initial commit of ebook 3240HEADmain

1 files changed, 9874 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/3240.txt b/3240.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..51e9417
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3240.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9874 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cap'n Eri, by Joseph Crosby Lincoln
+
+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: Cap'n Eri
+
+Author: Joseph Crosby Lincoln
+
+Release Date: May 30, 2006 [EBook #3240]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAP'N ERI ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Donald Lainson
+
+
+
+
+
+CAP'N ERI
+
+
+By Joseph Crosby Lincoln
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     I.     A LAMB FOR THE SACRIFICE
+
+     II.    THE TRAIN COMES IN
+
+     III.   THE "COME-OUTERS'" MEETING
+
+     IV.    A PICTURE SENT AND A CABLE TESTED
+
+     V.     THE WOMAN FROM NANTUCKET
+
+     VI.    THE SCHOOLHOUSE BELL RINGS
+
+     VII.   CAPTAIN ERI FINDS A NURSE
+
+     VIII.  HOUSEKEEPER AND BOOK AGENT
+
+     IX.    ELSIE PRESTON
+
+     X.     MATCHMAKING AND LIFE-SAVING
+
+     XI.    HEROES AND A MYSTERY
+
+     XII.   A LITTLE POLITICS
+
+     XIII.  CAPTAIN JERRY MAKES A MESS OF IT
+
+     XIV.   THE VOYAGE OF AN "ABLE SEAMAN"
+
+     XV.    IN JOHN BAXTER'S ROOM
+
+     XVI.   A BUSINESS CALL
+
+     XVII.  THROUGH FIRE AND WATER
+
+     XVIII. THE SINS OF CAPTAIN JERRY
+
+     XIX.   A "NO'THEASTER" BLOWS
+
+     XX.    ERI GOES BACK ON A FRIEND
+
+     XXI.   "DIME-SHOW BUS'NESS"
+
+
+
+
+CAP'N ERI
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A LAMB FOR THE SACRIFICE
+
+
+"Perez," observed Captain Eri cheerfully, "I'm tryin' to average up with
+the mistakes of Providence."
+
+The Captain was seated by the open door of the dining room, in the
+rocker with the patched cane seat. He was apparently very busy doing
+something with a piece of fishline and a pair of long-legged rubber
+boots. Captain Perez, swinging back and forth in the parlor rocker with
+the patch-work cushion, was puffing deliberately at a wooden pipe, the
+bowl of which was carved into the likeness of a very rakish damsel with
+a sailor's cap set upon the side of her once flaxen head. In response
+to his companion's remark he lazily turned his sunburned face toward the
+cane-seated rocker and inquired:
+
+"What on airth are you doin' with them boots?"
+
+Captain Eri tied a knot with his fingers and teeth and then held the
+boots out at arm's length.
+
+"Why, Perez," he said, "I'm averagin' up, same as I told you. Providence
+made me a two-legged critter, and a two-legged critter needs two boots.
+I've always been able to find one of these boots right off whenever I
+wanted it, but it's took me so plaguey long to find the other one that
+whatever wet there was dried up afore I got out of the house. Yesterday
+when I wanted to go clammin' I found the left one on the mantelpiece, no
+trouble at all, but it was pretty nigh high water before I dug the other
+one out of the washb'iler. That's why I'm splicin' 'em together this
+way. I don't want to promise nothin' rash, but I'm in hopes that even
+Jerry can't lose 'em now."
+
+"Humph!" grunted Captain Perez. "I don't think much of that plan. 'Stead
+of losin' one you'll lose both of 'em."
+
+"Yes, but then I shan't care. If there ain't NO boots in sight; I'll
+go barefoot or stay at home. It's the kind of responsibleness that goes
+with havin' one boot that's wearin' me out. Where IS Jerry?"
+
+"He went out to feed Lorenzo. I heard him callin' a minute ago. That cat
+ain't been home sence noon, and Jerry's worried."
+
+A stentorian shout of "Puss! puss! Come, kitty, kitty, kitty!" came from
+somewhere outside. Captain Eri smiled.
+
+"I'm 'fraid Lorenzo's gittin' dissipated in his old age," he observed.
+Then, as a fat gray cat shot past the door, "There he is! Reg'lar
+prodigal son. Comes home when the fatted ca'f's ready."
+
+A moment later Captain Jerry appeared, milk pitcher in hand. He entered
+the dining room and, putting the pitcher down on the table, pulled
+forward the armchair with the painted sunset on the back, produced his
+own pipe, and proceeded to hunt through one pocket after the other with
+a troubled expression of countenance.
+
+"Where in tunket is my terbacker?" he asked, after finishing the round
+of pockets and preparing to begin all over again.
+
+"I see it on the top of the clock a spell ago," said Captain Perez.
+
+"Was that yours, Jerry?" exclaimed Captain Eri. "Well, that's too bad! I
+see it there and thought 'twas mine. Here 'tis, or what's left of it."
+
+Captain Jerry took the remnant of a plug from his friend and said in an
+aggrieved tone:
+
+"That's jest like you, Eri! Never have a place for nothin' and help
+yourself to anything you happen to want, don't make no odds whose 'tis.
+Why don't you take care of your terbacker, same's I do of mine?"
+
+"Now see here, Jerry! I ain't so sure that is yours. Let me see it.
+Humph! I thought so! This is 'Navy Plug' and you always smoke 'Sailor's
+Sweetheart.' Talk about havin' a place for things!"
+
+"That's MY terbacker, if you want to know," observed Captain Perez.
+"I've got yours, Eri. Here 'tis."
+
+"Well, then, where IS mine?" said Captain Jerry somewhat snappishly.
+
+"Bet a dollar you've got it in your pocket," said Captain Eri.
+
+"Bet ten dollars I ain't! I ain't quite a fool yit, Eri Hedge. I guess
+I know--well, I snum! I forgot that upper vest pocket!" and from the
+pocket mentioned Captain Jerry produced the missing tobacco.
+
+There was a general laugh, in which Captain Jerry was obliged to join,
+and the trio smoked in silence for a time, while the expanse of water
+to the eastward darkened, and the outer beach became but a dusky streak
+separating the ocean from the inner bay. At length Captain Perez rose
+and, knocking the ashes from his pipe, announced that he was going to
+"show a glim."
+
+"Yes, go ahead, Jerry!" said Captain Eri, "it's gittin' dark."
+
+"It's darker in the grave," observed Captain Perez with lugubrious
+philosophy.
+
+"Then for the land's sake let's have it light while we can! Here, Jerry!
+them matches is burnt ones. Try this, 'twon't be so damagin' to the
+morals."
+
+Captain Jerry took the proffered match and lit the two bracket lamps,
+fastened to the walls of the dining room. The room, seen by the
+lamplight, was shiplike, but as decidedly not shipshape. The chronometer
+on the mantel was obscured by a thick layer of dust. The three gorgeous
+oil paintings--from the brush of the local sign painter--respectively
+representing the coasting packet Hannah M., Eri Hedge, Master, and the
+fishing schooners, Georgie Baker, Jeremiah Burgess, Master, and the
+Flying Duck, Perez Ryder, Master, were shrouded in a very realistic fog
+of the same dust. Even the imposing gilt-lettered set of "Lives of Great
+Naval Commanders," purchased by Captain Perez some months before, and
+being slowly paid for on an apparently never-ending installment plan,
+was cloaked with it. The heap of newspapers, shoved under the couch to
+get them out of the way, peeped forth in a tell-tale manner. The windows
+were not too clean and the floor needed sweeping. Incidentally the
+supper table had not been cleared. Each one of the three noted these
+things and each sighed. Then Captain Eri said, as if to change the
+subject, though no one had spoken:
+
+"What started you talkin' about the grave, Perez? Was it them clam
+fritters of Jerry's?"
+
+"No," answered the ex-skipper of the Flying Duck, pulling at his
+grizzled scrap of throat whisker and looking rather shamefaced. "You
+see, M'lissy Busteed dropped in a few minutes this mornin' while you
+fellers was out and--"
+
+Both Captain Eri and Captain Jerry set up a hilarious shout.
+
+"Haw! haw!" roared the former, slapping his knee. "I wouldn't be so
+fascinatin' as you be for no money, Perez. She'll have you yit; you
+can't git away! But say, I don't wonder you got to thinkin' 'bout the
+grave. Ten minutes of M'lissy gits me thinkin' of things way t'other
+side of that!"
+
+"Aw, belay there, Eri" protested Captain Perez testily. "'Twan't my
+fault. I didn't see her comin' or I'd have got out of sight. She was
+cruisin' 'round the way she always does with a cargo of gabble, and, she
+put in here to unload. Talk! I never heard a woman talk the way she can!
+She'd be a good one to have on board in a calm. Git her talkin' abaft
+the mains'l and we'd have a twenty-knot breeze in a shake."
+
+"What was it this time?" asked Captain Jerry.
+
+"Oh, a little of everything. She begun about the 'beautiful' sermon that
+Mr. Perley preached at the last 'Come-Outers'' meetin'. That was what
+started me thinkin' about the grave, I guess. Then she pitched into
+Seth Wingate's wife for havin' a new bunnit this season when the old one
+wan't ha'f wore out. She talked for ten minutes or so on that, and then
+she begun about Parker's bein' let go over at the cable station and
+about the new feller that's been signed to take his place. She's all for
+Parker. Says he was a 'perfectly lovely' man and that 'twas outrageous
+the way he was treated, and all that sort of thing."
+
+"She ain't the only one that thinks so," observed Captain Jerry.
+"There's a heap of folks in this town that think Parker was a mighty
+fine feller."
+
+"Yes," said Captain Eri, "and it's worth while noticin' who they be.
+Perez' friend, M'lissy, thinks so, and 'Squealer' Wixon and his gang
+think so, and 'Web' Saunders thinks so, and a lot more like them. Parker
+was TOO good a feller, that's what was the matter with him. His talk
+always reminded me of washday at the poorhouse, lots of soft soap with
+plenty of lye in it."
+
+"Well, M'lissy says that the men over to the station--all except
+Langley, of course--are mad as all git-out because Parker was let
+go, and she says somebody told somebody else, and somebody else told
+somebody else, and somebody else told HER--she says it come reel
+straight--that the men are goin' to make it hot for the new feller when
+he comes. She says his name's Hazeltine, or somethin' like that, and
+that he's goin' to get here to-morrer or next day."
+
+"Well," said Captain Eri, "it's a mercy M'lissy found it out. If that
+man should git here and she not know it aforehand 'twould kill her sure
+as fate, and think what a blow that would be to you, Perez."
+
+He took his old-fashioned watch from his pocket and glanced at the dial.
+
+"I mustn't be settin' round here much longer," he added. "John Baxter's
+goin' to have that little patch of cranberry swamp of his picked
+to-morrer, and he's expectin' some barrels down on to-night's train.
+John asked me to git Zoeth Cahoon to cart 'em down for him, but I ain't
+got nothin' special to do to-night, so I thought I'd hitch up and go
+and git 'em myself. You and Jerry can match cents to see who does the
+dishes. I did 'em last night, so it's my watch below."
+
+"Well, _I_ shan't do 'em," declared Captain Perez. "Blessed if I'd do
+the durn things to-night if the President of the United States asked me
+to."
+
+"Humph!" sputtered Captain Jerry. "I s'pose you fellers think I'll do
+'em all the time. If you do you're mistook, that's all. 'Twan't last
+night you done 'em, Eri; 'twas the night afore. I done 'em last night,
+and I'm ready to take my chances agin if we match, but I'm jiggered if
+I let you shove the whole thing off onto me. I didn't ship for cook no
+more 'n the rest of you."
+
+Neither of the others saw fit to answer this declaration of independence
+and there was a pause in the conversation. Then Captain Jerry said
+moodily:
+
+"It ain't no use. It don't work."
+
+"What don't work?" asked Captain Eri.
+
+"Why, this plan of ours. I thought when we fellers give up goin' to
+sea reg'lar and settled down here to keep house ourselves and live
+economical and all that, that 'twas goin' to be fine. I thought I
+wouldn't mind doin' my share of the work a bit, thought 'twould be kind
+of fun to swab decks and all that. Well, 'twas for a spell, but 'tain't
+now. I'm so sick of it that I don't know what to do. And I'm sick of
+livin' in a pigpen, too. Look at them dead-lights! They're so dirty that
+when I turn out in the mornin' and go to look through 'em, I can't tell
+whether it's foul weather or fair."
+
+Captain Eri looked at the windows toward which his friend pointed and
+signed assent.
+
+"There's no use talkin'," he observed, "we've got to have a steward
+aboard this craft."
+
+"Yes," said Captain Perez emphatically, "a steward or a woman."
+
+"A WOMAN!" exclaimed Captain Eri. Then he shook his head solemnly and
+added, "There, Jerry! What did I tell you? M'lissy!"
+
+But Captain Perez did not smile.
+
+"I ain't foolin'," he said; "I mean it."
+
+Captain Jerry thought of the spick-and-span days of his wife, dead these
+twenty years, and sighed again. "I s'pose we might have a housekeeper,"
+he said.
+
+"Housekeeper!" sneered Captain Eri. "Who'd you hire? Perez don't,
+seemin'ly, take to M'lissy, and there ain't nobody else in Orham that
+you could git, 'less 'twas old A'nt Zuby Higgins, and that would be
+actin' like the feller that jumped overboard when his boat sprung a
+leak. No, sir! If A'nt Zuby ships aboard here I heave up MY commission."
+
+"Who said anything about A'nt Zuby or housekeepers either?" inquired
+Captain Perez. "I said we'd got to have a woman, and we have. One of us
+'ll have to git married, that's all."
+
+"MARRIED!" roared the two in chorus.
+
+"That's what I said, married, and take the others to board in this
+house. Look here now! When a shipwrecked crew's starvin' one of 'em has
+to be sacrificed for the good of the rest, and that's what we've got to
+do. One of us has got to git married for the benefit of the other two."
+
+Captain Eri shouted hilariously. "Good boy, Perez!" he cried. "Goin' to
+be the first offerin'?"
+
+"Not unless it's my luck, Eri. We'll all three match for it, same as we
+do 'bout washin' the dishes."
+
+"Where are you goin' to find a wife?" asked Captain Jerry.
+
+"Now that's jest what I'm goin' to show you. I see how things was goin',
+and I've been thinkin' this over for a consid'rable spell. Hold on a
+minute till I overhaul my kit."
+
+He went into the front bedroom, and through the open door they could see
+him turning over the contents of the chest with P. R. in brass nails
+on the lid. He scattered about him fish-lines, hooks, lead for sinkers,
+oilcloth jackets, whales' teeth, and various other articles, and at
+length came back bearing a much-crumpled sheet of printed paper. This he
+spread out upon the dining table, first pushing aside the dishes to make
+room, and, after adjusting his spectacles, said triumphantly:
+
+"There! There she is! The Nup-ti-al Chime. A Journal of Matrimony. I
+see a piece about it in the Herald the other day, and sent a dime for
+a sample copy. It's chock-full of advertisements from women that wants
+husbands."
+
+Captain Eri put on his spectacles and hitched his chair up to the table.
+After giving the pages of the Nuptial Chime a hurried inspection, he
+remarked:
+
+"There seems to be a strong runnin' to 'vi-va-ci-ous brunettes' and
+'blondes with tender and romantic dispositions.' Which of them kinds are
+you sufferin' for, Perez? Oh, say! here's a lady that's willin' to
+heave herself away on a young and handsome bachelor with a income of ten
+thousand a year. Seems to me you ought to answer that."
+
+"Oh, hush up, Eri! 'Tain't likely I'd want to write to any of them in
+there. The thing for us to do would be to write out a advertisement of
+our own; tell what sort of woman we want, and then set back and wait for
+answers. Now, what do you say?"
+
+Captain Eri looked at the advocate of matrimony for a moment without
+speaking. Then he said: "Do you really mean it, Perez?"
+
+"Sartin I do."
+
+"What do you think of it, Jerry?"
+
+"Think it's a good idee," said that ancient mariner decisively. "We've
+got to do somethin', and this looks like the only sensible thing."
+
+"Then Eri's GOT to do it!" asserted Captain Perez dogmatically. "We
+agreed to stick together, and two to one's a vote. Come on now, Eri,
+we'll match."
+
+Captain Eri hesitated.
+
+"Come on, Eri!" ordered Captain Jerry. "Ain't goin' to mutiny, are you?"
+
+"All right!" said Captain Eri, "I'll stick to the ship. Only," he added,
+with a quizzical glance at his companions, "it's got to be settled
+that the feller that's stuck can pick his wife, and don't have to marry
+unless he finds one that suits him."
+
+The others agreed to this stipulation, and Captain Perez, drawing a long
+breath, took a coin from his pocket, flipped it in the air and covered
+it, as it fell on the table, with a big hairy hand. Captain Eri did
+likewise; so did Captain Jerry. Then Captain Eri lifted his hand and
+showed the coin beneath; it was a head. Captain Jerry's was a tail.
