Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.

“Byron wrote of a woman, of course, but the words seem to fit our boat as well, do they not? Look at her, Abner! What do you think?”

Abner Marsh didn’t quite know what to think; your average steamboatman didn’t go around spouting poetry, and he didn’t know what to say to one who did. “Very interesting, Joshua,” was all he managed.

“What shall we name her?” York asked, his eyes still fixed on the boat, and a slight smile on his face. “Does the poem suggest anything?”

Marsh frowned. “We’re not going to name her after any gimp Britisher, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said gruffly.

“No,” said York, “I wasn’t suggesting that. I had in mind something like Dark Lady, or-”

“I had somethin’ in mind myself,” Marsh said. “We’re Fevre River Packets, after all, and this boat is all I ever dreamed come true.” He lifted his hickory stick and pointed at the wheelhouse. “We’ll put it right there, big blue and silver letters, real fancy. Fevre Dream. ”He smiled. “ Fevre Dream against the Eclipse, they’ll talk about that race till all of us are dead.”

For a moment, something strange and haunted moved in Joshua York’s gray eyes. Then it was gone as swiftly as it had come. “Fevre Dream,” he said. “Don’t you think that choice a bit… oh, ominous? It suggests sickness to me, fever and death and twisted visions. Dreams that… dreams that should not be dreamed, Abner.”

Marsh frowned. “I don’t know about that. I like it.”

“Will people ride in a boat with such a name? Steamboats have been known to carry typhoid and yellow fever. Do we wish to remind them of such things?”

“They rode my Sweet Fevre, ”Marsh said. “They ride the War Eagle, and the Ghost, even boats named after Red Indians. They’d ride her.”

The gaunt, pale one named Simon said something then, in a voice that rasped like a rusty saw and a language strange to Marsh, though it was not the one Smith and Brown babbled in. York heard him and his face took on a thoughtful cast, though it still seemed troubled. “Fevre Dream,” he said again. “I had hoped for a-a healthier name, but Simon has made a point to me. Have your way then, Abner. The Fevre Dream she is.”