A Little Gipsy Lass by Gordon Stables

The baby sealkin became a great pet on board and a kind of bond of union between Ben and Lotty. This sailor wasn't much over sixteen, just young enough still to delight in a game of make-believe. So he was papa and Lotty was mamma to young Norlans. And without a doubt, Norlans was the sweetest and the prettiest and the best-behaved baby that ever lived, and boy and girl nursed it time about -- that is, when Ben's watch wasn't on deck Norlans's fur was so long that it had to have a bib when it was being fed. There wasn't a cow on board, but there were lots of condensed milk and gulls' eggs, and a sop was made of these, which his little lordship condescended to suck up as long as Lotty kept a finger in his mouth and his nose in the bowl, but no longer. But he also had fresh fish, for they got becalmed on a sandbank, which no doubt had been an island once upon a time in the world's history, and Norlans's daddy got out his lines, and, baiting his hooks with only little tufts of gulls' white feathers, soon caught a tubful. The small ones were all kept alive to feed Norlans, and the pretty mite seemed to grow in strength and even size every day after this.

As the captain's wife was fond of pets of all kinds she made no objection to Lotty's taking Norlans down to the saloon and to the stateroom or sleeping-cabin every night. The latter was occupied now only by Mrs Skipper -- as the men called her -- and our heroine, Ben having been banished forwards, so that the mate had his bunk, and Paterson had the mate's cabin.