Ross can spit 15 feet in a 20-mile gale?
- [Captain Joe Ross smiles at Mrs. Morgan]
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: Indeed!
- Helen: And the skipper, the one with the accordion, once he killed three men with a table knife!
- Helen: Ooh, it's Captain Nazro!
- Capt. Nazro: Hello, honey.
- Capt. January: Can't I give a birthday party around here without you barging in?
- Capt. Nazro: Pipe down, you old caddywompus. I didn't come to see you. Come on out and see the birthday present I brung you, honey.
- [They go outside. Capt. Nazro has brought a crane for Star's birthday]
- Helen: [to the crane] Remember me?
- Capt. Nazro: Why should the crane remember you?
- Helen: Is it a crane? I thought it was a stork.
- Helen: You're going to invite Captain Nazro to stay for my party, aren't you?
- Capt. January: Well, I wasn't counting on it, but...
- Helen: Goody! I'll fix an extra place.
- Capt. Nazro: I'm here and I'm gonna stay for a while.
- Capt. January: Oh, you are, are you?
- Capt. Nazro: Yeah, I are. It's time I do some inspecting around this lighthouse.
- Capt. January: They must be daft in Washington to make you an inspector. You probably don't know the difference between a telescope and a tarbell!
- Capt. Nazro: The way you handle it, I guess there ain't any!
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: There seems to be some doubt about the child's age. You say she has the learning of a child of eight. Very well, we'll call her eight.
- Helen: Maybe I'm only six.
- Capt. January: I'll stand on eight.
- Deputy Sheriff: I've got an order here to produce that child before Judge Thompson.
- Capt. January: All right, when do you want her?
- Deputy Sheriff: Tomorrow afternoon at three.
- Capt. January: All right, we'll be there.
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: You take that child right now! Don't you understand he's trying to sneak her out of the jurisdiction of the court?
- Capt. Nazro: He's trying to do no such thing!
- Mrs. Agatha Mogan: Then why is he on this boat? Officer, you're responsible for the custody of the child!
- Deputy Sheriff: Maybe you're right. I can't take any chances.
- Helen: Oh, Cap, don't let them take me away!
- Capt. January: Let's see what the next question is. Name three animals that live in very cold countries.
- Helen: I know! Three bears and three seals.
- Capt. January: No, Star, they mean three different animals.
- Capt. January: Can you prove that heat causes things to expand?
- Helen: What's expand mean?
- Capt. January: Get bigger. Can you prove that heat makes things get bigger?
- Helen: Of course it makes things bigger. The days are longer in the summer, aren't they?
- Capt. Nazro: I guess that's the answer, all right.
- Capt. January: Have some more cider, Nazro. Pretty good for a fella who never had no book learning, huh?
- Capt. Nazro: What's book learning got to do with cider?
- Capt. January: I'm not talking about cider. I'm talking about me educating Star so good she jumped right into the third grade.
- Capt. Nazro: You educating her? You couldn't get into the third grade yourself! It was the things I learned her that put her through!
- Capt. January: Oh, shut your mouth, you old gooseneck. Let's drink to Star.
- Capt. Nazro: You don't think I'd drink to you, you blubbering old blowfish. To Star!
- Capt. Nazro: To Star!