+Under Captain Perez' hand lurked the hidden fate. The Captain's lips
+closed in a grim line. With a desperate glance at the others he jerked
+his hand away.
+
+The penny lay head uppermost. Captain Jerry was "stuck."
+
+Captain Eri rose, glanced at his watch, and, taking his hat from the
+shelf where the dishes should have been, opened the door. Before he went
+out, however, he turned and said:
+
+"Perez, you and Jerry can be fixin' up the advertisement while I'm gone.
+You can let me see it when I come back. I say, Jerry," he added to the
+"sacrifice," who sat gazing at the pennies on the table in a sort of
+trance, "don't feel bad about it. Why, when you come to think of it,
+it's a providence it turned out that way. Me and Perez are bachelors,
+and we'd be jest green hands. But you're a able seaman, you know what it
+is to manage a wife."
+
+"Yes, I do," groaned Captain Jerry lugubriously. "Durn it, that's jest
+it!"
+
+Captain Eri was chuckling as, lantern in hand, he passed around the
+corner of the little white house on the way to the barn. He chuckled
+all through the harnessing of Daniel, the venerable white horse. He was
+still chuckling as, perched on the seat of the "truck wagon," he rattled
+and shook out of the yard and turned into the sandy road that led up to
+the village. And an outsider, hearing these chuckles, and knowing what
+had gone before, might have inferred that perhaps Captain Eri did not
+view the "matching" and the matrimonial project with quite the deadly
+seriousness of the other two occupants of the house by the shore.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE TRAIN COMES IN
+
+
+There is in Orham a self-appointed committee whose duty it is to see the
+train come in. The committeemen receive no salary for their services;
+the sole compensation is the pleasure derived from the sense of duty
+done. Rain, snow, or shine, the committee is on hand at the station--the
+natives, of course, call it the "deepo"--to consume borrowed tobacco
+and to favor Providence with its advice concerning the running of the
+universe. Also it discusses local affairs with fluency and more or less
+point.
+
+Mr. "Squealer" Wixon, a lifelong member of this committee, was the first
+to sight Captain Eri as the latter strolled across the tracks into the
+circle of light from the station lamps. The Captain had moored Daniel to
+a picket in the fence over by the freight-house. He had heard the clock
+in the belfry of the Methodist church strike eight as he drove by that
+edifice, but he heard no whistle from the direction of the West Orham
+woods, so he knew that the down train would arrive at its usual time,
+that is, from fifteen to twenty minutes behind the schedule.
+
+"Hey!" shouted Mr. Wixon with enthusiasm. "Here's Cap'n Eri! Well, Cap,
+how's she headin'?"
+
+"'Bout no'theast by no'th," was the calm reply. "Runnin' fair, but with
+lookout for wind ahead."
+
+"Hain't got a spare chaw nowheres about you, have you, Cap'n?" anxiously
+inquired "Bluey" Batcheldor. Mr. Batcheldor is called "Bluey" for the
+same reason that Mr. Wixon is called "Squealer," and that reason has
+been forgotten for years.
+
+Captain Eri obligingly produced a black plug of smoking tobacco, and Mr.
+Batcheldor bit off two-thirds and returned the balance. After adjusting
+the morsel so that it might interfere in the least degree with his vocal
+machinery, he drawled:
+
+"I cal'late you ain't heard the news, Eri. Web Saunders has got his
+original-package license. It come on the noon mail."
+
+The Captain turned sharply toward the speaker. "Is that a fact?" he
+asked. "Who told you?"
+
+"See it myself. So did Squealer and a whole lot more. Web was showin' it
+round."
+
+"We was wonderin'," said Jabez Smalley, a member of the committee whose
+standing was somewhat impaired, inasmuch as he went fishing occasionally
+and was, therefore, obliged to miss some of the meetings, "what kind of
+a fit John Baxter would have now. He's been pretty nigh distracted ever
+sence Web started his billiard room, callin' it a 'ha'nt of sin' and a
+whole lot more names. There ain't been a 'Come-Outers' meetin' 'sence
+I don't know when that he ain't pitched into that saloon. Now, when he
+hears that Web's goin' to sell rum, he'll bust a biler sure."
+
+The committee received this prophecy with an hilarious shout of approval
+and each member began to talk. Captain Eri took advantage of this
+simultaneous expression of opinion to walk away. He looked in at the
+window of the ticket-office, exchanged greetings with Sam Hardy, the
+stationmaster, and then leaned against the corner of the building
+furthest removed from Mr. Wixon and his friends, lit his pipe and puffed
+thoughtfully with a troubled expression on his face.
+
+From the clump of blackness that indicated the beginning of the West
+Orham woods came a long-drawn dismal "toot"; then two shorter ones. The
+committee sprang to its feet and looked interested. Sam Hardy came out
+of the ticket office. The stage-driver, a sharp-looking boy of about
+fourteen, with a disagreeable air of cheap smartness sticking out all
+over him, left his seat in the shadow of Mr. Batcheldor's manly form,
+tossed a cigarette stump away and loafed over to the vicinity of the
+"depot wagon," which was backed up against the platform. Captain Eri
+knocked the ashes from his pipe and put that service-stained veteran in
+his pocket. The train was really "coming in" at last.
+
+If this had been an August evening instead of a September one, both
+train and platform would have been crowded. But the butterfly summer
+maiden had flitted and, as is his wont, the summer man had flitted after
+her, so the passengers who alighted from the two coaches that, with
+the freight car, made up the Orham Branch train, were few in number and
+homely in flavor. There was a very stout lady with a canvas extension
+case and an umbrella in one hand and a bulging shawl-strap and a
+pasteboard box in the other, who panted and wheezed like the locomotive
+itself and who asked the brakeman, "What on airth DO they have such high
+steps for?" There was a slim, not to say gawky, individual with a chin
+beard and rubber boots, whom the committee hailed as "Andy" and welcomed
+to its bosom. There were two young men, drummers, evidently, who nodded
+to Hardy, and seemed very much at home. Also, there was another young
+man, smooth-shaven and square-shouldered, who deposited a suit-case on
+the platform and looked about him with the air of being very far from
+home, indeed.
+
+The drummers and the stout lady got into the stage. The young man with
+the suit-case picked up the latter and walked toward the same vehicle.
+He accosted the sharp boy, who had lighted another cigarette.
+
+"Can you direct me to the cable station?" he asked.
+
+"Sure thing!" said the youth, and there was no Cape Cod twist to his
+accent. "Git aboard."
+
+"I didn't intend to ride," said the stranger.
+
+"What was you goin' to do? Walk?"
+
+"Yes, if it's not far."
+
+The boy grinned, and the members of the committee, who had been staring
+with all their might, grinned also. The young man's mention of the cable
+station seemed to have caused considerable excitement.
+
+"Oh, it ain't too FAR!" said the stage-driver. Then he added: "Say,
+you're the new electrician, ain't you?"
+
+The young man hesitated for a moment. Then he said, "Yes," and
+suggested, "I asked the way."
+
+"Two blocks to the right; that's the main road, keep on that for four
+blocks, then turn to the left, and if you keep on straight ahead you'll
+get to the station."
+
+"Blocks?" The stranger smiled. "I think you must be from New York."
+
+"Do you?" inquired the youthful prodigy, climbing to the wagon seat.
+"Don't forget to keep straight ahead after you turn off the main road.
+Git dap! So long, fellers!" He leaned over the wheel, as the stage
+turned, and bestowed a wink upon the delighted "Squealer," who was
+holding one freckled paw over his mouth; then the "depot wagon" creaked
+away.
+
+The square-shouldered young man looked after the equipage with an odd
+expression of countenance. Then he shrugged his shoulders, picked up the
+suitcase, and walked off the platform into the darkness.
+
+Mr. Wixon removed the hand from his mouth and displayed a mammoth
+grin, that grew into a shriek of laughter in which every member of the
+committee joined.
+
+"Haw! haw!" bellowed "Bluey," "so that's the feller that done Parker out
+of his job! Well, he may be mighty smart, but if that Joe Bartlett ain't
+smarter then I'm a skate, that's all! Smartest boy ever I see! 'If you
+keep on straight ahead you'll git to the station!' Gosh! he'll have to
+wear rubbers!"
+
+"Maybe he's web-footed," suggested Smalley, and they laughed again.
+
+A little later Captain Eri, with a dozen new, clean-smelling cranberry
+barrels in the wagon behind him, drove slowly down the "depot road." It
+was a clear night, but there was no moon, and Orham was almost at its
+darkest, which is very dark, indeed. The "depot road"--please bear in
+mind that there are no streets in Orham--was full of ruts, and although
+Daniel knew his way and did his best to follow it, the cranberry barrels
+rattled and shook in lively fashion. There are few homes near the
+station, and the dwellers in them conscientiously refrain from showing
+lights except in the ends of the buildings furthest from the front.
+Strangers are inclined to wonder at this, but when they become better
+acquainted with the town and its people, they come to know that front
+gates and parlors are, by the majority of the inhabitants, restricted in
+their use to occasions such as a funeral, or, possibly, a wedding. For
+the average Orham family to sit in the parlor on a week evening would be
+an act bordering pretty closely on sacrilege.
+
+It is from the hill by the Methodist church that the visitor to Orham
+gets his best view of the village. It is all about him, and for the most
+part below him. At night the lights in the houses show only here and
+there through the trees, but those on the beaches and at sea shine
+out plainly. The brilliant yellow gleam a mile away is from the Orham
+lighthouse on the bluff. The smaller white dot marks the light on
+Baker's Beach. The tiny red speck in the distance, that goes and comes
+again, is the flash-light at Setuckit Point, and the twinkle on the
+horizon to the south is the beacon of the lightship on Sand Hill Shoal.
+
+It is on his arrival at this point, too, that the stranger first notices
+the sound of the surf. Being a newcomer, he notices this at once; after
+he has been in the village a few weeks, he ceases to notice it at all.
+It is like the ticking of a clock, so incessant and regular, that one
+has to listen intently for a moment or two before his accustomed ear
+will single it out and make it definite. One low, steady, continuous
+roar, a little deeper in tone when the wind is easterly, the voice of
+the old dog Ocean gnawing with foaming mouth at the bone of the Cape and
+growling as he gnaws.
+
+It may be that the young man with the square shoulders and the suit-case
+had paused at the turn of the road by the church to listen to this
+song of the sea; at any rate he was there, and when Captain Eri steered
+Daniel and the cranberry barrels around the corner and into the "main
+road," he stepped out and hailed.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said; "I'm afraid I'm mixed in my directions.
+The stage-driver told me the way to the cable station, but I've
+forgotten whether he said to turn to the right when I reached here, or
+to the left."
+
+Captain Eri took his lantern from the floor of the wagon and held it up.
+He had seen the stranger when the latter left the train, but he had not
+heard the dialogue with Josiah Bartlett.
+
+"How was you cal'latin' to go to the station?" he asked.
+
+"Why, I intended to walk."
+
+"Did you tell them fellers at the depot that you wanted to walk?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, I swan! And they give you the direction?"
+
+"Yes," a little impatiently; "why shouldn't they? So many blocks till I
+got to the main street, or road, and so many more, till I got somewhere
+else, and then straight on."
+
+"Blocks, hey? That's Joe Bartlett. That boy ought to be mastheaded, and
+I've told Perez so more'n once. Well, Mister, I guess maybe you'd better
+not try to walk to the cable station to-night. You see, there's one
+thing they forgot to tell you. The station's on the outer beach, and
+there's a ha'f mile of pretty wet water between here and there."
+
+The young man whistled. "You don't mean it!" he exclaimed.
+
+"I sartin do, unless there's been an almighty drought since I left the
+house. I tell you what! If you'll jump in here with me, and don't mind
+waitin' till I leave these barrels at the house of the man that owns
+'em, I'll drive you down to the shore and maybe find somebody to row you
+over. That is," with a chuckle, "if you ain't dead set on walkin'."
+
+The stranger laughed heartily. "I'm not so stubborn as all that," he
+said. "It's mighty good of you, all the same."
+
+"Don't say a word," said the Captain. "Give us your satchel. Now your
+flipper! There you are! Git dap, Dan'l!"
+
+Daniel accepted the Captain's command in a tolerant spirit. He paddled
+along at a jog-trot for perhaps a hundred yards, and then, evidently
+feeling that he had done all that could be expected, settled back into a
+walk. The Captain turned towards his companion on the seat:
+
+"I don't know as I mentioned it," he observed, "but my name is Hedge."
+
+"Glad to meet you, Mr. Hedge," said the stranger. "My name is
+Hazeltine."
+
+"I kind of jedged it might be when you said you wanted to git to the
+cable station. We heard you was expected."
+
+"Did you? From Mr. Langley, I presume."
+
+"No-o, not d'rectly. Of course, we knew Parker had been let go, and that
+somebody would have to take his place. I guess likely it was one of the
+operators that told it fust that you was the man, but anyhow it got as
+fur as M'lissy Busteed, and after that 'twas plain sailin'. You come
+from New York, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, you know how 'tis when a thing gits into the papers. Orham ain't
+big enough to have a paper of its own, so the Almighty give us M'lissy,
+I jedge, as a sort of substitute. She can spread a little news over more
+country than anybody I know. If she spreads butter the same way, she
+could make money keepin' boarders. Is this your fust visit to the Cape?"
+
+"Yes. I hardly know why I'm here now. I have been with the Cable Company
+at their New York experimental station for some years, and the other day
+the General Manager called me into his office and told me I was expected
+to take the position of electrician here. I thought it might add to my
+experience, so I accepted."
+
+"Humph! Did he say anything about the general liveliness of things
+around the station?"
+
+Mr. Hazeltine laughed. "Why," he answered, "now that you speak of it,
+I remember that he began by asking me if I had any marked objection to
+premature burial."
+
+The Captain chuckled. "The outer beach in winter ain't exactly a
+camp-meeting for sociableness," he said. "And the idea of that Bartlett
+boy tellin' you how to walk there!"
+
+"Is he a specimen of your Cape Cod youngsters?"
+
+"Not exactly. He's a new shipment from New York. Grand-nephew of a
+messmate of mine, Cap'n Perez Ryder. Perez, he's a bachelor, but his
+sister's daughter married a feller named Bartlett. Maybe you knew him;
+he used to run a tugboat in the Sound."
+
+Mr. Hazeltine, much amused, denied the acquaintance.
+
+"Well, I s'pose you wouldn't, nat'rally," continued the Captain.
+"Anyhow, Perez's niece's husband died, and the boy sort of run loose,
+as yer might say. Went to school when he had to, and raised Ned when
+he didn't, near's I can find out. 'Lizabeth, that's his ma, died last
+spring, and she made Perez promise--he being the only relation the
+youngster had--to fetch the boy down here and sort of bring him up.
+Perez knows as much about bringing up a boy as a hen does about the Ten
+Commandments, and 'Lizabeth made him promise not to lick the youngster
+and a whole lot more foolishness. School don't commence here till
+October, so we got him a job with Lem Mullett at the liv'ry stable. He's
+boardin' with Lem till school opens. He ain't a reel bad boy, but he
+knows too much 'bout some things and not ha'f enough 'bout others.
+You've seen fellers like that, maybe?"
+
+Hazeltine nodded. "There are a good many of that kind in New York, I'm
+afraid," he said.
+
+Captain Eri smiled. "I shouldn't wonder," he observed. "The boys down
+here think Josiah's the whole crew, and the girls ain't fur behind.
+There's been more deviltry in this village sence he landed than there
+ever was afore. He needs somethin', and needs it bad, but I ain't
+decided jest what it is yit. Are you a married man?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Same here. Never had the disease. Perez, he's had symptoms every once
+in a while, but nothin' lastin'. Jerry's the only one of us three that's
+been through the mill. His wife died twenty year ago. I don't know as
+I told you, but Jerry and Perez and me are keepin' house down by the
+shore. That is, we call it keepin' house, but--"
+
+Here the Captain broke off and seemed to meditate.
+
+Ralph Hazeltine forbore to interrupt, and occupied himself by
+scrutinizing the buildings that they were passing. They were nearing the
+center of the town now, and the houses were closer together than they
+had been on the "depot road," but never so close as to be in the least
+crowded. Each house had its ample front yard, and the new arrival
+could smell the box hedges and see, now and then, the whiteness of the
+kalsomined stones that bordered a driveway. It was too dark for the big
+seashells at the front steps to be visible, but they were there, all the
+same; every third house of respectability in Orham has them. There was
+an occasional shop, too, with signs like "Cape Cod Variety Store," or
+"The Boston Dry Goods Emporium," over their doors. On the platform of
+one a small crowd was gathered, and from the interior came shouts of
+laughter and the sound of a tin-panny piano.
+
+"That's the billiard saloon," volunteered Captain Eri, suddenly waking
+from his trance. "Play pool, Mr. Hazeltine?"
