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diff --git a/23001-0.txt b/23001-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfac499 --- /dev/null +++ b/23001-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1495 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of By The Sea, by Heman White Chaplin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: By The Sea + 1887 + +Author: Heman White Chaplin + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23001] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BY THE SEA *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +BY THE SEA + +1887 + +By Heman White Chaplin + + + + +I. + +On the southeastern coast of Massachusetts is a small village with +which I was once familiarly acquainted. It differs little in its general +aspect from other hamlets scattered along that shore. It has its one +long, straggling street, plain and homelike, from which at two or three +different points a winding lane leads off and ends abruptly in the +water. + +Fifty years ago the village had a business activity of its own. There +still remain the vestiges of a wharf at a point where once was a +hammering ship-yard. Here and there, in bare fields along the sea, +are the ruins of vats and windmills,--picturesque remains of ancient +salt-works. + +There is no visible sign left now of the noisy life of the ship-yards, +except a marble stone beneath a willow in the burying-ground on the +hill, which laments the untimely death of a youth of nineteen, killed in +1830 in the launching of a brig. But traces of the salt-works everywhere +remain, in frequent sheds and small barns which are wet and dry, as +the saying is, all the time, and will not hold paint. They are built of +salt-boards. + +There were a good many of the people of the village and its adjoining +country who interested me very greatly. I am going to tell you a simple +event which happened in one of its families, deeply affecting its little +history. + +James Parsons was a man perhaps sixty years of age, strongly built, +gray-haired, cleanshaven except for the conventional seaman's fringe of +beard below the chin, and always exquisitely neat. Whether you met him +in his best suit, on Sunday morning, or in his old clothes, going to +his oyster-beds or his cranberry-marsh, it was always the same. He was +usually in his shirt-sleeves in summer. His white cotton shirt, with +its easy collar and wristbands, seemed always to have just come from the +ironing-board. “It ain't no trouble at all to keep James clean,” I have +heard Mrs. Parsons say, in her funny little way; “he picks his way round +for all the world just like a pussycat, and never gets no spots on him, +nowhere.” + +You saw at once, upon the slightest acquaintance with James, that while +he was of the same general civilization as his neighbors, he was of +a different type. In his narrowness, there was a peculiar breadth and +vigor which characterized him. He had about him the atmosphere of a +wider ocean. + +His early reminiscences were all of that picturesque and adventurous +life which prevailed along our coasts to within forty years, and his +conversation was suggestive of it He held a silver medal from the Humane +Society for conspicuous bravery in the rescue of the crew of a ship +stranded in winter in a storm of sleet off Post Hill Bar. He had a +war-hatchet, for which he had negotiated face to face with a naked +cannibal in the South Sea. He was familiar with the Hoogly. + +His language savored always of the sea. His hens “turned in,” at night. +He was full of sayings and formulas of a maritime nature; there was +one which always seemed to me to have something of a weird and mystic +character: “South moon brings high water on Coast Island Bar.” In +describing the transactions of domestic life, he used words more +properly applicable to the movements of large ships. He would speak of a +saucepan as if it weighed a hundred tons. He never tossed or threw even +the slightest object; he hove it. “Why, father!” said Mrs. Parsons, +surprised at seeing him for a moment untidy; “what have you ben doing? +Your boots and trousers-legs is all white!” “Yes,” said Mr. Parsons, +apologetically, looking down upon his dusty garments, “I just took that +bucket of ashes and hove 'em into the henhouse.” + +The word “heave,” in fact, was always upon his tongue. It applied to +everything. “How was this road straightened out?” I asked him one day; +“did the town vote to do it?” “No, no,” he said quickly; “there was n't +never no vote. The se-lec'men just come along one day, and got us all +together, and hove in and hove out; and we altered our fences to suit.” + +I remember hearing him testify as a witness to a will. It appeared +that the testator was sick in bed when he signed the instrument. He was +suffering greatly, and when he was to sign, it was necessary to lift him +with the ex-tremest care, to turn him to the light-stand. “State what +was done next,” the lawyer asked of James. “Captain Frost was laying on +his left side,” said James. “Two of us took a holt of him and rolled him +over.” + +He had probably not the least suspicion that his language had a maritime +flavor. I asked him one night, as we coasted along toward home, “What do +seafaring men call the track of light that the moon makes on the water? +They must have some name for it” “No, no,” he said, “they don't have no +name for it; they just call it 'the wake of the moon.'” + +James's learning had been chiefly gained from the outside world and not +from books. I have heard him lay it down as a fact that the word “Bible” + had its etymology from the word “by-bill” (hand-bill). “It was writ,” + he said, “in small parcels, and they was passed around by them that writ +'em, like by-bills; and so when they hove it all into one, they called +it the Bible.'” + +But while James had little learning himself, he appreciated it highly in +others. I had occasion to ask him once why it was that the son of one +of his neighbors, in closing up his father's estate, had not settled his +accounts regularly in the probate court. “Oh, I know how that was,” he +replied; “he settled 'em the other way. You see, he went to the college +at Woonsocket, and he learned there how to settle accounts the other +way: and that's the way he settled 'em.” And then he added, “When Alvin +left the college, they giv' him a book that tells how to do all kinds +of business, and what you want to do so's to make money; and Alvin has +always followed them rules. The consequence is, he's made money, and +what he 's made, he 's kep' it. I suppose he's worth not less than +sixteen hundred dollars.” + +Sometimes he would venture a remark of a gallant nature. “They don't +generally git the lights in the hall so as to suit me,” he once said. +“I don't want it too light, because then it hurts my eyes; but I want it +light enough so as 't I can see the women!” + +James was a large, strong man, but Mrs. Parsons, although she was little +and slight, and was always ailing, constantly assumed the rôle of her +husband's nurse and protector, not only in household matters, but in +other affairs of life. Whenever she had visitors,--and she and James +were hospitable in the extreme,--she was pretty sure to end up, sooner +or later, if James were present, with some droll criticism of him, as +much to his delight as to hers. + +James sometimes liked to affect a certain harshness of demeanor; but the +disguise was a transparent one. How well do I remember the time--oh, +so long ago!