+
+"Sometimes."
+
+"What d'ye play it with?"
+
+"Why, with a cue, generally speaking."
+
+"That so! Most of the fellers in there play it with their mouths. Miss a
+shot and then spend the rest of the evenin' tellin' how it happened."
+
+"I don't think I should care to play it that way," said Ralph, laughing.
+
+"Well, it has its good p'ints. Kind of all-round exercise; develops the
+lungs and strengthens the muscles, as the patent-medicine almanac says.
+Parker played it considerable."
+
+"I judge that your opinion of my predecessor isn't a high one."
+
+"Who? Oh, Parker! He was all right in his way. Good many folks in this
+town swore by him. I understand the fellers over at the station thought
+he was about the ticket."
+
+"Mr. Langley included?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Langley, bein' manager, had his own ideas, I s'pose! Langley
+don't play pool much; not at Web Saunders' place, anyhow. We turn in
+here."
+
+They rolled up a long driveway, very dark and overgrown with trees, and
+drew up at the back door of a good-sized two-story house. There was a
+light in the kitchen window.
+
+"Whoa, Dan'l!" commanded the Captain. Then he began to shout, "Ship
+ahoy!" at the top of his lungs.
+
+The kitchen door opened and a man came out, carrying a lamp, its light
+shining full upon his face. It was an old face, a stern face, with white
+eyebrows and a thin-lipped mouth. Just such a face as looked on with
+approval when the executioner held up the head of Charles I., at
+Whitehall. There was, however, a tremble about the chin that told of
+infirm health.
+
+"Hello, John!" said Captain Eri heartily. "John, let me make you
+acquainted with Mr. Hazeltine, the new man at the cable station. Mr.
+Hazeltine, this is my friend, Cap'n John Baxter."
+
+The two shook hands, and then Captain Eri said:
+
+"John, I brought down them barrels for you. Hawkins got 'em here, same
+as he always does, by the skin of his teeth. Stand by now, 'cause I've
+got to deliver Mr. Hazeltine at the station, and it's gittin' late."
+
+John Baxter said nothing, beyond thanking his friend for the good turn,
+but he "stood by," as directed, and the barrels were quickly unloaded.
+As they were about to drive out of the yard, Captain Eri turned in his
+seat and said:
+
+"John, guess I'll be up some time to-morrow. I want to talk with you
+about that billiard-room business."
+
+The lamp in Baxter's hand shook.
+
+"God A'mighty's got his eye on that place, Eri Hedge," he shouted, "and
+on them that's runnin' it!"
+
+"That's all right," said the Captain. "Then the job's in good hands, and
+we ain't got to worry. Good-night."
+
+But, in spite of this assurance, Hazeltine noticed that his driver was
+silent and preoccupied until they reached the end of the road by the
+shore, when he brought the willing Daniel to a stand still and announced
+that it was time to "change cars."
+
+It is a fifteen-minute row from the mainland to the outer beach, and
+Captain Eri made it on schedule time. Hazeltine protested that he was
+used to a boat, and could go alone and return the dory in the morning,
+but the Captain wouldn't hear of it. The dory slid up on the sand and
+the passenger climbed out. The sound of the surf on the ocean side of
+the beach was no longer a steady roar, it was broken into splashing
+plunges and hisses with, running through it, a series of blows like
+those of a muffled hammer. The wind was wet and smelt salty.
+
+"There's the station," said the Captain, pointing to a row of lighted
+windows a quarter of a mile away. "It IS straight ahead this time, and
+the walkin's better'n it has been for the last few minutes. Good-night!"
+
+The electrician put his hand in his pocket, hesitated, and then withdrew
+it, empty.
+
+"I'm very much obliged to you for all this," he said. "I'm glad to have
+made your acquaintance, and I hope we shall see each other often."
+
+"Same here!" said the Captain heartily. "We're likely to git together
+once in a while, seein' as we're next-door neighbors, right across the
+road, as you might say. That's my berth over yonder, where you see them
+lights. It's jest 'round the corner from the road we drove down last.
+Good-night! Good luck to you!"
+
+And he settled himself for the row home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE "COME-OUTERS'" MEETING
+
+
+The house where the three Captains lived was as near salt water as it
+could be and remain out of reach of the highest tides. When Captain Eri,
+after beaching and anchoring his dory and stabling Daniel for the night,
+entered the dining room he found his two messmates deep in consultation,
+and with evidences of strenuous mental struggle written upon their
+faces. Captain Perez's right hand was smeared with ink and there were
+several spatters of the same fluid on Captain Jerry's perspiring nose.
+Crumpled sheets of note paper were on the table and floor, and Lorenzo,
+who was purring restfully upon the discarded jackets of the two
+mariners, alone seemed to be enjoying himself.
+
+"Well, you fellers look as if you'd had a rough v'yage," commented
+Captain Eri, slipping out of his own jacket and pulling his chair up
+beside those of his friends. "What's the trouble?"
+
+"Gosh, Eri, I'm glad to see you!" exclaimed Captain Perez, drawing the
+hand, just referred to, across his forehead and thereby putting
+that portion of his countenance into mourning. "How do you spell
+conscientious?"
+
+"I don't, unless it's owner's orders," was the answer. "What do you want
+to spell it for?"
+
+"We've writ much as four hundred advertisements, I do believe!" said
+Captain Jerry, "and there ain't one of them fit to feed to a pig. Perez
+here, he's got such hifalutin' notions, that nothin' less than a circus
+bill 'll do him. _I_ don't see why somethin' plain and sensible like
+'Woman wanted to do dishes and clean house for three men,' wouldn't be
+all right; but no, it's got to have more fancy trimmin's than a Sunday
+bunnit. Foolishness, I call it."
+
+"You'd have a whole lot of women answerin' that advertisement, now
+wouldn't you?" snorted Captain Perez hotly. "'To do dishes for three
+men!' That's a healthy bait to catch a wife with, ain't it? I can see
+'em comin'. I cal'late you'd stay single till Jedgment, and then you
+wouldn't git one. No, sir! The thing to do is to be sort of soft-soapy
+and high-toned. Let 'em think they're goin' to git a bargain when
+they git you. Make believe it's goin' to be a privilege to git sech a
+husband."
+
+"Well, 'tis," declared the sacrifice indignantly. "They might git a
+dum-sight worse one."
+
+"I cal'late that's so, Jerry," said Captain Eri. "Still, Perez ain't
+altogether wrong. Guess you'd better keep the dishwashin' out of it.
+I know dishwashin' would never git ME; I've got so I hate the sight of
+soap and hot water as bad as if I was a Portugee. Pass me that pen."
+
+Captain Perez gladly relinquished the writing materials, and Captain
+Eri, after two or three trials, by which he added to the paper
+decorations of the floor, produced the following:
+
+"Wife Wanted--By an ex-seafaring man of steady habbits. Must be willing
+to Work and Keep House shipshape and aboveboard. No sea-lawyers need
+apply. Address--Skipper, care the Nuptial Chime, Boston, Mass."
+
+The line relating to sea-lawyers was insisted upon by Captain Jerry.
+"That'll shut out the tonguey kind," he explained. The advertisement,
+with this addition, being duly approved, the required fifty cents was
+inclosed, as was a letter to the editor of the matrimonial journal
+requesting all answers to be forwarded to Captain Jeremiah Burgess,
+Orham, Mass. Then the envelope was directed and the stamp affixed.
+
+"There," said Captain Eri, "that's done. All you've got to do now,
+Jerry, is to pick out your wife and let us know what you want for a
+weddin' present. You're a lucky man."
+
+"Aw, let's talk about somethin' else," said the lucky one rather
+gloomily. "What's the news up at the depot, Eri?"
+
+They received the tidings of the coming of Hazeltine with the interest
+due to such an event. Captain Eri gave them a detailed account of his
+meeting with the new electrician, omitting, however, in consideration
+for the feelings of Captain Perez, to mention the fact that it was
+the Bartlett boy who started that gentleman upon his walk to the cable
+station.
+
+"Well, what did you think of him?" asked Captain Perez, when the recital
+was finished.
+
+"Seemed to me like a pretty good feller," answered Captain Eri
+deliberately. "He didn't git mad at the joke the gang played on him, for
+one thing. He ain't so smooth-tongued as Parker used to be and he didn't
+treat Baxter and me as if Cape Codders was a kind of animals, the way
+some of the summer folks do. He had the sense not to offer to pay me for
+takin' him over to the station, and I liked that. Take it altogether,
+he seemed like a pretty decent chap--for a New Yorker," he added, as an
+after thought.
+
+"But say," he said a moment later, "I've got some more news and it ain't
+good news, either. Web Saunders has got his liquor license."
+
+"I want to know!" exclaimed Captain Perez.
+
+"You don't tell me!" said Captain Jerry.
+
+Then they both said, "What will John Baxter do now?" And Captain Eri
+shook his head dubiously.
+
+The cod bit well next morning and Captain Eri did not get in from the
+Windward Ledge until afternoon. By the way, it may be well to explain
+that Captain Jerry's remarks concerning "settlin' down" and "restin',"
+which we chronicled in the first chapter must not be accepted too
+literally. While it is true that each of the trio had given up long
+voyages, it is equally true that none had given up work entirely. Some
+people might not consider it restful to rise at four every weekday
+morning and sail in a catboat twelve miles out to sea and haul a wet
+cod line for hours, not to mention the sail home and the cleaning and
+barreling of the catch. Captain Eri did that. Captain Perez was what
+he called "stevedore"--that is, general caretaker during the owner's
+absence, at Mr. Delancy Barry's summer estate on the "cliff road." As
+for Captain Jerry, he was janitor at the schoolhouse.
+
+The catch was heavy the next morning, as has been said, and by the time
+the last fish was split and iced and the last barrel sent to the railway
+station it was almost supper time. Captain Eri had intended calling
+on Baxter early in the day, but now he determined to wait until after
+supper.
+
+The Captain had bad luck in the "matching" that followed the meal, and
+it was nearly eight o'clock before he finished washing dishes. This
+distasteful task being completed, he set out for the Baxter homestead.
+
+The Captain's views on the liquor question were broader than those of
+many Orham citizens. He was an abstainer, generally speaking, but his
+scruples were not as pronounced as those of Miss Abigail Mullett,
+whose proudest boast was that she had refused brandy when the doctor
+prescribed it as the stimulant needed to save her life. Over and over
+again has Miss Abigail told it in prayer-meeting; how she "riz up" in
+her bed, "expectin' every breath to be the last" and said, "Dr. Palmer,
+if it's got to be liquor or death, then death referred to!"--meaning,
+it is fair to presume, that death was preferred rather than the brandy.
+With much more concerning her miraculous recovery through the aid of a
+"terbacker and onion poultice."
+
+On general principles the Captain objected to the granting of a license
+to a fellow like "Web" Saunders, but it was the effect that this action
+of the State authorities might have upon his friend John Baxter that
+troubled him most.
+
+For forty-five years John Baxter was called by Cape Cod people "as smart
+a skipper as ever trod a plank." He saved money, built an attractive
+home for his wife and daughter, and would, in the ordinary course of
+events, have retired to enjoy a comfortable old age. But his wife died
+shortly after the daughter's marriage to a Boston man, and on a voyage
+to Manila, Baxter himself suffered from a sunstroke and a subsequent
+fever, that left him a physical wreck and for a time threatened to
+unsettle his reason. He recovered a portion of his health and the
+threatened insanity disappeared, except for a religious fanaticism
+that caused him to accept the Bible literally and to interpret it
+accordingly. When his daughter and her husband were drowned in the
+terrible City of Belfast disaster, it is an Orham tradition that John
+Baxter, dressed in gunny-bags and sitting on an ash-heap, was found by
+his friends mourning in what he believed to be the Biblical "sackcloth
+and ashes." His little baby granddaughter had been looked out for by
+some kind friends in Boston. Only Captain Eri knew that John Baxter's
+yearly trip to Boston was made for the purpose of visiting the girl who
+was his sole reminder of the things that might have been, but even the
+Captain did not know that the money that paid her board and, as she grew
+older, for her gowns and schooling, came from the bigoted, stern old
+hermit, living alone in the old house at Orham.
+
+In Orham, and in other sections of the Cape as well, there is a sect
+called by the ungodly, "The Come-Outers." They were originally seceders
+from the Methodist churches who disapproved of modern innovations. They
+"come out" once a week to meet at the houses of the members, and theirs
+are lively meetings. John Baxter was a "Come-Outer," and ever since
+the enterprising Mr. Saunders opened his billiard room, the old man's
+tirades of righteous wrath had been directed against this den of
+iniquity. Since it became known that "Web" had made application for the
+license, it was a regular amusement for the unregenerate to attend the
+gatherings of the "Come-Outers" and hear John Baxter call down fire from
+Heaven upon the billiard room, its proprietor, and its patrons. Orham
+people had begun to say that John Baxter was "billiard-saloon crazy."
+
+And John Baxter was Captain Eri's friend, a friendship that had begun in
+school when the declaimer of Patrick Henry's "Liberty or Death" speech
+on Examination Day took a fancy to and refused to laugh at the little
+chap who tremblingly ventured to assert that he loved "little Pussy, her
+coat is so warm." The two had changed places until now it was Captain
+Eri who protected and advised.
+
+When the Captain rapped at John Baxter's kitchen door no one answered,
+and, after yelling "Ship ahoy!" through the keyhole a number of times,
+he was forced to the conclusion that his friend was not at home.
+
+"You lookin' fer Cap'n Baxter?" queried Mrs. Sarah Taylor, who lived
+just across the road. "He's gone to Come-Outers' meetin', I guess.
+There's one up to Barzilla Small's to-night."
+
+Mr. Barzilla Small lived in that part of the village called "down to the
+neck," and when the Captain arrived there, he found the parlor filled
+with the devout, who were somewhat surprised to see him.
+
+"Why, how do you do?" said Mrs. Small, resplendent in black "alpaca" and
+wearing her jet earrings. "I snum if you ain't a stranger! We'll have a
+reel movin' meetin' to-night because Mr. Perley's here, and he says
+he feels the sperrit a-workin'. Set right down there by the what-not.
+Luther," to her oldest but three, "give Cap'n Hedge your chair. You can
+set on the cricket. Yes, you can! Don't answer back!"
+
+"Aw, ma!" burst out the indignant Luther, "how d'yer think I'm goin' to
+set on that cricket? My laigs 'll be way up under my chin. Make Hart set
+on it; he's shorter'n me."
+
+"Shan't nuther, Lute Small!" declared Hartwell, a freckle-faced
+youngster, who was the next step downward in the family stair of
+children. "Set on it yourself. Make him, ma, now! You said he'd have
+to."
+
+"Now, ma, I--"
+
+"Be still, both of you! I sh'd think you'd be ashamed, with everybody
+here so! Oh, my soul and body!" turning to the company, "if it ain't
+enough to try a saint! Sometimes seems's if I SHOULD give up. You be
+thankful, Abigail," to Miss Mullett, who sat by the door, "that you
+ain't got nine in a family and nobody to help teach 'em manners. If
+Barzilla was like most men, he'd have some dis-CIP-line in the house;
+but no, I have to do it all, and--"
+
+Mr. Small, thus publicly rebuked, rose from his seat in the corner by
+the melodeon and proclaimed in a voice that he tried hard not to make
+apologetic:
+
+"Now, Luther, if I was you I'd be a good boy and mind ma."
+
+Even this awe-inspiring command had little effect upon the reluctant
+Luther, but Captain Eri, who, smiling and bowing right and left, had
+been working his passage to the other side of the room, announced
+that he was all right and would "squeeze in on the sofy 'side of Cap'n
+Baxter." So there was peace once more, that is, as much peace as half a
+dozen feminine tongues, all busy with different subjects, would allow.
+
+"Why, Eri" whispered John Baxter, "I didn't expect to see you here. I'm
+glad, though; Lord knows every God-fearin' man in this town has need to
+be on his knees this night. Have you heard about it?"
+
+"Cap'n John means about the rum-sellin' license that Web Saunders has
+got," volunteered Miss Melissa Busteed, leaning over from her seat in
+the patent rocker that had been the premium earned by Mrs. Small for
+selling one hundred and fifty pounds of tea for a much-advertised house.
+"Ain't it awful? I says to Prissy Baker this mornin', soon 's I heard of
+it, 'Prissy,' s' I, 'there 'll be a jedgment on this town sure's you're
+a livin' woman,' s' I. Says she, 'That's so, M'lissy,' s' she, and I
+says--"
+
+Well, when Miss Busteed talks, interruptions are futile, so Captain Eri
+sat silent, as the comments of at least one-tenth of the population of
+Orham were poured into his ears. The recitation was cut short by Mrs.
+Small's vigorous pounding on the center table.
+
+"We're blessed this evenin'," said the hostess with emotion, "in havin'
+Mr. Perley with us. He's goin' to lead the meetin'."
+
+The Reverend Mr. Perley--Reverend by courtesy; he had never been
+ordained--stood up, cleared his throat with vigor, rose an inch or two
+on the toes of a very squeaky pair of boots, sank to heel level again
+and announced that everyone would join in singing, "Hymn number one
+hundred and ten, omitting the second and fourth stanzas: hymn number
+one hundred and ten, second and fourth stanzas omitted." The melodeon,
+tormented by Mrs. Lurania Bassett, shrieked and groaned, and the hymn
+was sung. So was another, and yet another. Then Mr. Perley squeaked to
+his tiptoes again, subsided, and began a lengthy and fervent discourse.
+
+Mr. Perley had been a blacksmith in Ostable before he "got religion,"
+and now spent the major portion of his time in "boardin' 'round" with
+"Come-Outers" up and down the Cape and taking part in their meetings.
+His services at such gatherings paid for his food and lodging. He had
+been a vigorous horseshoer in the old days; now he preached just as
+vigorously.
+
+He spoke of the faithful few here gathered together. He spoke of the
+scoffing of those outside the pale and hinted at the uncomfortable
+future that awaited them. He ran over the various denominations one by
+one, and one by one showed them to be worshipers of idols and followers
+after strange gods. He sank hoarsely into the bass and quavered up into
+falsetto and a chorus of "Amens!" and "Hallelujahs!" followed him.
+
+"Oh, brothers and sisters!" he shouted, "here we are a-kneelin' at
+the altar's foot and what's goin' on outside? Why, the Devil's got
+his clutches in our midst. The horn of the wicked is exalted. They're
+sellin' rum--RUM--in this town! They're a-sellin' rum and drinkin' of it
+and gloryin' in their shame. But the Lord ain't asleep! He's got his eye
+on 'em! He's watchin' 'em! And some of these fine days he'll send down
+fire out of Heaven and wipe 'em off the face of the earth!" ("Amen!
+Glory! Glory! Glory!")
+
+John Baxter was on his feet, his lean face working, the perspiration
+shining on his forehead, his eyes gleaming like lamps under his rough
+white eyebrows, and his clenched fists pounding the back of the chair in
+front of him. His hallelujahs were the last to cease. Captain Eri had to
+use some little force to pull him down on the sofa again.
+
+Then Mrs. Small struck up, "Oh, brother, have you heard?" and they sang
+it with enthusiasm. Next, Miss Mullett told her story of the brandy
+and the defiance of the doctor. Nobody seemed much interested except a
+nervous young man with sandy hair and a celluloid collar, who had come
+with Mr. Tobias Wixon and was evidently a stranger. He had not heard it
+before and seemed somewhat puzzled when Miss Abigail repeated the "Death
+referred to" passage.
+
+There was more singing. Mrs. Small "testified." So did Barzilla, with
+many hesitations and false starts and an air of relief when it was
+over. Then another hymn and more testimony, each speaker denouncing the
+billiard saloon. Then John Baxter arose and spoke.
+
+He began by saying that the people of Orham had been slothful in the
+Lord's vineyard. They had allowed weeds to spring up and wax strong.
+They had been tried and found wanting.
+
+"I tell you, brothers and sisters," he declaimed, leaning over the chair
+back and shaking a thin forefinger in Mr. Perley's face, "God has given
+us a task to do and how have we done it? We've set still and let the
+Devil have his way. We've talked and talked, but what have we done?
+Nothin'! Nothin' at all; and now the grip of Satan is tighter on the
+town than it ever has been afore. The Lord set us a watch to keep and
+we've slept on watch. And now there's a trap set for every young man in
+this c'munity. Do you think that that hell-hole down yonder is goin' to
+shut up because we talk about it in meetin'? Do you think Web Saunders
+is goin' to quit sellin' rum because we say he ought to? Do you think
+God's goin' to walk up to that door and nail it up himself? No, sir! He
+don't work that way! We've talked and talked, and now it's time to DO.
+Ain't there anybody here that feels a call? Ain't there axes to chop
+with and fire to burn? I tell you, brothers, we've waited long enough!
+I--old as I am--am ready. Lord, here I am! Here I am--"
+
+He swayed, broke into a fit of coughing, and sank back upon the sofa,
+trembling all over and still muttering that he was ready. There was a
+hushed silence for a moment or two, and then a storm of hallelujahs and
+shouts. Mr. Perley started another hymn, and it was sung with tremendous
+enthusiasm.
+
+Just behind the nervous young man with the celluloid collar sat a stout
+individual with a bald head. This was Abijah Thompson, known by the
+irreverent as "Barking" Thompson, a nickname bestowed because of his
+peculiar habit of gradually puffing up, like a frog, under religious
+excitement, and then bursting forth in an inarticulate shout,
+disconcerting to the uninitiated. During Baxter's speech and the singing
+of the hymn his expansive red cheeks had been distended like balloons,
+and his breath came shorter and shorter. Mr. Perley had arisen and was
+holding up his hand for silence, when with one terrific "Boo!" "Barking"
+Thompson's spiritual exaltation exploded directly in the ear of the
+nervous stranger.
+
+The young man shot out of his chair as if Mr. Thompson had fired a
+dynamite charge beneath him. "Oh, the Devil!" he shrieked, and then
+subsided, blushing to the back of his neck.
+
+Somehow this interruption took the spirit out of the meeting. Giggles
+from Luther and the younger element interfered with the solemnity of Mr.
+Perley's closing remarks, and no one else was brave enough to "testify"
+under the circumstances. They sang again, and the meeting broke up. The
+nervous young man was the first one to leave.
+
+Captain Eri got his friend out of the clutches of the "Come-Outers" as
+quickly as possible, and piloted him down the road toward his home. John
+Baxter was silent and absent-minded, and most of the Captain's cheerful
+remarks concerning Orham affairs in general went unanswered. As they
+turned in at the gate the elder man said:
+
+"Eri, do you believe that man's law ought to be allowed to interfere
+with God's law?"
+
+"Well, John, in most cases it's my jedgment that it pays to steer pretty
+close to both of 'em."
+
+"S'pose God called you to break man's law and keep His; what would you
+do?"
+
+"Guess the fust thing would be to make sure 'twas the Almighty that was
+callin'. I don't want to say nothin' to hurt your feelin's, but I
+should advise the feller that thought that he had that kind of a call to
+'beware of imitations,' as the soap folks advertise."
+
+"Eri, I've got a call."
+
+"Now, John Baxter, you listen. You and me have been sailin' together, as
+you might say, for forty odd years. I ain't a religious man 'cordin' to
+your way of thinkin', but I've generally found that the Lord runs things
+most as well as us folks could run 'em. When there's a leak at one end
+of the schooner it don't pay to bore a hole at the other end to let the
+water out. Don't you worry no more about Web Saunders and that billiard
+saloon. The s'lectmen 'll attend to them afore very long. Why don't you
+go up to Boston for a couple of weeks? 'Twill do you good."
+
+"Do you think so, Eri? Well, maybe 'twould--maybe 'twould. Sometimes I
+feel as if my head was kind of wearin' out. I'll think about it."
+
+"Better not think any more; better go right ahead."
+
+"Well, I'll see. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night, John."
+
+
+"Perez," said Captain Eri, next day, "seems to me some kinds of religion
+is like whisky, mighty bad for a weak head. I wish somebody 'd invent a
+gold cure for Come-Outers."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A PICTURE SENT AND A CABLE TESTED
+
+
+Something over a fortnight went by and the three captains had received
+no answers from the advertisement in the Nuptial Chime. The suspense
+affected each of them in a different manner. Captain Jerry was nervous
+and apprehensive. He said nothing, and asked no questions, but it was
+noticeable that he was the first to greet the carrier of the "mail box"
+when that individual came down the road, and, as the days passed and
+nothing more important than the Cape Cod Item and a patent-medicine
+circular came to hand, a look that a suspicious person might have deemed
+expressive of hope began to appear in his face.
+
+Captain Perez, on the contrary, grew more and more disgusted with the
+delay. He spent a good deal of time wondering why there were no replies,
+and he even went so far as to suggest writing to the editor of
+the Chime. He was disposed to lay the blame upon Captain Eri's
+advertisement, and hinted that the latter was not "catchy" enough.
+
+Captain Eri, alone of the trio, got any amusement out of the situation.
+He pretended to see in Captain Jerry an impatient bridegroom and
+administered comfort in large doses by suggesting that, in all
+probability, there had been so many replies that it had been found
+necessary to charter a freight-car to bring them down.
+
+"Cheer up, Jerry!" he said. "It's tough on you, I know, but think of all
+them poor sufferin' females that's settin' up nights and worryin' for
+fear they won't be picked out. Why, say, when you make your ch'ice
+you'll have to let the rest know right off; 'twould be cruelty to
+animals not to. You ought to put 'em out of their misery quick's
+possible."
+
+Captain Jerry's laugh was almost dismal.
+
+The first batch of answers from the Chime came by an evening mail.
+Captain Eri happened to beat the post-office that night and brought them
+home himself. They filled three of his pockets to overflowing, and
+he dumped them by handfuls on the dining table, under the nose of the
+pallid Jerry.
+
+"What did I tell you, Jerry?" he crowed. "I knew they was on the way.
+What have you got to say about my advertisement now, Perez?"
+
+There were twenty-six letters altogether. It was surprising how
+many women were willing, even anxious, to ally themselves with "an
+ex-seafaring man of steady habbits." But most of the applicants were of
+unsatisfactory types. As Captain Perez expressed it, "There's too many
+of them everlastin' 'blondes' and things."
+
+There was one note, however, that even Captain Eri was disposed to
+consider seriously. It was postmarked Nantucket, was written on half a
+sheet of blue-lined paper, and read as follows:
+
+
+"MR. SKIPPER:
+
+"Sir: I saw your advertisements in the paper and think perhaps you might
+suit me. Please answer these questions by return mail. What is your
+religious belief? Do you drink liquor? Are you a profane man? If you
+want to, you might send me your real name and a photograph. If I think
+you will suit maybe we might sign articles.
+
+"Yours truly,
+
+"MARTHA B. SNOW.
+
+"NANTUCKET, MASS."
+
+
+"What I like about that is the shipshape way she puts it," commented
+Captain Perez. "She don't say that she 'jest adores the ocean.'"
+
+"She's mighty handy about takin' hold and bossin' things; there ain't
+no doubt of that," said Captain Eri. "Notice it's us that's got to suit
+her, not her us. I kind of like that 'signin' articles,' too. You bet
+she's been brought up in a seagoin' family."
+
+"I used to know a Jubal Snow that hailed from Nantucket," suggested
+Perez; "maybe she's some of his folks."
+
+"'Tain't likely," sniffed Captain Jerry. "There's more Snows in Nantucket
+than you can shake a stick at. You can't heave a rock without hittin'
+one."
+
+"I b'lieve she's jest the kind we want," said Captain Perez with
+conviction.
+
+"What do you say, Jerry?" asked Captain Eri. "You're goin' to be the
+lucky man, you know."
+
+"Oh, I don't know. What's the use of hurryin'? More 'n likely the next
+lot of letters 'll have somethin' better yit."
+
+"Now, that's jest like you, Jerry Burgess!" exclaimed Perez disgustedly.
+"Want to put off and put off and put off. And the house gittin' more
+like the fo'castle on a cattleboat every day."
+
+"I don't b'lieve myself you'd do much better, Jerry," said Captain Eri
+seriously. "I like that letter somehow. Seems to me it's worth a try."
+
+"Oh, all right! Have it your own way. Of course, _I_ ain't got nothin'
+to say. I'm only the divilish fool that's got to git married and keep
+boarders; that's all _I_ am!"
+
+"Be careful! She asked if you was a profane man."
+
+"Aw, shut up! You fellers are enough to make a minister swear. _I_ don't
+care what you do. Go ahead and write to her if you want to, only I give
+you fair warnin', I ain't goin' to have her if she don't suit. I ain't
+goin' to marry no scarecrow."
+
+Between them, and with much diplomacy, they soothed the indignant
+candidate for matrimony until he agreed to sign his name to a letter to
+the Nantucket lady. Then Captain Perez said:
+
+"But, I say, Jerry; she wants your picture. Have you got one to send
+her?"
+
+"I've got that daguerreotype I had took when I was married afore."
+
+He rummaged it out of his chest and displayed it rather proudly. It
+showed him as a short, sandy-haired youth, whose sunburned face beamed
+from the depths of an enormous choker, and whose head was crowned with a
+tall, flat-brimmed silk hat of a forgotten style.
+
+"I s'pose that might do," said Cap'n Perez hesitatingly.
+
+"Do! 'Twill HAVE to do, seein' it's all he's got," said Captain Eri.
+"Good land!" he chuckled; "look at that hat! Say, Jerry, she'll think
+you done your seafarin' in Noah's ark."
+
+But Captain Jerry was oblivious to sarcasm just then. He was gazing at
+the daguerreotype in a sentimental sort of way, blowing the dust from
+the glass, and tilting it up and down so as to bring it to the most
+effective light.
+
+"I swan!" he mused, "I don't know when I've looked at that afore. I
+remember when I bought that hat, jest as well. Took care of it and
+brushed it--my! my! I don't know but it's somewheres around now. I
+thought I was jest about the ticket then, and--and I wa'n't BAD lookin',
+that's a fact!"
+
+This last with a burst of enthusiasm.
+
+"Ho, ho! Perez," roared Captain Eri; "Jerry's fallin' in love with his
+own picture. Awful thing for one so young, ain't it?"
+
+"I ain't such a turrible sight older 'n you be, Eri Hedge," sputtered
+the prospective bridegroom with righteous indignation. Then he added in
+a rather crestfallen tone, "But I am a heap older 'n I was when I had
+that daguerreotype took. See here; if I send that Nantucket woman this
+picture won't she notice the difference when she sees me?"
+
+"What if she does?" broke in Captain Perez. "You can tell her how 'twas.
+Talk her over. A feller that's been married, like you, ought to be able
+to talk ANY woman over."
+
+Captain Jerry didn't appear sanguine concerning his ability to "talk her
+over," but his fellow-conspirators made light of his feeble objections,
+and the daguerreotype, carefully wrapped, was mailed the next morning,
+accompanied by a brief biographical sketch of the original and his
+avowed adherence to the Baptist creed and the Good Templar's abstinence.
+
+"I hope she'll hurry up and answer," said the impatient Captain Perez.
+"I want to get this thing settled one way or another. Don't you, Jerry?"
+
+"Yes," was the hesitating reply. "One way or another."
+
+Captain Eri had seen John Baxter several times since the evening of
+the "Come-Outers'" meeting. The old man was calmer apparently, and was
+disposed to take the billiard-saloon matter less seriously, particularly
+as it was reported that the town selectmen were to hold a special
+meeting to consider the question of allowing Mr. Saunders to continue in
+business. The last-named gentleman had given what he was pleased to call
+a "blow-out" to his regular patrons in celebration of the granting of
+the license, and "Squealer" Wixon and one or two more spent a dreary day
+and night in the town lock-up in consequence. Baxter told the Captain
+that he had not yet made up his mind concerning the proposed Boston
+trip, but he thought "more 'n likely" he should go.
+
+Captain Eri was obliged to be content with this assurance, but he
+determined to keep a close watch on his friend just the same.
+
+He had met Ralph Hazeltine once or twice since the latter's arrival in
+Orham, and, in response to questions as to how he was getting on at the
+station, the new electrician invariably responded, "First-rate." Gossip,
+however, in the person of Miss Busteed, reported that the operators were
+doing their best to keep Mr. Hazeltine's lot from being altogether a bed
+of roses, and there were dark hints of something more to come.
+
+On the morning following the receipt of the letter from the Nantucket
+lady, Captain Eri was busy at his fish shanty, putting his lines in
+order and sewing a patch on the mainsail of his catboat. These necessary
+repairs had prevented his taking the usual trip to the fishing grounds.
+Looking up from his work, he saw, through the open door, Ralph Hazeltine
+just stepping out of the cable-station skiff. He tucked his sail needle
+into the canvas and hailed the young man with a shouted "Good-morning!"
+
+"How do you do, Cap'n Hedge?" said Hazeltine, walking toward the shanty.
+"Good weather, isn't it?"
+
+"Tip-top. Long 's the wind stays westerly and there ain't no
+Sunday-school picnics on, we don't squabble with the weather folks.
+The only thing that 'll fetch a squall with a westerly wind is a
+Sunday-school picnic. That 'll do it, sure as death. Busy over across?"
+
+"Pretty busy just now. The cable parted day before yesterday, and I've
+been getting things ready for the repair ship. She was due this morning,
+and we're likely to hear from her at any time."
+
+"You don't say! Cable broke, hey? Now it's a queer thing, but I've never
+been inside that station since 'twas built. Too handy, I guess. I've got
+a second cousin up in Charlestown, lived there all his life, and he's
+never been up in Bunker Hill monument yit. Fust time I landed in Boston
+I dug for that monument, and I can tell you how many steps there is in
+it to this day. If that cable station was fifty mile off I'd have been
+through it two weeks after it started up, but bein' jest over there, I
+ain't ever done it. Queer, ain't it?"