--when for some reason or other I happened to have his boat +instead of my own, one day, with one of the boys of the village, to go +to Matamet, twelve miles off, to visit certain lobster-pots which we had +set. We were delayed there by breaking our boom, in jibing. We should +have been at home at noon; at seven in the evening we were not yet in +sight. When we got in, rather crestfallen at our disaster, particularly +as the boat was wanted for the next day, James met us at the pier. We +were boys then, and his tongue was free. As he stood there on the shore, +bare-headed, hastily summoned from his house, with his hair blowing in +the wind, waving his hands and addressing first us and then a knot of +men who stood smoking by, no words of censure were too harsh, no +comment on our carelessness too cutting, no laments too keen over the +irreparable loss of that particular boom. The next time I could take my +own boat, if I were going to get cast away. And I remember well how he +ended his tirade. “I did n't care nothing about you two,” he said. “If +you want to git drownded, git drownded; it ain't nothing to me. All I +was afraid of was that you 'd gone and capsized my boat, and would +n't never turn up to tell where you sunk her. But as for you--” and he +laughed a laugh of heartless indifference. + +But ten minutes later, and right before his face, at his own front gate, +Mrs. Parsons betrayed him. “I never see father so worried,” she said, +“sence the time he heard about Thomas; why, he 's spent the whole +afternoon as nervous as a hawk, going up on the hill with his +spy-glass; and I don't feel so sure but what he was crying. He said he +did n't care nothing about the boat,--'What 's that old boat!' says he; +but if you boys was drownded out of her, he would n't never git over +it.” At which James, being so unmasked, laughed in a shamefaced way, +and shook us by the shoulders. He had a son who carried on some sort +of half-maritime business on one of the wharves, in the city, and lived +over his shop. When James went at intervals to visit him, he made his +way at once from the railway station to the nearest wharf; then he +followed the line of the water around to the shop. Where jib-booms +project out over the sidewalk, one feels so thoroughly at home! From the +shop he would make short adventurous excursions up Commercial Street and +State Street, sometimes going no farther than the nautical-instrument +store on the corner of Broad Street, sometimes venturing to Washington +Street, or even moving for a short distance up or down in the current of +that gay thoroughfare. He loved to comment satirically on the city, with +a broad humorous sense of his own strangeness there. “The city folks +don't seem to have nothing to do,” he said. “They seem to be all out, +walking up and down the streets. Come noon, I thought there'd be some +let-up for dinner; but they did n't seem to want nothing to eat; they +kep' right on walking.” + +I must not leave James Parsons without telling you of two whale's teeth +which stand on his parlor mantel-piece; he ornamented them himself, +copying the designs from cheap foreign prints. One of them is what he +calls “the meeting-house.” It is the high altar of the Cathedral of +Seville. On the other is “the wild-beast tamer.” A man with a feeble, +wishy-washy expression holds by each hand a fierce, but subjugated +tiger. His legs dangle loosely in the air. There is nothing to suggest +what upholds him in his mighty contest. + + + + +II. + +Now we must turn from James Parsons to a man of a different type, or +rather of a different variety of the same type; for they descend +alike from original founders of the town, and, like most of their +fellow-townsmen, are both of unqualified Pilgrim stock. + +To get to Captain Joseph Pelham's house, you have to drive along a range +of hills for some miles, skirting the sea; then you come, half-way, to a +bright modern village with trees along the main street, with houses and +fences kept painted up, for the most part, but here and there relieved +by an unpainted dwelling of a past generation. + +Here you have an option. You may either pursue your road through the +high-lying prosperous street, with peeps of salt water to the right, +or you may turn sharply off at a little store and descend to the lower +road. It is always a struggle to choose. + +The road to the beach descends a sharp, gravelly hill, and crosses a +bridge. Then you come out on a waste of salt-marsh, threaded by the +creek, broken by wild, fantastic sand-hills, grown over by beach-grass +which will cut your fingers like a knife. You drive close along +the white, precipitous beach; you pass the long, shaky pier, with +half-decayed fish-houses at the other end, and picturesque heaps of +fish-cars, seines, and barrels. Then the road, following the shore a +little longer, climbs the hill and enters the woods. Two miles more and +you come out to fields with mossy fences, and occasional houses. + +The houses begin to be more frequent. All at once you enter the main +street of W------. + +In a moment you see that you have come into a new atmosphere. There is a +large modern church among the older ones. There are large, fine houses, +some old-fashioned, others new. By some miraculous intervention Queen +Anne has not as yet made her appearance. There are handsome, well-filled +stores, going into no little refinement in stock. There is, of course, +a small brick library, built by the bounty of a New Yorker who was born +here. There is a brick national bank, and a face brick block occupied +above by Freemasons, orders of Red Men, Knights Templars, and the Pool +of Siloam Lodge, I. O. O. F., and below by a savings bank and a local +marine insurance company. + +It is here that we shall find Captain Joseph Pelham. If a stranger has +occasion to inquire for the leading men of the place he is always first +referred to him. It is he who heads every list and is the chairman +of every meeting. When a certain public man, commanding but a small +following here, appeared, upon his campaign tour, and found no one +to escort him to the platform and preside, so that he was obliged to +justify his appearance here by the Scripture passage, “They that are +whole need not a physician, but they that are sick;” at the moment +of entering the hall, closely packed with curious opponents, disposed +perhaps to be derisive when the situation for the visitor was +embarrassing in the extreme,--it was Captain Joseph Pelham who, though +the bitterest opponent of them all, rose from his seat, gave the speaker +his arm, escorted him to the platform, presented him with grave courtesy +to the audience, and sat beside him through the entire discourse. + +While Captain Pelham continued to go to sea, and after that, until he +was made president of the insurance company, he lived a mile or two out +of the town, in a house he had inherited. It is picturesquely situated, +on a bare hill, with a wide view of the inland and the ocean. As +you look down from its south windows, the cluster of houses nestling +together at the shore below stand sharply out against the water. It is +one of those white houses common in our older towns,--two-storied, long +on the street, with the front door in the middle. Of the interior it is +enough to say that its owner had sailed for thirty years to Hong-Kong, +Calcutta and Madras. It had a prevailing odor of teak and lacquer. In +the front hall was a vast china cane-holder; a turretted Calcutta hat +hung on the hat-tree; a heavy, varnished Chinese umbrella stood in a +corner; a long and handsome settee from Java stood against the wall. +In the parlors, on either hand, were Chinese tables shutting up like +telescopes, elaborate rattan chairs of different kinds, and numberless +other things of this sort, which had plainly been honestly come by, and +not bought. + +Then, if you met the Captain's favor, he