+
+"Perhaps you'd like to go over with me. I'm going up to the post-office,
+and when I come back I should be glad of your company."
+
+"Well, now, that's kind of you. I cal'late I will. You might sing out
+as you go past. I've got a ha'f-hour job on this sail and then it's my
+watch below."
+
+The cable station at Orham is a low whitewashed building with many
+windows. The vegetation about it is limited exclusively to "beach grass"
+and an occasional wild-plum bush. The nearest building which may be
+reached without a boat is the life-saving station, two miles below. The
+outer beach changes its shape every winter. The gales tear great holes
+in its sides, and then, as if in recompense, throw up new shoals and
+build new promontories. From the cable-station doorway in fair weather
+may be counted the sails of over one hundred vessels going and coming
+between Boston and New York. They come and go, and, alas! sometimes
+stop by the way. Then the life-saving crews are busy and the Boston
+newspapers report another wreck. All up and down the outer beach are
+the sun-whitened bones of schooners and ships; and all about them, and
+partially covering them, is sand, sand, sand, as white and much coarser
+than granulated sugar.
+
+Hazeltine's post-office trip and other errands had taken much more
+time than he anticipated, and more than two hours had gone by before
+he called for Captain Eri. During the row to the beach the electrician
+explained to the Captain the processes by which a break in the cable is
+located and repaired.
+
+"You see," he said, "as soon as the line breaks we set about finding
+where it is broken. To do this we use an instrument called the
+Wheatstone bridge. In this case the break is about six hundred miles
+from the American shore. The next thing is to get at the company's
+repair ship. She lies, usually, at Halifax when she isn't busy, and
+that is where she was this time. We wired her and she left for the spot
+immediately. It was up to me to get ready the testing apparatus--we
+generally set up special instruments for testing. Judging by the
+distance, the ship should have been over the break early this morning.
+She will grapple for the broken cable ends, and as soon as she catches
+our end she'll send us a message. It's simple enough."
+
+"Like takin' wormwood tea--easy enough if you've been brought up that
+way. I think I'd make more money catchin' codfish, myself," commented
+the Captain dryly.
+
+Ralph laughed. "Well, it really is a very simple matter," he said. "The
+only thing we have to be sure of is that our end of the line is ready
+by the time the ship reaches the break. If the weather is bad the
+ship can't work, and so, when she does work, she works quick. I had my
+instruments in condition yesterday, so we're all right this time."
+
+They landed at the little wharf and plodded through the heavy sand.
+
+"Dismal-looking place, isn't it?" said Hazeltine, as he opened the back
+door of the station.
+
+"Well, I don't know; it has its good p'ints," replied his companion.
+"Your neighbors' hens don't scratch up your garden, for one thing. What
+do you do in here?"
+
+"This is the room where we receive and send. This is the receiver."
+
+The captain noticed with interest the recorder, with its two brass
+supports and the little glass tube, half filled with ink, that, when
+the cable was working, wrote the messages upon the paper tape traveling
+beneath it.
+
+"Pretty nigh as finicky as a watch, ain't it?" he observed.
+
+"Fully as delicate in its way. Do you see this little screw on the
+centerpiece? Turn that a little, one way or the other, and the operator
+on the other side might send until doomsday, we wouldn't know it. I'll
+show you the living rooms and the laboratory now."
+
+Just then the door at the other end of the room opened, and a man, whom
+Captain Eri recognized as one of the operators, came in. He started when
+he saw Hazeltine and turned to go out again. Ralph spoke to him:
+
+"Peters," he said, "where is Mr. Langley?"
+
+"Don't know," answered the fellow gruffly.
+
+"Wait a minute. Tell me where Mr. Langley is."
+
+"I don't know where he is. He went over to the village a while ago."
+
+"Where are the rest of the men?"
+
+"Don't know."
+
+The impudence and thinly veiled hostility in the man's tone were
+unmistakable. Hazeltine hesitated, seemed about to speak, and then
+silently led the way to the hall.
+
+"I'll show you the laboratory later on," he said. "We'll go up to the
+testing room now." Then he added, apparently as much to himself as to
+his visitor, "I told those fellows that I wouldn't be back until noon."
+
+There was a door at the top of the stairs. Ralph opened this quietly. As
+they passed through, Captain Eri noticed that Peters had followed them
+into the hall and stood there, looking up.
+
+The upper hall had a straw matting on the floor. There was another door
+at the end of the passage, and this was ajar. Toward it the electrician
+walked rapidly. From the room behind the door came a shout of laughter;
+then someone said:
+
+"Better give it another turn, hadn't I, to make sure? If two turns fixes
+it so we don't hear for a couple of hours, another one ought to shut it
+up for a week. That's arithmetic, ain't it?"
+
+The laugh that followed this was cut short by Hazeltine's throwing the
+door wide open.
+
+Captain Eri, close at the electrician's heels, saw a long room, empty
+save for a few chairs and a table in the center. Upon this table stood
+the testing instruments, exactly like those in the receiving room
+downstairs. Three men lounged in the chairs, and standing beside the
+table, with his fingers upon the regulating screw at the centerpiece
+of the recorder, was another, a big fellow, with a round, smooth-shaven
+face.
+
+The men in the chairs sprang to their feet as Hazeltine came in. The
+face of the individual by the table turned white and his fingers fell
+from the regulating screw, as though the latter were red hot. The
+Captain recognized the men; they were day operators whom he had met in
+the village many times. Incidentally, they were avowed friends of the
+former electrician, Parker. The name of the taller one was McLoughlin.
+
+No one spoke. Ralph strode quickly to the table, pushed McLoughlin to
+one side and stooped over the instruments. When he straightened up,
+Captain Eri noticed that his face also was white, but evidently not from
+fear. He turned sharply and looked at the four operators, who were doing
+their best to appear at ease and not succeeding. The electrician looked
+them over, one by one. Then he gave a short laugh.
+
+"You damned sneaks!" he said, and turned again to the testing apparatus.
+
+He began slowly to turn the regulating screw on the recorder. He had
+given it but a few revolutions when the point of the little glass
+siphon, that had been tracing a straight black line on the sliding tape,
+moved up and down in curving zigzags. Hazeltine turned to the operator.
+
+"Palmer," he said curtly, "answer that call."
+
+The man addressed seated himself at the table, turned a switch, and
+clicked off a message. After a moment the line on the moving tape
+zigzagged again. Ralph glanced at the zigzags and bit his lip.
+
+"Apologize to them," he said to Palmer. "Tell them we regret exceedingly
+that the ship should have been kept waiting. Tell them our recorder was
+out of adjustment."
+
+The operator cabled the message. The three men at the end of the room
+glanced at each other; this evidently was not what they expected.
+
+Steps sounded on the stairs and Peters hurriedly entered.
+
+"The old man's comin'," he said.
+
+Mr. Langley, the superintendent of the station, had been in the
+company's employ for years. He had been in charge of the Cape Cod
+station since it was built, and he liked the job. He knew cable work,
+too, from A to Z, and, though he was a strict disciplinarian, would
+forgive a man's getting drunk occasionally, sooner than condone
+carelessness. He was eccentric, but even those who did not like him
+acknowledged that he was "square."
+
+He came into the room, tossed a cigar stump out of the window, and
+nodded to Captain Eri.
+
+"How are you, Captain Hedge?" he said. Then, stepping to the table, he
+picked up the tape.
+
+"Everything all right, Mr. Hazeltine?" he asked. "Hello! What does this
+mean? They say they have been calling for two hours without getting an
+answer. How do you explain that?"
+
+It was very quiet in the room when the electrician answered.
+
+"The recorder here was out of adjustment, sir," he said simply.
+
+"Out of adjustment! I thought you told me everything was in perfect
+order before you left this morning."
+
+"I thought so, sir, but I find the screw was too loose. That would
+account for the call not reaching us."
+
+"Too loose! Humph!" The superintendent looked steadfastly at Hazeltine,
+then at the operators, and then at the electrician once more.
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine," he said at length, "I will hear what explanations you
+may have to make in my office later on. I will attend to the testing
+myself. That will do."
+
+Captain Eri silently followed his young friend to the back door of the
+station. Hazeltine had seen fit to make no comment on the scene just
+described, and the captain did not feel like offering any. They were
+standing on the steps when the big operator, McLoughlin, came out of the
+building behind them.
+
+"Well," he said gruffly to the electrician. "Shall I quit now or wait
+until Saturday?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Shall I git out now or wait till Saturday night? I suppose you'll have
+me fired."
+
+Then Hazeltine's pent-up rage boiled over.
+
+"If you mean that I'll tell Mr. Langley of your cowardly trick and have
+you discharged--No! I don't pay my debts that way. But I'll tell you
+this,--you and your sneaking friends. If you try another game like
+that,--yes, or if you so much as speak to me, other than on business
+while I'm here, I WILL fire you--out of the window. Clear out!"
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine," said Captain Eri a few moments later, "I hope you don't
+mind my sayin' that I like you fust-rate. Me and Perez and Jerry ain't
+the biggest bugs in town, but we like to have our friends come and see
+us. I wish you'd drop in once 'n a while."
+
+"I certainly will," said the young man, and the two shook hands. That
+vigorous handshake was enough of itself to convince Ralph Hazeltine that
+he had made, at any rate, one friend in Orham.
+
+And we may as well add here that he had made two. For that evening Jack
+McLoughlin said to his fellow conspirators:
+
+"He said he'd fire me out of the window,--ME, mind you! And, by thunder!
+I believe he'd have DONE it too. Boys, there ain't any more 'con' games
+played on that kid while I'm around--Parker or no Parker. He's white,
+that's what HE is!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE WOMAN FROM NANTUCKET
+
+
+Conversation among the captains was, for the next two days, confined to
+two topics, speculation as to how soon they might expect a reply from
+the Nantucket female and whether or not Mr. Langley would discharge
+Hazeltine. On the latter point Captain Eri was decided.
+
+"He won't be bounced," said the Captain; "now you just put that down in
+your log. Langley ain't a fool, and he can put two and two together as
+well as the next feller. If I thought there was any need of it, I'd just
+drop him a hint myself, but there ain't, so I shan't put my oar in. But
+I wish you two could have heard that youngster talk to that McLoughlin
+critter; 'twould have done you good. That boy's all right."
+
+Captain Jerry was alone when the expected letter came. He glanced at
+the postmark, saw that it was Nantucket, and stuck the note behind
+the clock. He did his best to forget it, but he looked so guilty when
+Captain Perez returned at supper time that that individual suspected
+something, made his friend confess, and, a little later when Captain Eri
+came in, the envelope, bearing many thumb-prints, was propped up against
+the sugar bowl in the middle of the table.
+
+"We didn't open it, Eri," said Perez proudly. "We did want to, but we
+thought all hands ought to be on deck when anything as important as this
+was goin' to be done."
+
+"He's been holdin' it up to the light for the last ha'f hour," sneered
+Captain Jerry. "Anybody 'd think it had a million dollars in it. For the
+land's sake, open it, Eri, 'fore he has a fit!"
+
+Captain Eri picked up the letter, looked it over very deliberately, and
+then tore off the end of the envelope. The inclosure was another
+sheet of note paper like the first epistle. The Captain took out his
+spectacles, wiped them, and read the following aloud:
+
+
+"CAPTAIN JEREMIAH BURGESS.
+
+"Sir: I like your looks well enough, though it don't pay to put too much
+dependence in looks, as nobody knows better than me. Besides, I judge
+that picture was took quite a spell ago. Anyway, you look honest, and
+I am willing to risk money enough to carry me to Orham and back, though
+the dear land knows I ain't got none to throw away. If we don't agree
+to sign articles, I suppose likely you will be willing to stand half the
+fare. That ain't any more than right, the way I look at it. I shall come
+to Orham on the afternoon train, Thursday. Meet me at the depot.
+
+"Yours truly,
+
+"MARTHA B. SNOW.
+
+"P. S.--I should have liked it better if you was a Methodist, but we
+can't have everything just as we want it in this world."
+
+
+Nobody spoke for a moment after the reading of this intensely practical
+note. Captain Eri whistled softly, scratched his head, and then read the
+letter over again to himself. At length Captain Perez broke the spell.
+
+"Jerusalem!" he exclaimed. "She don't lose no time, does she?"
+
+"She's pretty prompt, that's a fact," assented Captain Eri.
+
+Captain Jerry burst forth in indignation:
+
+"Is THAT all you've got to say?" he inquired with sarcasm, "after
+gittin' me into a scrape like this? Well now, I tell you one thing, I--"
+
+"Don't go on your beam ends, Jerry," interrupted Captain Eri. "There
+ain't no harm done yit."
+
+"Ain't no harm done? Why how you talk, Eri Hedge! Here's a woman that
+I ain't never seen, and might be a hundred years old, for all I know,
+comin' down here to-morrow night to marry me by main force, as you might
+say, and you set here and talk about--"
+
+"Now, hold on, hold on, Jerry! She ain't goin' to marry you unless you
+want her to, 'tain't likely. More I think of it, the more I like the
+woman's way of doin' things. She's got sense, there's no doubt of that.
+You can't sell HER a cat in a bag. She's comin' down here to see you and
+talk the thing over, and I glory in her spunk."
+
+"Wants me to pay her fare! I see myself doin' it! I've got ways enough
+to spend my money without paying fares for Nantucket folks."
+
+"If you and she sign articles, as she calls it, you'll have to pay more
+than fares," said Captain Perez, in a matter-of-fact tone. "I think same
+as Eri does; she's a smart woman. We'll have to meet her at the depot,
+of course."
+
+"Well _I_ won't! Cheeky thing! Let her find out where I am! I cal'late
+she'll have to do some huntin'."
+
+"Now, see here, Jerry," said Captain Eri, "you was jest as anxious to
+have one of us get married as anybody else. You haven't got to marry
+the woman unless you want to, but you have got to help us see the thing
+through. I wish myself that we hadn't been quite so pesky anxious
+to give her the latitude and longitude, and had took some sort of an
+observation ourselves; but we didn't, and now we've got to treat her
+decent. You'll be at that depot along with Perez and me."
+
+When Captain Eri spoke in that tone his two cronies usually obeyed
+orders. Even the rebellious Jerry, who had a profound respect for his
+younger friend, gave in after some grumbling.
+
+They sat up until late, speculating concerning the probable age and
+appearance of the expected visitor. Captain Perez announced that he
+didn't know why it was, but he had a notion that she was about forty
+and slim. Captain Jerry, who was in a frame of mind where agreement
+with anyone was out of the question, gave it as his opinion that she
+was thirty odd and rather plump. Captain Eri didn't hazard a guess, but
+suggested that they wait and see.
+
+But even Captain Eri's calmness was more or less assumed, for he did not
+go fishing the next morning, but stayed about the house, whittling at
+the model of a clipper ship and tormenting Captain Jerry. The model was
+one that he had been at work upon at odd times ever since he gave up
+sea-going. It had never been completed for the very good reason that
+when one part was finished the Captain tore another part to pieces, and
+began over again. It was a sort of barometer of his feelings, and when
+his companions saw him take down the clipper and go to work, they knew
+he was either thinking deeply upon a perplexing problem or was troubled
+in his mind.
+
+Captain Perez sang a good deal, principally confining his musical
+efforts to a ballad with a chorus of,
+
+     |          "Storm along, John;
+     |           John, storm along;
+     |     Ain't I glad my day's work's done!"
+
+Also, he glanced at his watch every few minutes and then went to consult
+the chronometer to make sure of the time.
+
+Captain Jerry went up to the schoolhouse and gave its vacant rooms a
+thorough sweeping for no particular reason except to be doing something.
+His appetite was poor, and he actually forgot to feed Lorenzo, a
+hitherto unheard-of slight, and one that brought down upon him a long
+lecture from Captain Eri, who vowed that loss of memory was a sure sign
+of lovesickness.
+
+They started for the railway station immediately after supper. As they
+passed John Baxter's house they noticed a light in an upper chamber, and
+wondered if the old man was ill. Captain Eri would have stopped to find
+out, but Captain Perez insisted that it could be done just as well when
+they came back, and expressed a fear that they might miss the train.
+Captain Jerry hadn't spoken since they left home, and walked gloomily
+ahead with his hands in his pockets.
+
+Mr. "Web" Saunders, fat and in his pink-striped shirtsleeves, sat upon
+the steps of his saloon as they went by. He wished them an unctuous
+good-evening. The oily smoothness of Mr. Saunders' voice cannot be
+described with plain pen and ink; it gurgled with sweetness, like
+molasses poured from a jug. This was not a special tone put on for the
+occasion; no one except his wife ever heard him speak otherwise.
+
+The response from the three captains was not enthusiastic, but Mr.