would show you with becoming +pride some family relics, and tell you about them. They came mostly +from his paternal grandfather, who was a shipmaster too, had commanded a +privateer in the Revolution, and made a fortune. There were a number +of pieces of handsome furniture,--these you could see for yourself What +would be shown you, with a half-diffident air, would be: a silver mug; +two Revere tablespoons; a few tiny teaspoons marked F.; a handsome sword +and scabbard; a yellow satin waistcoat and small-clothes; portraits, +not artistic, but effective, of his grandfather, in a velvet coat and +knee-breeches, with a long spyglass in his hand, and of his grandmother, +a strong, matter-of-fact looking woman, handsomely dressed. + +But the thing which the Captain secretly treasured most, but brought out +last, was his grandmother's Dutch Bible. It is a curious old book; you +can see it still if you wish. It has an elaborate frontispiece. Sixteen +cuts of leading incidents in Scripture history conduct you by gentle +stages, from Eden, through the offering of Isaac, to the close of the +Evangelists, and surround Dr. Martin Luther, who, in a gown, holds back +the curtains of a pillared alcove, to show you, through two windows, an +Old and a New Testament landscape, and a lady sitting beneath a canopy, +with an open volume. The covers are of thick bevelled board covered with +leather. There was once a heavy clasp. The edges are richly gilded, and +figures are pricked in the gilding. It is very handsomely printed. +It was in the possession, in 1760, of a young New England girl, the +Captain's grandmother. There is a story about it,--a story too long to +tell here. Suffice it to say that the Captain's ancestor, who settled +early in New England, came from Leyden shortly after Mr. John Robinson. +A hundred years later and more, in the oddest way, an acquaintance +sprang up with certain Dutch connections, and in the course of it this +Bible, then new and elegant, found its way over the sea as a gift to +young Mistress Preston. In New England, and as a relic of the early +ties of our people with Holland, momentarily renewed after a century had +passed away, it is probably unique. It was a last farewell from Holland +to her English children, before she parted company with them forever. + +I have told you about this house, as I recall it, although Captain +Pelham had now ceased to live there, because it was there alone that he +seemed completely at home. Furnished as it was from the four quarters +of the globe, everything seemed to fit in with his ways. He supplemented +the Chinese tables, and they supplemented him. But when he ceased to +go to sea, in late middle life, and settled down at home upon his +competency, and began a little later to become interested in public +matters; when he was at last made president of the insurance company, +a director in the bank, and a trustee in the savings bank, and when +affairs were left more and more to his control, it became convenient for +him to get into town; and his wife and daughter were perhaps ambitious +for the change. + +So he had sold his house by the sea, and had bought a large and somewhat +pretentious one on the main street, with a cast-iron summer arbor, and +a bay-window closed in for a conservatory. He had furnished it from the +city with new Brussels carpet, with a parlor set, a sitting-room set, +a dining-room set, and chamber sets; and the antique things which had +given his former home an air of charming picturesqueness were for the +most part tucked away in unnoticed corners. + +The Captain never seemed to me to have become quite naturalized in his +new home. He never belonged to the furniture, or the furniture to him. +The place where you saw him best in these later days was in the office +of his insurance company, or in the little business-room of one of the +banks, surrounded by a knot of more substantial townsmen, or talking +patiently with some small farmer or seafaring man seeking for insurance +or a loan. One of the most marked features of his character was a +certain patience and considerateness which made all borrowers apply by +preference to him. He would sit down at his little table with a plain +man whose affairs were in disorder, and listen with close attention +to his application for a loan. Somehow the man would find himself +disclosing all the particulars of his distress. Then Captain Pelham, in +his quiet way, would go over the whole matter with him; would plan +with him on his concerns; would try to see if it were not possible to +postpone a little the payment of debts and to hasten the collection of +claims; to get a part of the money for a short time from a son in Boston +or a married daughter in New Bedford; and so, by pulling and hauling, to +weather the Cape. + +I must say a word about his position in town matters. He had been at sea +the greater part of the time from sixteen to fifty-two. During that time +he had had absolutely no concern with political affairs. He had never +voted: for he had never, as it had happened, been ashore at the time of +an election. And yet before he had been at home six years he was one +of the selectmen of the town and overseer of the poor, and had +become familiar with the details of Massachusetts town government, +superficially so simple, in fact so complex. It was a large town, of no +small wealth. Lying as it did along the seaboard, where havoc was always +being made by disasters of the sea, there was not only a larger number +than in an inland town of persons actually quartered in the poorhouse, +but there were many broken families who had to be helped in their own +homes. And it was to me an interesting fact that in dealing with two +score households of this class, Captain Pel-ham, who had spent most of +his time at sea, was able to display the utmost tact and judgment. He +applied to their affairs that same plain kindliness and sound sense +which he showed in the matter of discounts at the bank. + +While the friendships of Captain Pelham were chiefly in his own town, +his acquaintance was not confined to it. In his own quiet, unpretending +way he was something of a man of the world. He was known in the marine +insurance offices in the large cities. He had been familiar all his +life with large affairs; he had commanded valuable ships, loaded with +fortunes in teas and silks, in the days when an India captain was a +merchant. + + + + +III. + +You will ask me why it is that I have been telling you about these men, +and what it is that connects them. + +It was now ten years since Captain Pelham's only son, himself at +twenty-two the master of a vessel, had married a daughter of James +Parsons,--a tall, impulsive, and warm-hearted girl,--one of those girls +to whom children always cling. Both James Parsons's daughters had proved +attractive and had married well. It had been a disappointment in Captain +Pelham's household, perhaps, that this son, their especial pride, should +not have married into one of the wealthy families in his own village. At +first there had been a little visiting to and fro; it had lasted but a +little time, and then the two households had settled down, as the way is +in the country, to follow each its own natural course of living. George +Pelham's wife had always lived in an odd little house, all doors and +windows, near by her father, in her native village. + +It was from Porto Cabello that that message came,--yellow fever--a short +sickness--a burial in a stranger's grave. George Pelham's wife had been +for two or three years of less than her usual strength. It was not long +after that news came,--came so suddenly, with no warning,--that she +began to fade away; and after ten months she died. + +I remember seeing her a week or two before her death. Her bed had +been set up in her little parlor for the convenience of those who were +attending upon her. She lay on her back, bolstered up. The paleness of +her face was intensified by her coal-black hair, lying back heavy on +the pillow. Her hands were thin and transparent, and I remember well the +straining look in her eyes as she talked with me about the boy whom she +was going to leave. + +She was living, as I have said, close by her father. It was natural that +in the last few days of her illness the child should be taken to her +father's house, and when she died and the funeral was over, it was there +that he returned. + +Picture now to yourself a boy toward nine years old, symmetrically made, +firm and hard. His head is round, his features are good, his hair is +fine and lies down close. He is clothed in a neat print jacket, with +a collar and a little handkerchief at the neck, and a pair of short +trousers buttoned on to the jacket. He is barefoot. He is tanned but not +burnt. His complexion is of a rich dark brown. He is always fresh and +clean. But the great charm about him is the expression of infinite fun +and mirth that is always upon his face. Never for a moment while he is +awake is his face still. Always the same, yet always shifting, with a +thousand varying shades of roguish joy. Quick, bright, full of boyish +repartee, full of shouts and laughter. And the same incessant life which +plays upon his face shows itself in every movement of his limbs. Never +for a moment is he still unless he has some work upon his hands. He has +his little routine of tasks, regularly assigned, which he goes through +with the most amusing good-humor and attention. It is his duty to see +that the skiffs are not jammed under the wharf on the rising tide; to +sweep out the “Annie” when she comes in, and to set her cabin to rights; +to set away the dishes after meals, and to feed the chickens. Aside from +a few such tasks, his time in summer is his own. The rest of the year he +goes to the “primary,” and serves to keep the whole room in a state of +mirth. He has the happy gift that to put every one in high spirits he +has only to be present. Such an incessant flow of life you rarely see. +His manners are good, and he comes honestly by them. + +There is an amusing union in him of the baby and the man. While the +children of his age at the summer hotel walk about for the most part +with their nurses, he is turned loose upon the shore, and has been, +from his cradle. He can dive and swim and paddle and float and “go +steamboat.” He can row a boat that is not too heavy, and up to the limit +of his strength he can steer a sail-boat with substantial skill. He +knows the currents, the tides, and the shoals about his shore, and the +nearer landmarks. He knows that to find the threadlike entrance to +the bay you bring the flag-staff over Cart-wright's barn. He has vague +theories of his own as to the annual shifting of the channel. He knows +where to take the city children to look for tinkle-shells and mussels. +He knows what winds bring in the scallops from their beds. He knows +where to dig for clams, and where to tread for quahaugs without +disturbing the oysters. He has a good deal of fragmentary lore of the +sea. + +Every morning you will hear his cry, a sort of yodel, or bird-call, +peculiar to him, with which he bursts forth upon the world. Then you +will hear, perhaps, loud peals of laughter at something that has excited +his sense of the absurd,--contagious laughter, full of innocent fun. + +Then he will appear, perhaps, with his wooden dinner-bucket,--he is +going off with his grandfather for the day,--and will yodel to the old +man as a signal to make haste. Then you will hear him consulting with +some one upon the weather. + +All this time he will be going; through various evolutions, swinging in +the hammock, sitting on the fence, opening his bucket to show you what +he has to eat, closing the bucket and sitting down upon the cover, +or turning somersaults upon the grass. Then he will encamp under an +apple-tree to wait until his grandfather appears, enlivening the time by +a score of minute excursions after hens and cats. Then he will go into +the house again, and rock while the old man finishes his coffee, sure +of a greeting, confident in a sense of entire good-fellowship, until +the meal is finished, and James Parsons is ready to take his coat and +a red-bladed oar, and set out. Then the boy is like a setter off for +a walk,--all sorts of whimsical expressions in his face, of absolute +delight; every form of extravagance in his bearing. The only trouble +is, one has to laugh too much; but with all this, something so manly, so +companionable. + +He is no little of a philosopher in his way. He has been a great deal +with older people, and has caught the habit of discussion of affairs, or +rather, perhaps, of unconsciously reflecting forth discussions which he +has heard. He has an infinite curiosity upon all matters of human life. +He likes, within limits, to discuss character. + +In the boat his chief delights are to talk, to eat cookies, and to +steer. When it is not blowing too hard for him to stand at the tiller, +he will steer for an hour together, watching with the most constant care +the trembling of the leach. + +It makes no difference to him at what hour he returns,--from oystering +or from the cranberry-bog. If it is in the middle of the afternoon, good +and well. Instantly upon landing he will collect a troop of urchins; in +an incredibly short space of time there will be a heap of little clothes +upon the bank; in a moment a procession of small naked figures will go +running down to the wharf, diving, one after the other. If distance +or tide or a calm keeps him out late, so much the better. In that case +there is the romance of coasting along the shore by night; of counting +and distinguishing the lights; of guessing the nearness to land from the +dull roar of the sea breaking on the beach. “Don't you think,” he will +sometimes say, “that we are nearer shore than we think we are?” + +It is amusing sometimes, on a distant voyage of fifteen or twenty miles, +after seed oysters, when a landing is made at some little port, to see +him drop the mariner at once and become a child, with a burning +desire to find a shop where he can buy animal-crackers. Finding such +a place,--and usually it is not difficult,--he will lay in a supply of +lions and tigers, and then go marching about with great delight, with +mockery in his eyes, keenly appreciating the satire involved in eating +the head off a cooky lion, incapable of resistance. + +No picture of Joe would be complete which left out his dog. Kit was a +black, fine-haired creature, smaller than a collie, but of much the same +gentle disposition,--a present from Captain Pelham. When Kit was first +presented to the boy he domesticated himself at once, and in a week it +was impossible to tell, from his relations with the household, which was +boy and which was dog. They were both boys and they were both dogs. +Kit had an unqualified sense of being at home, and of being beloved +and indispensable. It was long before he became a sailor. When, at the +outset, it was attempted to make a man of him by taking him when they +went out to fish, the failure seemed to be complete. He was a little +sea-sick. Then he was sad, and sighed and groaned as dogs never do on +shore. He would not lie still, but was nervous and feverish. Once he +leaped out of the boat and made for shore, and had to be pursued and +rescued, exhausted and half-drowned. Still, whenever he had to be left +at home, it was a struggle every time to reconcile