+Saunders continued to talk of the weather, the fishing, and the
+cranberry crop until a customer came and gave them a chance to get away.
+
+"Slick! slick! slick!" commented Captain Eri, as they hurried along.
+"Blessed if he don't pretty nigh purr. I like a cat fust-rate, but I'm
+always suspicious of a cat-man. You know he's got claws, but you can't
+tell where he's goin' to use 'em. When a feller like that comes slidin'
+around and rubbin' his head against my shin, I always feel like keepin'
+t'other foot ready for a kick. You're pretty sartin to need it one time
+or another."
+
+The train was nearly an hour late this evening, owing to a hot box, and
+the "ex-seafaring man" and his two friends peered anxiously out at it
+from around the corner of the station. The one coach stopped directly
+under the lights, and they could see the passengers as they came down
+the steps. Two or three got out, but these were men. Then came an
+apparition that caused Captain Jerry to gasp and clutch at Perez for
+support.
+
+Down the steps of the car came a tall, coal-black negress, and in her
+hand was a canvas extension case, on the side of which was blazoned in
+two-inch letters the fateful name, "M. B. Snow, Nantucket."
+
+Captain Eri gazed at this astounding spectacle for a full thirty
+seconds. Then he woke up.
+
+"Godfrey domino!" he ejaculated. "BLACK! BLACK! Run! Run for your lives,
+'fore she sees us!"
+
+This order was superfluous. Captain Jerry was already half-way to the
+fence, and going at a rate which bid fair to establish a record for
+his age. The others fell into his wake, and the procession moved across
+country like a steeplechase.
+
+They climbed over stone walls and splashed into meadows. They took every
+short cut between the station and their home. As they came in sight of
+the latter, Captain Perez' breath gave out almost entirely.
+
+"Heave to!" he gasped. "Heave to, or I'll founder. I wouldn't run
+another step for all the darkies in the West Indies."
+
+Captain Eri paused, but it was only after a struggle that Captain Jerry
+was persuaded to halt.
+
+"I shan't do it, Eri!" he vowed wildly. "I shan't do it! There ain't no
+use askin' me; I won't marry that black woman! I won't, by thunder!"
+
+"There! there! Jerry!" said Captain Eri soothingly. "Nobody wants you
+to. There ain't no danger now. She didn't see us."
+
+"Ain't no danger! There you go again, Eri Hedge! She'll ask where I live
+and come right down in the depot wagon. Oh! Lordy! Lordy!"
+
+The frantic sacrifice was about to bound away again, when Captain Eri
+caught him by the arm.
+
+"I'll tell you what," he said, "we'll scoot for Eldredge's shanty and
+hide there till she gits tired and goes away. P'raps she won't come,
+anyhow."
+
+The deserted fish shanty, property of the heirs of the late Nathaniel
+Eldredge, was situated in a hollow close to the house. In a few moments
+the three were inside, with a sawhorse against the door. Then Captain
+Eri pantingly sat down on an overturned bucket and laughed until the
+tears came into his eyes.
+
+"That's it, laff!" almost sobbed Captain Jerry. "Set there and tee-hee
+like a Bedlamite. It's what you might expect. Wait till the rest of the
+town finds out about this; they'll do the laffin' then, and you won't
+feel so funny. We'll never hear the last of it in this world. If that
+darky comes down here, I'll--I'll drown her; I will--"
+
+"I don't blame Jerry," said Perez indignantly. "I don't see much to laff
+at. Oh, my soul and body there she comes now."
+
+They heard the rattle of a heavy carriage, and, crowding together at the
+cobwebbed window, saw the black shape of the "depot wagon" rock past.
+They waited, breathless, until they saw it go back again up the road.
+
+"Did you lock the dining-room door, Perez?" asked Captain Eri.
+
+"Course I didn't. Why should I?"
+
+It was a rather senseless question. Nobody locks doors in Orham except
+at bedtime.
+
+"Humph!" grunted Captain Eri. "She'll see the light in the dining room,
+and go inside and wait, more 'n likely. Well, there's nothin' for us to
+do but to stay here for a while, and then, if she ain't gone, one of
+us 'll have to go up and tell her she won't suit and pay her fare home,
+that's all. I think Jerry ought to be the one," he added mischievously.
+"He bein' the bridegroom, as you might say."
+
+"Me!" almost shouted the frantic Captain Jerry. "You go to grass! You
+fellers got me into this scrape, and now let's see you git me out of it.
+I don't stir one step."
+
+They sat there in darkness, the silence unbroken, save for an occasional
+chuckle from the provoking Eri. Perez, however, was meditating, and
+observed, after a while:
+
+"Snow! That's a queer name for a darky, ain't it?"
+
+"That colored man up at Barry's place was named White," said Captain
+Jerry, "and he was black as your hat. Names don't count."
+
+"They say colored folks make good cooks, Jerry," slyly remarked Eri.
+"Maybe you'd better think it over."
+
+The unlucky victim of chance did not deign an answer, and the minutes
+crept slowly by. After a long while they heard someone whistling. Perez
+went to the window to take an observation.
+
+"It's a man," he said disappointedly. "He's been to our house, too. My
+land! I hope he didn't go in. It's that feller Hazeltine; that's who
+'tis."
+
+"Is it?" exclaimed Eri eagerly. "That's so! so 'tis. Let's give him a
+hail."
+
+Before he could be stopped he had pulled the saw-horse from the door,
+had opened the latter a little way, and, with his face at the opening,
+was whistling shrilly.
+
+The electrician looked up and down the dark road in a puzzled sort of
+way, but evidently could not make up his mind from what quarter the
+whistles came.
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine!" hailed the Captain, in what might be called a whispered
+yell or a shouted whisper. "Mr. Hazeltine! Here, on your lee bow. In the
+shanty."
+
+The word "shanty" was the only part of the speech that brought light to
+Ralph's mind, but that was sufficient; he came down the hill, left the
+road, and plunged through the blackberry vines to the door.
+
+"Who is it?" he asked. "Why, hello, Captain! What on earth--"
+
+Captain Eri signaled him to silence, and then, catching his arm, pulled
+him into the shanty and shut the door. Captain Jerry hastened to set the
+saw-horse in place again.
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine," said Captain Eri, "let me make you acquainted with
+Cap'n Perez and Cap'n Jerry, shipmates of mine. You've heard me speak of
+'em."
+
+Ralph, in the darkness, shook two big hands and heard whispered voices
+express themselves as glad to know him.
+
+"You see," continued Eri in a somewhat embarrassed fashion, "we're sort
+of layin' to, as yer might say, waitin' to git our bearin's. We ain't
+out of our heads; I tell you that, 'cause I know that's what it looks
+like."
+
+The bewildered Hazeltine laughed and said he was glad to hear it.
+To tell the truth, he had begun to think that something or other had
+suddenly driven his nearest neighbors crazy.
+
+"I--I--I don't know how to explain it to you," the Captain stumbled on.
+"Fact is, I guess I won't jest yit, if you don't mind. It does sound
+so pesky ridic'lous, although it ain't, when you understand it. What we
+want to know is, have you been to our house and is there anybody there?"
+
+"Why, yes, I've been there. I rowed over and dropped in for a minute,
+as you suggested the other day. The housekeeper--I suppose it was the
+housekeeper--that opened the door, said you were out, and I--"
+
+He was interrupted by a hopeless groan.
+
+"I knew it!" wailed Captain Jerry. "I knew it! And you said there wa'n't
+no danger, Eri!"
+
+"Hush up, Jerry, a minute, for the love of goodness! What was she doin',
+Mr. Hazeltine, this woman you thought was the housekeeper? Did she look
+as if she was gettin' ready to go out? Did she have her bunnit on?"
+
+"No. She seemed to be very much at home. That's why I thought--"
+
+But again Captain Jerry broke in, "Well, by mighty!" he ejaculated.
+"That's nice, now, ain't it! SHE goin' away! You bet she ain't! She's
+goin' to stay there and wait, if it's forever. She's got too good a
+thing. Jest as like 's not, M'lissy Busteed, or some other gab machine
+like her, 'll be the next one to call, and if they see that great black
+critter! Oh! my soul!"
+
+"Black!" said Ralph amazedly. "Why, the woman at your house isn't black.
+She's as white as I am, and not bad-looking for a woman of her age."
+
+"WHAT?" This was the trio in chorus. Then Captain Eri said:
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine, now, honest and true, is that a fact?"
+
+"Of course it's a fact."
+
+The Captain wiped his forehead. "Mr. Hazeltine," he said, "if anybody
+had told me a fortn't ago that I was one of the three biggest fools in
+Orham, I'd have prob'ly rared up some. As 'tis now, I cal'late I'd thank
+him for lettin' me off so easy. You'll have to excuse us to-night, I'm
+afraid. We're in a ridic'lous scrape that we've got to git out of all
+alone. I'll tell you 'bout it some day. Jest now wish you'd keep this
+kind of quiet to oblige me."
+
+Hazeltine saw that this was meant as a gentle hint for his immediate
+departure, and although he had a fair share of curiosity, felt there
+was nothing else to do. He promised secrecy, promised faithfully to call
+again later in the week, and then, the sawhorse having been removed by
+Captain Perez,--Captain Jerry was apparently suffering from a sort of
+dazed paralysis,--he went away. As soon as he had gone, Captain Eri
+began to lay down the law.
+
+"Now then," he said, "there's been some sort of a mistake; that's plain
+enough. More 'n likely, the darky took the wrong satchel when she got up
+to come out of the car. That woman at the house is the real Marthy Snow
+all right, and we've got to go right up there and see her. Come on!"
+
+But Captain Jerry mutinied outright. He declared that the sight of that
+darky had sickened him of marrying forever, and that he would not see
+the candidate from Nantucket, nor any other candidate. No persuasion
+could budge him. He simply would not stir from that shanty until the
+house had been cleared of female visitors.
+
+"Go and see her yourself, if you're so set on it," he declared. "I
+shan't!"
+
+"All right," said Captain Eri calmly. "I will. I'll tell her you're
+bashful, but jest dyin' to be married, and that she can have you if she
+only waits long enough."
+
+With this he turned on his heel and walked out.
+
+"Hold on, Eri!" shouted the frantic Jerry. "Don't you do it! Don't you
+tell her that! Land of love, Perez, do you s'pose he will?"
+
+"I don't know," was the answer in a disgusted tone. "You hadn't ought to
+have been so pig-headed, Jerry."
+
+Captain Eri, with set teeth and determination written on his face,
+walked straight to the dining-room door. Drawing a long breath, he
+opened it and stepped inside. A woman, who had been sitting in Captain
+Perez' rocker, rose as he entered.
+
+The woman looked at the Captain and the Captain looked at her. She was
+of middle age, inclined to stoutness, with a pair of keen eyes behind
+brass-rimmed spectacles, and was dressed in a black "alpaca" gown that
+was faded a little in places and had been neatly mended in others. She
+spoke first.
+
+"You're not Cap'n Burgess?" she said.
+
+"No, ma'am," said the Captain uneasily. "My name is Hedge. I'm a sort of
+messmate of his. You're Miss Snow?"
+
+"Mrs. Snow. I'm a widow."
+
+They shook hands. Mrs. Snow calmly expectant; the Captain very nervous
+and not knowing how to begin.
+
+"I feel as if I knew you, Cap'n Hedge," said the widow, as the Captain
+slid into his own rocker. "The boy on the depot wagon told me a lot
+about you and Cap'n Ryder and Cap'n Burgess."
+
+"Did, hey?" The Captain inwardly vowed vengeance on his chum's
+grandnephew. "Hope he gave us a clean bill."
+
+"Well, he didn't say nothin' against you, if that's what you mean. If he
+had, I don't think it would have made much diff'rence. I've lived
+long enough to want to find out things for myself, and not take folks'
+say-so."
+
+The lady seeming to expect some sort of answer to this statement,
+Captain Eri expressed his opinion that the plan of finding out things
+for one's self was a good "idee." Then, after another fidgety silence,
+he observed that it was a fine evening. There being no dispute on this
+point, he endeavored to think of something else to say. Mrs. Snow,
+however, saved him the trouble.
+
+"Cap'n Hedge," she said, "as I'm here on what you might call a bus'ness
+errand, and as I've been waitin' pretty nigh two hours already, p'raps
+we'd better talk about somethin' besides fine evenin's. I've got to be
+lookin' up a hotel or boardin' house or somewheres to stay to-night, and
+I can't wait much longer. I jedge you got my letter and was expectin'
+me. Now, if it ain't askin' too much, I'd like to know where Cap'n
+Burgess is, and why he wa'n't at the depot to meet me."
+
+This was a leading question, and the Captain was more embarrassed than
+ever. However, he felt that something had to be done and that it was
+wisest to get it over with as soon as possible.
+
+"Well, ma'am," he said, "we--we got your letter all right, and, to tell
+you the truth, we was at the depot--Perez and me and Jerry."
+
+"You WAS! Well, then, for the land of goodness, why didn't you let me
+know it? Such a time as I had tryin' to find out where you lived and
+all!"
+
+The Captain saw but one plausible explanation, and that was the plain
+truth. Slowly he told the story of the colored woman and the extension
+case. The widow laughed until her spectacles fell off.
+
+"Well, there!" she exclaimed. "If that don't beat all! I don't blame
+Cap'n Burgess a mite. Poor thing! I guess I'd have run, too, if I'd have
+seen that darky. She was settin' right in the next seat to me, and she
+had a shut-over bag consid'rable like mine, and when she got up to git
+out, she took mine by mistake. I was a good deal put out about it, and
+I expect I talked to her like a Dutch uncle when I caught up with her.
+Dear! dear! Where is Cap'n Burgess?"
+
+"He's shut up in a fish shanty down the road, and he's so upsot that I
+dunno's he'll stir from there tonight. Jerry ain't prejudiced, but that
+darky was too much for him."
+
+And then they both laughed, the widow because of the ludicrous nature
+of the affair and the Captain because of the relief that the lady's
+acceptance of it afforded his mind.
+
+Mrs. Snow was the first to become grave. "Cap'n Hedge," she said,
+"there's one or two things I must say right here. In the first place, I
+ain't in the habit of answerin' advertisements from folks that wants
+to git married; I ain't so hard up for a man as all that comes to.
+Next thing, I didn't come down here with my mind made up to marry Cap'n
+Burgess, not by no means. I wanted to see him and talk with him, and
+tell him jest all about how things was with me and find out about him
+and then--why, if everything was shipshape, I might, p'raps, think
+about--"
+
+"Jest so, ma'am, jest so," broke in her companion. "That's about the
+way we felt. You see, there's prob'ly a long story on both sides, and if
+you'll excuse me I'll go down to the shanty and see if I can't git Jerry
+up here. It'll be a job, I'm 'fraid, but--"
+
+"No, you shan't either. I'll tell you what we'll do. It's awful late
+now and I must be gittin' up to the tavern. S'pose, if 'tain't too much
+trouble, you walk up there with me and I'll stay there to-night and
+to-morrer I'll come down here, and we'll all have a common-sense talk.
+P'raps by that time your friend 'll have the darky woman some off his
+mind, too."
+
+Needless to say Captain Eri agreed to this plan with alacrity. The
+widow carefully tied on a black, old-fashioned bonnet, picked up a fat,
+wooden-handled umbrella and the extension case, and said that she was
+ready.
+
+They walked up the road together, the Captain carrying the extension
+case. They talked, but not of matrimonial prospects. Mrs. Snow knew
+almost as much about the sea and the goings and comings thereon as did
+her escort, and the conversation was salty in the extreme. It
+developed that the Nantucket lady had a distant relative who was in the
+life-saving service at Cuttyhunk station, and as the Captain knew every
+station man for twenty miles up and down the coast, wrecks and maritime
+disasters of all kinds were discussed in detail.
+
+At the Traveler's Rest Mrs. Snow was introduced by the unblushing Eri as
+a cousin from Provincetown, and, after some controversy concerning the
+price of board and lodging, she was shown up to her room. Captain Eri
+walked home, absorbed in meditation. Whatever his thoughts were they
+were not disagreeable, for he smiled and shook his head more than once,
+as if with satisfaction. As he passed John Baxter's house he noticed
+that the light in the upper window was still burning.
+
+Captain Perez was half asleep when Eri opened the door of the shanty.
+Captain Jerry, however, was very much awake and demanded to be told
+things right away. His friend briefly explained the situation.
+
+"I don't care if she stays here till doomsday," emphatically declared
+the disgruntled one, "I shan't marry her. What's she like, anyhow?"
+
+He was surprised at the enthusiasm of Captain Eri's answer.
+
+"She's a mighty good woman; that's what I think she is, and she'd make
+a fust-class wife for any man. I hope you'll say so, too, when you
+see her. There ain't nothin' hity-tity about her, but she's got more
+common-sense than any woman I ever saw. But there! I shan't talk another
+bit about her to-night. Come on home and turn in."