him and leave him. +Once he pursued a boat which he mistook for James's along the shore of +the bay, half down to Benson's Narrows, got involved in the creeks which +the tide was beginning to fill, and had to be brought ingloriously home +by a farmer, made fast on the top of a load of sweet, salt hay. + +He would tease like a child to be allowed to go. He would listen with +an unsatisfied and appealing look while Joe, with an exuberant but +regretful air, explained to him in detail the reasons which made it +impossible for him to go. But in a few months, as the dog grew older, +he prevailed, and although he would generally retire into the shelter of +the cabin, he was nevertheless the boy's almost inseparable companion +on the water as on the shore. The relation between the two was always +touching. It evidently never crossed the dog's mind that he was not a +younger brother. + +Now, to complete the picture of James Par-sons's household, add in this +boy; for while it is but just now that he is strictly of it, he has been +for years its mirth and life. + +I remember that quiet household before it knew him,--cosey, homelike, +with a pervading air even then of genial humor, but with long hours of +silence and repose,--geraniums and the click of knitting-needles in the +sitting-room; faint odors of a fragrant pipe from the shed kitchen; no +stir of boisterous fun, except when some bronzed, solemn joker, with his +wife, came in for a formal call, and solemnity gave way, by a gradual +descent, to merriment. Joe had given no new departure, only an impulse. +“James used to behave himself quite well,” Mrs. Parsons would say, +archly raising her eyebrows, “before Joe's time; but now there 's two +boys of 'em together, and the one as bad as the other, and I can't do +nothing with 'em. And then,”--with a mock gesture of despair,--“that +dog!” + + + + +IV. + +While Joe's mother was lying ill, and after it had become certain +that she would soon leave this world forever, the question had been +freely-discussed as to what her boy's future should be. In Captain +Joseph Pelham's mind there was only-one answer to this question,--that +the lad should come to him. He bore the Captain's name; he represented +the Captain's son; he should take a place now in the Captain's home. + +It was now about three weeks since Joe's mother had been buried. The +stone had not yet been cut and set over her grave. But the Captain +thought it time to drive over to James Parsons's and take the boy. That +James would make any serious opposition perhaps never entered his +mind. It was a bright, charming afternoon; with his shining horse, in a +bright, well-varnished buggy, the Captain drove over the seven miles of +winding roads through the woods, and along the sea, to the village where +James Parsons lived. He tied his horse to the hitching-post in front of +the broad cottage house, went down the path to the L door, knocked, and +went in. + +James was sitting in a large room which served in winter as a kitchen +and in summer as a sort of sitting-room, smoking a pipe and gazing +vacantly into the pine-branches in the open fireplace before him. He had +been out all day on his marsh, but he had been home a couple of hours. +His wife--kindly soul--received Captain Pelham at the door, wiping her +hands upon her apron, and modestly showed him into the sitting-room; +then she retired to her tasks in the shed kitchen. She moved about +mechanically for a moment; then she ran hastily out into the lean-to +wood-shed, shut the door behind her, sat down on the worn floor where +it gives way with a step to the floor of earth by the wood-pile, hid her +face in her apron, and burst into tears. + +Joe was at the wharf with his comrades playing at war. + +Now, if there ever was a hospitable man,--a man who gave a welcome,--a +rough but merry welcome to every one who entered his doors, it was +James Parsons. He had a homely, jocose saying that you must either +make yourself at home or go home. But on this occasion he rose with a +somewhat forced and awkward air, laid his pipe down on the mantel-piece, +and nodded to the Captain with an air of embarrassed inquiry. Then he +bethought himself, and asked the Captain to sit down. The Captain took +the nearest chair, beside the table, where Mrs. Parsons had lately been +sitting at her work. James's chair was directly opposite. The table was +between them. + +James rose and went to the mantel-piece, scratched a match upon his +boot-heel, and undertook to light his pipe. It did not light; he did not +notice it, but put the pipe in his mouth as if it were lighted. + +It occurred to Captain Pelham now, for the first time, absorbed as he +had been with exclusive thoughts of the boy, that he should first say +something to this old man about the daughter whom he had lost: and he +made some expressions of sympathy. The old man nodded, but said nothing. + +There was silence for two or three minutes. + +The subject in order now was inevitably the boy. Captain Pelham opened +his lips to claim him; but, almost to his own surprise, he found himself +making some common remark about the affairs of the neighborhood. It came +in harsh and forced, as if it were a fragment of conversation floated in +by the breeze from the street outside. Then the Captain waited a moment, +looking out of the window. + +James took his pipe from his mouth and leaned his elbows on the table. +“Why don't you go take him?” he suddenly said: “he's probably down to +the wharf. Ef you have got the claim to him, why don't you go take him? +You 've got your team here,--drive right down there and put him in and +drive off; if you 've got the right to him, why don't you go take him? +But ef you 've come for my consent, you can set there till the chair +rots beneath you.” + +With this, James rose and took the felt hat which was lying by him on +the table, and saying not another word, went out of the door. He went +down to the shore, and affected to busy himself with his boat. + +There was nothing for Captain Pelham to do but to take his hat, untie +his horse, and drive home. + +The Captain well knew that nobody in the world had a legal right to the +child until a guardian should be appointed. A plain and simple path was +open before him: it was his only path. James Parsons had proved wilful +and wrong-headed; there was nothing now but to take out letters as +guardian of the boy. Then James would acquiesce without a word. + +Immediately after breakfast the Captain went down the street. He opened +his letters and attended to the first routine of business; then he went +across the way and up a flight of stairs to a lawyer's office. + +If you had happened to read the county papers at about this time, you +would have seen among the legal notices two petitions, identical in +form,--the one by Joseph Pelham, the other by James Parsons,--each +applying for guardianship of Joseph Pelham, the younger of that name, +with an order upon each petition for all persons interested to come +in on the first Tuesday of the following month and show cause why the +petitioner's demand should not be granted. + +The county court-house was a new brick building, of modest size, fifteen +miles from W------, and twenty miles from the village where James +Parsons lived. + +There were fifteen or twenty people from different towns in attendance +when the court opened on the important first Tuesday. As one after +another transacted his affairs and went away, others would come in. +Three or four lawyers sat at tables talking with clients, or stood +about the judge's desk. There was a sprinkling of women in new mourning. +Printed papers, filled out with names and dates,--petitions and +bonds and executors' accounts,--were being handed in to the judge and +receiving his signature of approval. + +The routine business was transacted first. It was almost noon when the +judge was at last free to attend to contested matters. There was a small +audience by that time,--only ten or a dozen people, some of whom were +waiting for train-time, while others, who had come upon their own +affairs, lingered now from curiosity. + +The judge was a tall, spare, old-fashioned man; he had held the office +for above thirty years. He was a man of much native force, of sound +learning within the range of his judicial duties, and of strong +common-sense. He was often employed by Captain Pelham in his own +affairs, and more particularly in bank and insurance matters,--for the +probate judges are free to practise at the bar in matters not connected +with their judicial duties,--and Captain Pelham had always retained +him in important cases as counsel for the town. He had a large +practice throughout the county; he knew its people, their ideas, their +traditions, and their feelings. He understood their social organization +to the core. + +“Now,” said the judge, laying aside some papers upon which he had been +writing, and taking off his glasses, “we will take up the two petitions +for guardianship of Joseph Pelham.” + +Captain Pelham and the lawyer whom he had employed took seats at a small +table before the judge; James Parsons timidly took a seat at another. +His petition had been filled out for him by one of his neighbors: he had +no counsel. + +Captain Pelham's lawyer rose; he had been impressed by the Captain with +the importance of the matter, and he was about to make a formal opening. +But the judge interrupted him. “I think,” he said, “that we may assume +that I know in a general way about these two petitioners. I shall +assume, unless something is shown to the contrary, that they are both +men of respectable character, and have proper homes for a boy to grow up +in. And I suppose there is no controversy that Captain Pelham is a man +of some considerable means, and that the other petitioner is a man of +small property. + +“Now,” he went on, leaning forward with his elbow on his desk, and +gently waving his glasses with his right hand, “did the father of this +boy ever express any wish as to what should be done with him in case his +mother should die?” Nobody answered. “It would be of no legal effect,” + he said, “but it would have weight with me. Now, is there any evidence +as to what his mother wanted? A boy's mother can tell best about these +things, if she is a sensible woman. Mr. Baker,” he said to Captain +Pelham's lawyer, “have you any evidence as to what his mother wanted to +have done with him?” + +Mr. Baker conversed for a moment with Captain Pelham and then called him +to the stand. + +Captain Pelham testified as to his frequent visits to the boy's mother, +and to her unbroken friendly relations with him. She had never said in +so many words what she wanted to have done for the boy, but he always +understood that she meant to have the child come to him; he could not +say, however, that she had said anything expressly to that effect. + +James sat before him not many feet away, in his old-fashioned broadcloth +coat with a velvet collar. He cross-examined Captain Pelham a little. + +“She did n't never tell you,” he said, “that she was going to give you +the boy, did she?” + +“No, sir;” said Captain Pelham. + +“How often did your wife come over to see her?” + +“I could n't tell you, sir,” said the Captain. + +“Not very often, did she?” + +“I think not,” the Captain admitted. + +“The boy's mother did n't never talk much about Mis' Captain Pelham, did +she?” + +“I don't remember that she did.” + +“She did n't never have her over to talk with her about what she was +going to do with the boy, did she?” + +“I don't know that she did,” said the Captain. “She is here; you can ask +her.” + +“You didn't never hear of her leaving no word with Mis' Captain Pelham +about taking care of the boy, did you?” + +“I can't say that I did,” said Captain Pelham. + +The old man nodded his head with a satisfied air. His cross-examination +was done. + +The Captain retired from the witness-stand; his lawyer whispered with +him a moment and then went over and whispered for two or three minutes +with Mrs. Pelham; then he said he had no more evidence to offer. + +“Mr. Parsons,” said the judge, “do you wish to testify?” + +James went to the witness-stand and was sworn. + +“Did n't your daughter ever talk about what she wanted done with the +boy?” + +“Talk about it?” said James. “Why, she didn't talk about nothing else. +She used to have it all over every time we went in. It was all about how +mother 'n me must do this with him and do that with him,--how he was to +go to school, what room he was going to sleep in to our house, and all +that.” + +Mr. Baker desired to make no cross-examination, and James's wife was +called, and testified in her quaint way to the same effect. + +By a keen, homely instinct James had half consciously foreseen what +would be the controlling element of the case; and while he had not +formulated it to himself he had brought with him one of his neighbors, +who had watched with his daughter through the last nights of her +life. She was one of the poorest women of the village. Her husband was +shiftless, and was somewhat given to drink. She had a large family, with +little to bring them up on. Her life had been one long struggle. She was +extremely poorly dressed, and although she was neat, there was an air of +unthrift or discouragement about her dress. She wore an oversack which +evidently had originally been made for some one else; it lacked one +button. She was faded and worn and homely; but the moment she spoke +she impressed you as a woman of conscience. She had talked in the long +watches of the night with the boy's mother, and she confirmed what James +and his wife had said. There could be no question what the mother had +desired. + +Mr. Baker ventured out upon the thin ice of cross-examination. + +“She must have talked about her father-in-law, Captain Pelham?” he said. + +“Oh, yes,” said the woman, “often.” + +“She seemed to be attached to him?” + +“Yes, indeed,” said the woman, quickly; “she was always telling how good +he was to her; I have heard her say there was n't no better man in the +world.” + +“She must have talked about what he could do for the boy?” + +“Yes,” said the woman. “She expected him to do for Joe.” + +“Did n't she ever say,” and the lawyer looked round at James,--“did n't +you ever hear her say that she was worried sometimes for fear her father +would not be careful enough about the boy?” + +The woman hesitated a moment. “Yes,” she said, “I have heard her say so, +but that 's what every mother says.” + +“What reason did you ever hear her give,” the lawyer asked, “why she +would rather have him stay over there than to go and be brought up by +his grandfather Pelham?” + +The woman looked around timidly at the judge. “Be I obliged to answer?” + she said. + +The judge nodded. + +The woman looked toward Captain Pelham with an embarrassed air. He was +the best friend she had in the world. + +“I rather not say nothing about that,” she said; “it 's no account, +anyway.” + +“Oh, tell us what she said,” said Mr. Baker. + +He felt that he had made some progress up to that point with his +cross-examination. + +“Well, it was n't much,” said the woman; “it was only like this. I have +heard her say that Miss Captain Pelham was a good woman and meant to do +what was right, but she was n't a woman that knew how to mother a little +boy.” And here the witness began to cry. + +The judge moved slightly in his chair. + +There was more or