+
+And go home and turn in they did, but not without protestation from the
+pair who had yet to meet the woman from Nantucket.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SCHOOLHOUSE BELL RINGS
+
+
+"All hands on deck! Turn out there! Turnout!"
+
+Captain Eri grunted and rolled over in his bed; for a moment or two he
+fancied himself back in the fo'castle of the Sea Mist, the bark in which
+he had made his first voyage. Then, as he grew wider awake, he heard,
+somewhere in the distance, a bell ringing furiously.
+
+"Turn out, all hands! Turn out!"
+
+Captain Eri sat up. That voice was no part of a dream. It belonged to
+Captain Jerry, and the tone of it meant business. The bell continued to
+ring.
+
+"Aye, aye, Jerry! What's the matter?" he shouted.
+
+"Fire! There's a big fire up in the village. Look out of the window, and
+you can see. They're ringing the schoolhouse bell; don't you hear it?"
+
+The Captain, wide awake enough by this time, jumped out of bed, carrying
+the blankets with him, and ran to the window. Opening it, he thrust out
+his head. The wind had changed to the eastward, and a thick fog had come
+in with it. The house was surrounded by a wet, black wall, but off to
+the west a red glow shone through it, now brighter and now fainter. The
+schoolhouse bell was turning somersaults in its excitement.
+
+Only once, since Captain Jerry had been janitor, had the schoolhouse
+bell been rung except in the performance of its regular duties. That
+once was on a night before the Fourth of July, when some mischievous
+youngsters climbed in at a window and proclaimed to sleeping Orham that
+Young America was celebrating the anniversary of its birth. Since then,
+on nights before the Fourth, Captain Jerry had slept in the schoolhouse,
+armed with a horsewhip and an ancient navy revolver. The revolver was
+strictly for show, and the horsewhip for use, but neither was called
+into service, for even if some dare-devil spirits did venture near the
+building, the Captain's snores, as he slumbered by the front door, were
+danger signals that could not be disregarded.
+
+But there was no flavor of the Fourth in the bell's note this night.
+Whoever the ringer might be, he was ringing as though it was his only
+hope for life, and the bell swung back and forth without a pause. The
+red glow in the fog brightened again as the Captain gazed at it.
+
+Captain Jerry came tumbling up the stairs, breathless and half dressed.
+
+"Where do you make it out to be?" he panted.
+
+"Somewhere's nigh the post-office. Looks 's if it might be Weeks's
+store. Where's Perez?"
+
+Captain Eri had lighted a lamp and was pulling on his boots, as he
+spoke.
+
+"Here I be!" shouted the missing member of the trio from the dining room
+below. "I'm all ready. Hurry up, Eri!"
+
+Captain Eri jumped into his trousers, slipped into a faded pea-jacket
+and clattered downstairs, followed by the wildly excited Jerry.
+
+"Good land, Perez!" he cried, as he came into the dining room, "I
+thought you said you was all ready!"
+
+Captain Perez paused in the vain attempt to make Captain Jerry's hat
+cover his own cranium and replied indignantly, "Well, I am, ain't I?"
+
+"Seems to me I'd put somethin' on my feet besides them socks, if I was
+you. You might catch cold."
+
+Perez glanced down at his blue-yarn extremities in blank astonishment.
+"Well, now," he exclaimed, "if I hain't forgot my boots!"
+
+"Well, git 'em on, and be quick. There's your hat. Give Jerry his."
+
+The excited Perez vanished through the door of his chamber, and Captain
+Eri glanced at the chronometer; the time was a quarter after two.
+
+They hurried out of the door and through the yard. The wind, as has been
+said, was from the east, but there was little of it and, except for the
+clanging of the bell, the night was very still. The fog was heavy and
+wet, and the trees and bushes dripped as if from a shower. There was the
+salt smell of the marshes in the air, and the hissing and splashing of
+the surf on the outer beach were plainly to be heard. Also there was the
+clicking sound of oars in row-locks.
+
+"Somebody is comin' over from the station," gasped Captain Jerry. "Don't
+run so, Eri. It's too dark. I've pretty nigh broke my neck already."
+
+They passed the lily pond, where the frogs had long since adjourned
+their concert and gone to bed, dodged through the yard of the tightly
+shuttered summer hotel, and came out at the corner of the road, having
+saved some distance by the "short-cut."
+
+"That ain't Weeks's store," declared Captain Perez, who was in the lead.
+"It's Web Saunders's place; that's what it is."
+
+Captain Eri paused and looked over to the left in the direction of the
+Baxter homestead. The light in the window was still burning.
+
+They turned into the "main road" at a dog trot and became part of a
+crowd of oddly dressed people, all running in the same direction.
+
+"Web's place, ain't it?" asked Eri of Seth Wingate, who was lumbering
+along with a wooden bucket in one hand and the pitcher of his wife's
+best washstand set in the other.
+
+"Yes," breathlessly answered Mr. Wingate, "and it's a goner, they tell
+me. Every man's got to do his part if they're going to save it. I allers
+said we ought to have a fire department in this town."
+
+Considering that Seth had, for the past eight years, persistently
+opposed in town-meeting any attempt to purchase a hand engine, this was
+a rather surprising speech, but no one paid any attention to it then.
+
+The fire was in the billiard saloon sure enough, and the back portion
+of the building was in a blaze when they reached it. Ladders were placed
+against the eaves, and a line of men with buckets were pouring water on
+the roof. The line extended to the town pump, where two energetic youths
+in their shirtsleeves were working the handle with might and main. The
+houses near at hand were brilliantly illuminated, and men and women were
+bringing water from them in buckets, tin pails, washboilers, and even
+coalscuttles.
+
+Inside the saloon another hustling crowd was busily working to "save"
+Mr. Saunders' property. A dozen of the members had turned the biggest
+pool table over on its back and were unscrewing the legs, heedless of
+the fact that to attempt to get the table through the front door was
+an impossibility and that, as the back door was in the thickest of the
+fire, it, too, was out of the question. A man appeared at the open front
+window of the second story with his arms filled with bottles of various
+liquids, "original packages" and others. These, with feverish energy, he
+threw one by one into the street, endangering the lives of everyone
+in range and, of course, breaking every bottle thrown. Some one of
+the cooler heads calling his attention to these facts, he retired and
+carefully packed all the empty bottles, the only ones remaining, into a
+peach basket and tugged the latter downstairs and to a safe place on a
+neighboring piazza. Then he rested from his labors as one who had done
+all that might reasonably be expected.
+
+Mr. Saunders himself, lightly attired in a nightshirt tucked into a
+pair of trousers, was rushing here and there, now loudly demanding more
+water, and then stopping to swear at the bottle-thrower or some other
+enthusiast. "Web's" smoothness was all gone, and the language he used
+was, as Abigail Mullett said afterward, "enough to bring down a jedgment
+on anybody."
+
+Captain Eri caught him by the sleeve as he was running past and
+inquired, "How'd it start, Web?"
+
+"How'd it START? I know mighty well HOW it started, and 'fore I git
+through I'll know WHO started it. Somebody 'll pay for this, now you
+hear me! Hurry up with the water, you--"
+
+He tore frantically away to the pump and the three captains joined the
+crowd of volunteer firemen. Captain Eri, running round to the back of
+the building, took in the situation at once. Back of the main portion of
+the saloon was an ell, and it was in this ell that the fire had started.
+The ell, itself, was in a bright blaze, but the larger building in front
+was only just beginning to burn. The Captain climbed one of the ladders
+to the roof and called to the men at work there.
+
+"That shed's gone, Ben," he said. "Chuck your water on the main part
+here. Maybe, if we had some ropes we might be able to pull the shed
+clear, and then we could save the rest."
+
+"How'd you fasten the ropes?" was the panted reply. "She's all ablaze,
+and a rope would burn through in a minute if you tied it anywheres."
+
+"Git some grapples and anchors out of Rogers' shop. He's got a whole lot
+of 'em. Keep on with the water bus'ness. I'll git the other stuff."
+
+He descended the ladder and explained his idea to the crowd below. There
+was a great shout and twenty men and boys started on a run after ropes,
+while as many more stormed at the door of Nathaniel Rogers' blacksmith
+shop. Rogers was the local dealer in anchors and other marine ironwork.
+The door of the shop was locked and there was a yell for axes to burst
+it open.
+
+Then arose an agonized shriek of "Don't chop! don't chop!" and Mr.
+Rogers himself came struggling to the defense of his property.
+In concert the instant need was explained to him, but he remained
+unconvinced.
+
+"We can't stay here arguin' all night!" roared one of the leaders. "He's
+got to let us in. Go ahead and chop! I'll hold him."
+
+"I give you fair warnin', Squealer Wixon! If you chop that door, I'll
+have the law onto you. I just had that door painted, and--STOP! I've got
+the key in my pocket!"
+
+It was plain that the majority were still in favor of chopping, as
+affording a better outlet for surplus energy, but they waited while Mr.
+Rogers, still protesting, produced the key and unlocked the door. In
+another minute the greater portion of the ironwork in the establishment
+was on its way to the fire.
+
+The rope-seekers were just returning, laden with everything from
+clothes-lines to cables. Half a dozen boat anchors and a grapnel were
+fastened to as many ropes, and the crowd pranced gayly about the burning
+ell, looking for a chance to make them fast. Captain Eri found a party
+with axes endeavoring to cut a hole through the side of the saloon in
+order to get out the pool table. After some endeavor he persuaded them
+to desist and they came around to the rear and, taking turns, ran in
+close to the shed and chopped at it until the fire drove them away. At
+last they made a hole close to where it joined the main building, large
+enough to attach the grapnel. Then, with a "Yo heave ho!" everyone took
+hold of the rope and pulled. Of course the grapnel pulled out with only
+a board or two, but they tried again, and, this time getting it around a
+beam, pulled a large portion of the shed to the ground.
+
+Meanwhile, another ax party had attached an anchor to the opposite side,
+and were making good progress. In due time the shed yawned away from the
+saloon, tottered, and collapsed in a shower of sparks. A deluge of water
+soon extinguished these. Then everyone turned to the main building,
+and, as the fire had not yet taken a firm hold of this, they soon had it
+under control.
+
+Captain Eri worked with the rest until he saw that the worst was over.
+Then he began the search that had been in his mind since he first saw
+the blaze. He found Captain Jerry and Captain Perez perspiringly passing
+buckets of water from hand to hand in the line, and, calling them to one
+side, asked anxiously:
+
+"Have either of you fellers seen John Baxter tonight?"
+
+Captain Perez looked surprised, and then some of the trouble discernible
+in Eri's face was apparent in his own.
+
+"Why, no," he replied slowly, "I ain't seen him, now you speak of it.
+Everybody in town's here, too. Queer, ain't it?
+
+"Haven't you seen him, either, Jerry?"
+
+Captain Jerry answered with a shake of the head. "But then," he said,
+"Perez and me have been right here by the pump ever sence we come. He
+might be 'most anywheres else, and we wouldn't see him. Want me to ask
+some of the other fellers?"
+
+"No!" exclaimed his friend, almost fiercely. "Don't you mention his name
+to a soul, nor let 'em know you've thought of him. If anybody should
+ask, tell 'em you guess he's right around somewheres. You two git to
+work ag'in. I'll let you know if I want you."
+
+The pair took up their buckets, and the Captain walked on from group to
+group, looking carefully at each person. The Reverend Perley and some
+of his flock were standing by themselves on a neighboring stoop, and to
+them the searcher turned eagerly.
+
+"Why, Cap'n Eri!" exclaimed Miss Busteed, the first to identify him,
+"how you've worked! You must be tired pretty nigh to death. Ain't it
+awful! But it's the Lord's doin's; I'm jest as sure of that as I can be,
+and I says so to Mr. Perley. Didn't I, Mr. Perley? I says--"
+
+"Lookin' for anybody, Cap'n?" interrupted the reverend gentleman.
+
+"No," lied the Captain calmly, "jest walkin' around to git cooled off a
+little. Good-night."
+
+There was the most likely place, and John Baxter was not there.
+Certainly every citizen in Orham, who was able to crawl, would be out
+this night, and if the old puritan hermit of the big house was not
+present to exult over the downfall of the wicked, it would be because
+he was ill or because--The Captain didn't like to think of the other
+reason.
+
+Mrs. "Web" Saunders, quietly weeping, was seated on a knoll near the
+pump. Three of the Saunders' hopefuls, also weeping, but not quietly,
+were seated beside her. Another, the youngest of the family, was being
+rocked soothingly in the arms of a stout female, who was singing to it
+as placidly as though fires were an every day, or night, occurrence. The
+Captain peered down, and the stout woman looked up.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Snow!" exclaimed Captain Eri.
+
+The lady from Nantucket made no immediate reply. She rose, however,
+shook down the black "alpaca" skirt, which had been folded up to keep
+it out of the dew, and, still humming softly to the child, walked off a
+little way, motioning with her head for the Captain to follow. When
+she had reached a spot sufficiently remote from Mrs. Saunders, she
+whispered:
+
+"How d'ye do, Cap'n Hedge? I guess the wust is over now, isn't it? I saw
+you workin' with them ropes; you must be awful tired."
+
+"How long have you been here?" asked the Captain somewhat astonished at
+her calmness.
+
+"Oh, I come right down as soon as I heard the bell. I'm kind of used to
+fires. My husband's schooner got afire twice while I was with him. He
+used to run a coal vessel, you know. I got right up and packed my bag,
+'cause I didn't know how the fire might spread. You never can tell in
+a town like this. Ssh'h, dearie," to the baby, "there, there, it's all
+right. Lay still."
+
+"How'd you git acquainted with her?" nodding toward the wife of the
+proprietor of the scorched saloon.
+
+"Oh, I see the poor thing settin' there with all them children and
+nobody paying much attention to her, so I went over and asked if I
+couldn't help out. I haven't got any children of my own, but I was
+number three in a fam'ly of fourteen, so I know how it's done. Oh! that
+husband of hers! He's a nice one, he is! Would you b'lieve it, he come
+along and she spoke to him, and he swore at her somethin' dreadful.
+That's why she's cryin'. Poor critter, I guess by the looks she's used
+to it. Well, I give HIM a piece of my mind. He went away with a flea in
+his ear. I do despise a profane man above all things. Yes, the baby's
+all right, Mrs. Saunders. I'm a-comin'. Good-night, Cap'n Hedge. I
+s'pose I shall see you all in the mornin'. You ought to be careful and
+not stand still much this damp night. It's bad when you're het up so."
+
+She went back, still singing to the baby, to where Mrs. Saunders sat,
+and the Captain looked after her in a kind of amazed fashion.
+
+"By mighty!" he muttered, and then repeated it. Then he resumed his
+search.
+
+He remembered that there had been a number of people on the side of
+the burning shed opposite that on which he had been employed, and he
+determined to have one look there before going to the Baxter homestead.
+Almost the first man he saw as he approached the dying fire was Ralph
+Hazeltine. The electrician's hands and face were blackened by soot, and
+the perspiration sparkled on his forehead.
+
+"Hello, Captain!" he said, holding out his hand. "Lively for a while,
+wasn't it? They tell me you were the man who suggested pulling down the
+shed. It saved the day, all right enough."
+
+"You look as if you'd been workin' some yourself. Was you one of the
+fellers that got that anchor in on this side?"
+
+"He was THE one," broke in Mr. Wingate, who was standing at Hazeltine's
+elbow. "He waded in with an ax and stayed there till I thought he'd burn
+the hair off his head. Web ought to pay you and him salvage, Eri. The
+whole craft would have gone up if it hadn't been for you two."
+
+"I wonder if they got that pool table out," laughed Ralph. "They did
+everything but saw it into chunks."
+
+"I never saw Bluey Bacheldor work so afore," commented the Captain. "I
+wish somebody'd took a photograph of him. I'll bet you could sell 'em
+round town for curiosities. Well, I can't be standin' here."
+
+"If you're going home I'll go along with you. I may as well be getting
+down toward the station. The excitement is about over."
+
+"I ain't goin' right home, Mr. Hazeltine. I've got an errand to do.
+Prob'ly I'll be goin' pretty soon, though."
+
+"Oh, all right! I'll wait here a while longer then. See you later
+perhaps."
+
+The fog had lifted somewhat and as the Captain, running silently, turned
+into the "shore road," he saw that the light in the Baxter homestead had
+not been extinguished. The schoolhouse bell had ceased to ring, and the
+shouts of the crowd at the fire sounded faintly. There were no other
+sounds.
+
+Up the driveway Captain Eri hurried. There were no lights in the lower
+part of the house and the dining-room door was locked. The kitchen
+door, however, was not fastened and the Captain opened it and entered.
+Shutting it carefully behind him, he groped along to the entrance of the
+next room.
+
+"John!" he called softly. There was no answer, and the house was
+perfectly still save for the ticking of the big clock. Captain Eri
+scratched a match and by its light climbed the stairs. His friend's
+room was empty. The lamp was burning on the bureau and a Bible was open
+beside it. The bed had not been slept in.