less rambling talk about the way the boy was allowed +to run loose on the shore, and some suggestions were made in the way of +conversational argument about his being allowed to go barefoot, and to +go in swimming when he pleased; but the judge seemed to pay very little +attention to that. “That 's the way we were all brought up,” he said. +“It is good for the boy; he 'll learn to take care of himself, and his +mother knew all about it. + +“It is plain enough,” he said at last, “that there would be some +advantages to the boy in going to live with Captain Pelham; but there +is one thing that has been overlooked which would probably have been +suggested if the petitioner Parsons had had counsel. It has been assumed +that the boy would be cut loose in future from his grandfather Pelham +unless he was put under his guardianship; but that is n't so. All his +grandparents will look out for him, and when he gets older, and wants to +go into business, here or elsewhere, Captain Pelham will look after him +just the same as if he were his guardian. The other grandfather has n't +got the means to advance him. I am not at all afraid about that,” he +said; “the only question here is, where he shall be deposited for the +next five or six years. Either place is good enough. His father had a +right to fix it by will if he had chosen to; but he did n't, and I think +we must consider it a matter for the women to settle: they know best +about such things. It is plain that his mother thought it would be best +for him to stay where he is, and she knew best. He 's wonted there, and +wants to stay.” + +Then he took up his pen and wrote on Captain Pelham's petition an order +of dismissal. On the other he filled out and signed the decree granting +guardianship to James Parsons, and approved the bond. Then he handed the +papers to the register and called the next case. + +From this day on, little was seen of Captain Pelham at James's house. +Sometimes he would stop in his buggy and take the boy off with him for +a little stay; but Joe soon wearied of formality, and grew restless +for James, for his grandmother Parsons, for the free life of the little +wharf and the shore. Life always opened fresh to him on his return. + +Once and only once Captain Pelham entered James's door-yard. James was +sitting in an armchair under an apple-tree by the well, smoking and +reading the paper. The Captain began, this time, with no introduction. + +“Fred Gooding,” he said, “tells me you are talking of letting Joe go out +with Pitts in his boat You know Pitts is no fit man.” + +“You tell Fred Gooding he don't know what he 's talking about,” said +James, as he rose from his chair, holding the paper in his hand. “What +I told Pitts was just the contr'y,--the boy should n't go along o' him.” + Then his anger began to rise. “But what right you got,” he demanded, “to +interfere? 'T ain 't none of your business who I let him go along of. +It's me that's the boy's guardeen.” + +“Very well,” said the Captain. “Only I tell you fairly,--the first +time I get word of anything, I 'll go to the probate court and have you +removed!” + +James followed him down the path with derisive laughter. “Why don't you +go to the probate court?” he said; “you hed great luck before!” And +as the Captain drove away, James shouted after him, “Go to the probate +court! Go to the probate court!” + + + + +V. + +There is a low, pleasant boat-shop, close on the shore of a little arm +of the sea. The tide ebbs and flows before its wide double doors, and +sometimes rises so high as to flow the sills; then you have to walk +across in front of the shop on a plank, laid upon iron ballast. There is +a little wharf or pier close at hand, the outer end of which is always +going to be repaired. There are two or three other shops near by, and +about them is the pleasant litter of a boat-yard. In the cove before +them lie at their moorings in the late afternoon a fleet of fifteen or +twenty fishing and pleasure boats, all cat-rigged, all of one general +build, wide, shoal, with one broad sail, all painted white, by the +custom of the place, and all or nearly all kept neat and clean: they are +all likely enough to be called upon now and then for sailing-parties. +Often of a bright afternoon in summer the sails will all be up, as the +boats swing at their floats: then you have all the effect of a regatta +in still life. + +The shop faces down the bay of which this inlet is the foot, and as you +look out from your seat within, on a wooden stool, the great door frames +in a landscape of peaceful beauty. The opening to the sea is closed to +the view. Simply you can see the two white sand-cliffs through which +it makes. The bay is a mile in length, perhaps, and of half that width. +From its white, sandy shores rise gentle hills, bare to the sun or +covered with a low growth of woods. To the right are low-lying pastures +and marshes, with here and there a grazing cow. At the head of the +bay the valley of a stream can be faintly distinguished, while in the +distance there is a faint suggestion of a few scattered houses on the +upper waters. At one or two points masts of boats rise from the grass of +the inland, and sometimes a sail is seen threading its slow way amid the +trees. + +The shop is a favorite resort. You may go there in the early morning, +in the late forenoon, or in the afternoon; whenever you go you will +find there more or less company. There is a sort of social, hospitable +atmosphere about the place which is attractive in the extreme. Sometimes +there is a good deal of conversation; sometimes there is a comfortable +silence of good-fellowship. There is more or less knitting there and +crocheting; often in the afternoon the women from near by take their +work there to enjoy the view, and the fresh air which draws up there as +nowhere else. + +There is a good deal of religious discussion there, although the +atmosphere of the shop is not entirely religious, as you may see by some +of the papers lying about, and the cuts pasted up on the walls. Chief is +a picture representing a scene in the life of the prophet Jonah. Jonah +and the seamen are drawing lots to see who shall be cast over. Jonah has +just drawn the ace of spades. + +There are various other pictures on the walls,--prints of famous yachts, +charts, advertisements of regattas, sailing rules of yacht-clubs. +Nowhere is the science of boat-building and boat-sailing studied with +greater closeness than in that shop. Many a successful racer has +been built there. There are models of boats pinned up against the +wall,--models which to the common eye hardly vary at all, but to a +trained perception differ widely. There are oars lying about the shop, +oil-skin suits, a compass, charts, in round tin cases, boat hardware, +and coils of new rope. + +The little pier has its periods of activity and life, like the great +world outside. At three or four o'clock, in the gray dawn, fishermen +appear, singly, or two by two; there is often then a failure of wind, +and they have to get out to sea by heavy rowing or by the drift of the +tide. Then there is silence for some hours, and when the world awakes +the cove is nearly deserted. At seven o'clock begins the life of the +shop. Amateur fishermen appear,--boarders from New York or visiting sons +from Brockton. Later still, little parties come down,--a knot of +young fellows and laughing girls with bright-colored wraps, bound on a +sailing-party to Katameset, with a matron, and with some well-salted +man to steer the boat, perhaps in slippers and a dressing-gown. They +go singing out to sea. Then come a party of bathers,--ladies and little +children, with towels and blue suits, and all the paraphernalia of pails +and wooden shovels. Then will come perhaps a couple of girls, to sketch. +They will encamp anywhere upon the shore, call into their service some +small amphibious creature to tip a skiff up on its side to make an +effective scene, and proceed with the wonders of their art. Soon the +bathers return. They have been only a little way down the narrows, and +come back to dinner at one. The fishermen come in from three to four, +unless they happen to be becalmed; there is a bustle then of getting out +ice; of slitting and weighing and packing fish, and loading them into +wagons to be carted to the railway. Then there is a lull until the +sailing-parties return, perhaps at five, perhaps at six, perhaps not +until the turn of the tide or the evening breeze brings them home. + +All the time the quiet life of the boat-shop goes on,--its labor, its +discussions on politics and religion, its criticism of yachts. All +day long small boys play about the pier, race in skiffs or in such +insignificant sailing-craft as may be available, and every half-hour, at +the initiative of some infant leader, all doff their little print waists +and short trousers and “go in,” regardless of the sketchers on the +shore. + +It was a bright, fresh day. The air was as clear as crystal. Joe had +been gone since dawn with Henry Price. The wind had been blowing hard +from the north for a dozen hours, and, as the saying is, had kicked up +a sea. On the shoal the waves were rolling heavily, and since three +o'clock the tide had been running against the wind, and the seas had +been broken every way. But to Henry Price, and with that boat, rough +seas, from March to November, were only what a rude mountain road would +be to you or me. If his wife, toward afternoon, shading her eyes at the +south door, ever felt anxious about him, it was a woman's foolish fear; +it was only because she thought with concern of that--internal neuralgia +was it?--which her husband brought back from the war; which seized him +at rare intervals and enfeebled him for days. He made light of it, and +never spoke of it out of the house. There was no better boatman on that +shore. Let alone that one possibility of weakness, and the ocean had a +hard man to deal with when it dealt with him. + +They had been gone all day. It had been rough, and they would come in +wet. This wind would not die down; they were sure to make a quick run, +and would be in before dark. + +It was late in the afternoon. James was sitting in the shop with one or +two companions, engaged in a loud discussion. He had been discoursing +upon all his favorite themes. He had been declaiming upon the dangers +from Catholic supremacy and the subserviency of the Irish vote to the +Church of Rome, and upon the absolute necessity of the supremacy of the +Democratic party; upon the Apocalypse and the seven seals. He had +been maintaining the literal infallibility of the Scriptures, and the +necessity of treating some portions as legendary. It would be hard to +say what inconsistent views he had not set forth within the space of +the past hour; and all this with the utmost intensity, and yet with +the utmost good-humor, always ready to acknowledge a point against +himself,--the more readily if entirely fallacious,--with a burst of +hearty laughter. + +At last there was a pause. Something had called out of doors the two +or three men who were within. There was nothing to disturb the peaceful +beauty of the afternoon. It was blowing hard outside, but this was a +sheltered spot, and the wind was little felt. + +As James sat there silent, with no one at hand but the owner of the +shop, who was busy upon the keel of a new boat, a fisherman came in and +took a seat, with an affectation of ease and nonchalance; in a moment +another followed; two or three more came in, then others. + +The carpenter stopped his work, and shading his eyes with his hand, +seemed to be looking down the bay. + +There was a dead silence for a few moments. Then James spoke. But it was +not the voice of James. It was not that cheery and hearty voice which +had just been filling the shop with mirth. It was a voice harsh, forced, +mechanical,--the voice of a man paralyzed with terror. + +“Why don't you tell me?” he said; “is it Henry, or--is it the boy?” + +But no one spoke. + +“You don't need to tell me nothing,” he said, in the same strange tone +of paralysis and fear, “I knowed it when Bassett first come in. I +knowed it when the rest come in and closed in round me and did n't say +nothing.” + +He sat still a moment. Then he rose abruptly and turned to the landward +door. He stumbled over a stool which was in his way, and would have +fallen but that one of the men sprang forward and held him. He plunged +hastily out of the door. Just outside, in the shade of a small wild +cherry-tree, was a bucket of clams which he had dug; across the bucket +was an old hoe worn down to nothing. He stopped and mechanically took up +the pail and hoe. Bassett stood by the door and looked after him as he +went along the foot-path toward his home. There was a scantling fence +close by. He went over it in his old habitual fashion: first he set over +the bucket of clams and the hoe; then one leg went over and then the +other; he sat for an instant on the top slat and then slid down. He took +up his burden and went his way over the fields. In a moment he was lost +to sight behind a bit of rising ground. Then he reappeared, making his +way over the fields at his own heavy gait, until he was lost to sight +behind a clump of trees close to his own door. + +They did not find Henry and the boy that night. It was not until the +next day that the bodies were washed ashore. One of the searchers, +walking along the beach in the early dawn, found them both. He came upon +Henry first; he was lying on the sand upon his face. A little farther +on, gently swayed by the rising tide, lay Joe and his dog. Joe lay on +his side, precisely as if asleep; the dog was in his arms. + +The boy lies in the burying-ground on the hill, near the stone and the +weeping-willow which mourn the youth who met his untimely death in 1830, +in the launching of the brig. There is a rose-bush at the grave, and few +bright days pass in summer that there is not a bunch of homely flowers +laid at its foot. It is the spot to which all Mrs. Parsons's thoughts +now tend, and her perpetual pilgrimage. It is too far for her to walk +both there and back; but often a neighbor is going that way, with +a lug-wagon or an open cart or his family carriage,--it makes no +difference which,--and it is easy to get a ride. It is a good-humored +village. Everybody stands ready to do a favor, and nobody hesitates to +ask one. Often on a bright afternoon Mrs. Parsons will watch from her +front window the “teams” that pass, going to the bay. When she sees +one which is likely to go in the right direction on its return from the +bay,--everybody knows in which direction she will wish to go,--she will +run hastily to the door, and hail it. + +“Whoa! Sh-h! Whoa! How d'do, Mis' Parsons?” + +“Be you going straight home when you come back? Well, then, if it won't +really be no trouble at all, I 'll be at the gap when you come by; I +won't keep you waiting a minute. It 's such a nice, sunshiny afternoon, +I thought I 'd like to go up and sit awhile, and take some posies.” + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of By The Sea, by Heman White Chaplin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BY THE SEA *** + +***** This file should be named 23001-0.txt or 23001-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/0/23001/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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