+
+Thoroughly alarmed now, the Captain, lamp in hand, went through one room
+after the other. John Baxter was not at home, and he was not with the
+crowd at the fire. Where was he? There was, of course, a chance that his
+friend had passed him on the way or that he had been at the fire, after
+all, but this did not seem possible. However, there was nothing to do
+but go back, and this time the Captain took the path across the fields.
+
+The Baxter house was on the "shore road," and the billiard room and
+post-office were on the "main road." People in a hurry sometimes avoided
+the corner by climbing the fence opposite the Baxter gate, going through
+the Dawes' pasture and over the little hill back of the livery stable,
+and coming out in the rear of the post-office and close to the saloon.
+
+Captain Eri, worried, afraid to think of the fire and its cause, and
+only anxious to ascertain where his friend was and what he had been
+doing that night, trotted through the pasture and over the hill. Just
+as he came to the bayberry bushes on the other side he stumbled and fell
+flat.
+
+He knew what it was that he had stumbled over the moment that he fell
+across it, and his fingers trembled, so that he could scarcely scratch
+the match that he took from his pocket. But it was lighted at last and,
+as its tiny blaze grew brighter, the Captain saw John Baxter lying face
+downward in the path, his head pointed toward his home and his feet
+toward the billiard saloon.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CAPTAIN ERI FINDS A NURSE
+
+
+For a second, only, Captain Eri stood there motionless, stooping over
+the body of his friend. Then he sprang into vigorous action. He dropped
+upon his knees and, seizing the shoulder of the prostrate figure,
+shook it gently, whispering, "John! John!" There was no answer and no
+responsive movement, and the Captain bent his head and listened. Breath
+was there and life; but, oh, so little of either! The next thought was,
+of course, to run for help and for a doctor, but he took but a few steps
+when a new idea struck him and he came back.
+
+Lighting another match he examined the fallen man hurriedly. The old
+"Come-Outer" lay in the path with his arms outstretched, as if he had
+fallen while running. He was bare-headed, and there was no sign of a
+wound upon him. One coat-sleeve was badly scorched, and from a pocket in
+the coat protruded the neck of a bottle. The bottle was empty, but its
+odor was strong; it had contained kerosene. The evidence was clear, and
+the Captain knew that what he had feared was the truth.
+
+For a moment he stood erect and pondered as to what was best to do.
+Whatever it was, it must be done quickly, but if the doctor and those
+that might come with him should find the burned coat and the tell-tale
+bottle, it were better for John Baxter that consciousness and life never
+were his again. There might, and probably would, be suspicion; but here
+was proof absolute that meant prison and disgrace for a man whom all the
+community had honored and respected.
+
+Captain Eri weighed the chances, speculated on the result, and then did
+what seemed to him right. He threw the bottle as far away from the path
+as he could and then stripped off the coat, and, folding it into a small
+bundle, hid it in the bushes near by. Then he lifted the limp body, and
+turned it so that the gray head was toward the billiard saloon instead
+of from it.
+
+Perez and Jerry were still busy with the water buckets when their friend
+came panting up the knoll to the pump.
+
+"Hello, Eri!" said the former, wiping his forehead with his arm. "It's
+'bout out, ain't it? Why, what's the matter?"
+
+"Nothin'; nothin' to speak of. Put down them buckets, and you and Jerry
+come with me. I've got somethin' that I want you to do."
+
+Nodding and exchanging congratulations with acquaintances in the crowd
+on the success of the fire-fighting, Captain Eri led his messmates to a
+dark corner under a clump of trees. Then he took each of them by the arm
+and whispered sharply:
+
+"Dr. Palmer's somewheres in this crowd. I want each of you fellers to go
+diff'rent ways and look for him. Whichever one finds him fust can bring
+him up to the corner by the post-office. Whistle when you git there and
+the rest of us 'll come. Don't stop to ask questions. I ain't hurt, but
+John Baxter's had a stroke or somethin'. I can't tell you no more now.
+Hurry! And say, don't you mention to a soul what the matter is."
+
+A sea-faring life has its advantages. It teaches prompt obedience, for
+one thing. The two mariners did not hesitate an instant, but bolted in
+opposite directions. Captain Eri watched them go, and then set off in
+another. He was stopped every few moments and all sorts of questions and
+comments concerning the fire and its cause were fired at him, but he
+put off some inquiries with a curt "Don't know" and others with nods
+or negatives, and threaded his way from one clump of townspeople to
+another. As he came close to the blackened and smoking billiard saloon,
+Ralph Hazeltine caught him by the arm.
+
+"Hello!" said the electrician. "Haven't you gone home yet?"
+
+"No, not yit. Say, I'll ask you, 'cause I cal'late you can keep your
+mouth shut if it's necessary: Have you seen the Doctor anywheres 'round
+lately? He was here, 'cause I saw him when I fust come."
+
+"Who, Dr. Palmer? No; I haven't seen him. Is anyone hurt? Can I help?"
+
+"I guess not. John Baxter's sick, but--oh, Lord! Here comes Wingate.
+He'll talk for a week."
+
+Seth, panting and excited, was pushing his way toward them, shouting the
+Captain's name at the top of his voice.
+
+"Hey, Eri!" he hailed. "I want to know if you'll sign a petition to git
+the town a fire ingyne? I've been talkin' to a couple of the s'lectmen
+and they--"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Wingate," interrupted Ralph, "Mr. Mullett's been looking for
+you. He's over there by the pump, I think."
+
+"Who, Lem Mullett? Is that so! He's jest the feller I want to see. See
+you later, Eri."
+
+The Captain grinned appreciatively as the convert to the hand-engine
+proposal disappeared.
+
+"That wasn't so bad," he said. "I'm much obliged. Hey! There's the
+whistle. Come on, Mr. Hazeltine, if you ain't in a special hurry. Maybe
+we WILL need you."
+
+They reached the corner by the post-office to find Dr. Palmer, who had
+practiced medicine in Orham since he received his diploma, waiting for
+them. Captain Perez, who had discovered the physician on the Nickerson
+piazza, was standing close by with his fingers in his mouth, whistling
+with the regularity of a foghorn.
+
+"Cut it short, Perez!" commanded Eri. "We're here now."
+
+"Yes, but Jerry ain't." And the whistling began again.
+
+"Dry up, for the land's sake! D'you want to fetch the whole tribe here?
+There's Jerry, now. Come on, Doctor."
+
+John Baxter was lying just as the Captain had left him, and the others
+watched anxiously as the doctor listened at the parted lips, and thrust
+his hand inside the faded blue waistcoat.
+
+"He's alive," he said after a moment, "but unconscious. We must get him
+home at once."
+
+"He heard the bell and was runnin' to the fire when he was took," said
+Captain Jerry. "Run out in his shirt sleeves, and was took when he got
+as fur as here."
+
+"That's the way I figger it," said Eri unblushingly. "Lift him
+carefully, you fellers. Now then!"
+
+"I warned him against over-exertion or excitement months ago," said the
+Doctor, as they bore the senseless burden toward the big house, now as
+black as the grave that was so near its owner. "We must find someone
+to take care of him at once. I don't believe the old man has a relation
+within a hundred miles."
+
+"Why don't we take him to our house?" suggested Captain Jerry.
+"'Twouldn't seem so plaguey lonesome, anyhow."
+
+"By mighty!" ejaculated Captain Eri in astonishment. "Well, Jerry, I'll
+be switched if you ain't right down brilliant once in a while. Of course
+we will. He can have the spare room. Why didn't I think of that, I
+wonder?"
+
+And so John Baxter, who had not paid a visit in his native village since
+his wife died, came at last to his friend's home to pay what seemed
+likely to be a final one. They carried him up the stairs to the spare
+room, as dismal and cheerless as spare rooms in the country generally
+are, undressed him as tenderly as their rough hands would allow, robed
+him in one of Captain Jerry's nightshirts--the buttons that fastened
+it had been sewed on by the Captain himself, and were all sizes and
+colors--and laid him in the big corded bedstead. The Doctor hastened
+away to procure his medicine case. Ralph Hazeltine, having been
+profusely thanked for his services and promising to call the next day,
+went back to the station, and the three captains sat down by the bedside
+to watch and wait.
+
+Captain Eri was too much perturbed to talk, but the other two, although
+sympathetically sorry for the sufferer, were bursting with excitement
+and curiosity.
+
+"Well, if THIS ain't been a night!" exclaimed Captain Jerry. "Seem's if
+everything happened at once. Fust that darky and then the fire and then
+this. Don't it beat all?
+
+"Eri," said Captain Perez anxiously, "was John layin' jest the same way
+when you found him as he was when we come?"
+
+"Right in the same place," was the answer.
+
+"I didn't say in the same place. I asked if he was layin' the same way."
+
+"He hadn't moved a muscle. Laid jest as if he was dead."
+
+It will be noticed that Captain Eri was adhering strictly to the
+truth. Luckily, Perez seemed to be satisfied, for he asked no further
+questions, but observed, "It's a good thing we've got a crowd to swear
+how we found him. There's a heap of folks in this town would be sayin'
+he set that fire if 'twa'n't for that."
+
+"Some of 'em will be sayin' it anyhow," remarked Jerry.
+
+"Some folks 'll say anything but their prayers," snapped Eri savagely.
+"They won't say it while I'm around. And look here! if you hear anybody
+sayin' it, you tell 'em it's a lie. If that don't keep 'em quiet, let me
+know."
+
+"Oh, all right. WE know he didn't set it. I was jest sayin'--"
+
+"Well, don't say it."
+
+"My, you're techy! Guess fires and colored folks don't agree with you.
+What are we goin' to do now? If John don't die, and the Lord knows I
+hope he won't, he's likely to be sick here a long spell. Who are we
+goin' to git to take care of him? That's what I want to know. Somebody's
+got to do it and we ain't fit. If Jerry 'd only give in and git married
+now--"
+
+But Captain Jerry's protest against matrimony was as obstinate as ever.
+Even Perez gave up urging after a while and conversation lagged again.
+In a few minutes the Doctor came back, and his examination of the
+patient and demands for glasses of water, teaspoons, and the like, kept
+Perez and Jerry busy. It was some time before they noticed that Captain
+Eri had disappeared. Even then they did not pay much attention to the
+circumstance, but watched the physician at work and questioned him
+concerning the nature of their guest's illness.
+
+"D'you think he'll die, Doctor?" inquired Jerry in a hushed voice, as
+they came out of the sick room into the connecting chamber.
+
+"Can't say. He has had a stroke of paralysis, and there seem to be
+other complications. If he regains consciousness I shall think he has a
+chance, but not a very good one. His pulse is a little stronger. I don't
+think he'll die to-night, but if he lives he will need a good nurse, and
+I don't know of one in town."
+
+"Nor me neither," said Captain Perez.
+
+"Well, A'nt Zuby might come," suggested Jerry, "but I should hate to
+have her nuss me, and as for bein' WELL in a house where she was--whew!"
+
+"A'nt Zuby!" sneered his messmate. "If Lorenzo had a fit and they called
+A'nt Zuby he'd have another one and die. A'nt Zuby! I'd 'bout as soon
+have M'lissy and be done with it."
+
+"Yes, I don't doubt YOU WOULD," was the anything but gentle retort.
+
+What Perez would have said to this thrust must be surmised, for just
+then the dining-room door opened and closed again.
+
+"There's Eri," said Captain Jerry. Then he added in an alarmed whisper,
+"Who on airth has he got with him?"
+
+They heard their friend's voice warning someone to be careful of the top
+step, and then the chamber door opened and Captain Eri appeared. There
+were beads of perspiration on his forehead, and he was carrying a shabby
+canvas extension-case. Captain Jerry gazed at the extension-case with
+bulging eyes.
+
+Captain Eri put down the extension-case and opened the door wide. A
+woman came in; a stout woman dressed in black "alpaca" and wearing
+brass-rimmed spectacles. Captain Jerry gasped audibly.
+
+"Dr. Palmer," said Captain Eri, "let me make you acquainted with Mrs.
+Snow of Nantucket. Mrs. Snow, this is Dr. Palmer."
+
+The Doctor and the lady from Nantucket shook hands, the former with a
+puzzled expression on his face.
+
+"Perez," continued the Captain, "let me make you known to Mrs.
+Snow--Mrs. Marthy B. Snow,"--this with especial emphasis,--"of
+Nantucket. Mrs. Snow, this is Cap'n Perez Ryder."
+
+They shook hands; Captain Perez managed to say that he was glad to meet
+Mrs. Snow. Captain Jerry said nothing, but he looked like a criminal
+awaiting the fall of the drop.
+
+"Doctor," continued the Captain, paying no attention to the signals of
+distress displayed by his friend, "I heard you say a spell ago that
+John here needed somebody to take care of him. Well, Mrs. Snow--she's
+a--a--sort of relation of Jerry's"--just a suspicion of a smile
+accompanied this assertion--"and she's done consid'rable nussin' in her
+time. I've been talkin' the thing over with her and she's willin' to
+look out for John till he gits better."
+
+The physician adjusted his eyeglasses and looked the volunteer nurse
+over keenly. The lady paid no attention to the scrutiny, but calmly
+removed her bonnet and placed it on the bureau. The room was Captain
+Eri's, and the general disarrangement of everything movable was only a
+little less marked than in those of his companions. Mrs. Snow glanced
+over the heap of odds and ends on the bureau and picked up a comb. There
+were some teeth in it, but they were distant neighbors.
+
+"I don't use that comb very much," said Captain Eri rather
+apologetically. "I gin'rally use the one downstairs."
+
+The new-found relative of Captain Jerry said nothing, but, laying down
+the ruin, marched over to the extension-case, opened it, and took
+out another comb--a whole one. With this she arranged the hair on her
+forehead. It, the hair, was parted in the middle and drawn back smoothly
+at the sides, and Captain Eri noticed that it was brown with a little
+gray in it. When the last stray wisp was in place, she turned calmly to
+the Doctor and said:
+
+"Cap'n Baxter's in here, I s'pose. Shall I walk right in?"
+
+The man of medicine seemed a little surprised at the lady's command of
+the situation, but he said:
+
+"Why, yes, ma'am; I guess you may. You have nursed before, I think the
+Captain said."
+
+"Five years with my husband. He had slow consumption. Before that with
+my mother, and most of my brothers and sisters at one time or another.
+I've seen consid'rable sickness all my life. More of that than anything
+else, I guess. Now, if you'll come in with me, so's to tell me about the
+medicine and so on."
+
+With a short "Humph!" the physician followed her into the sick room,
+while the three mariners gazed wide-eyed in at the door. They watched,
+as Doctor Palmer explained medicines and gave directions. It did not
+need an expert to see that the new nurse understood her business.
+
+When the Doctor came out his face shone with gratification.
+
+"She'll do," he said emphatically. "If all your relatives are like that,
+Cap'n Burgess, I'd like to know 'em; 'twould help me in my business."
+Then he added in response to a question, "He seems to be a little better
+just now. I think there will be no change for a while; if there should
+be, send for me. I'll call in the morning. Gracious! it's almost
+daylight now."
+
+They saw him to the door and then came back upstairs. Mrs. Snow was
+busy, arranging the pillows, setting the room in something like
+order, and caring for her patient's garments, that had been tossed
+helter-skelter on the floor in the hurry of undressing. She came to the
+door as they entered Captain Eri's chamber.
+
+"Mrs. Snow," said the Captain, "you'd better sleep in my room here
+long's you stay. I'll bunk in with Perez downstairs. I'll git my dunnage
+out of here right off. I think likely you'll want to clean up some."
+
+The lady from Nantucket glanced at the bureau top and seemed about to
+say something, but checked herself. What she did say was:
+
+"P'raps you'd better introduce me to Cap'n Burgess. I don't think we've
+ever met, if we ARE relations."
+
+Captain Eri actually blushed a little. "Why, of course," he said.
+"Excuse me, ma'am. Jerry, this is Mrs. Snow. I don't know what's got
+into me, bein' so careless."
+
+The sacrifice shook the nurse's hand and said something, nobody knew
+exactly what. Mrs. Snow went on to say, "Now, I want you men to go right
+on to bed, for I know you're all tuckered out. We can talk to-morrow--I
+mean to-day, of course: I forgot 'twas next-door to daylight now. I
+shall set up with Cap'n Baxter, and if I need you I'll call you. I'll
+call you anyway when I think it's time. Good-night."
+
+They protested, of course, but the lady would not listen. She calmly
+seated herself in the rocker by the bed and waved to them to go, which
+two of them reluctantly did after a while. The other one had gone
+already. It would be superfluous to mention his name.
+
+Downstairs again and in Perez' room Captain Eri came in for a
+questioning that bade fair to keep up forever. He shut off all
+inquiries, however, with the announcement that he wouldn't tell them a
+word about it till he'd had some sleep. Then he would explain the whole
+thing, and they could decide whether he had done right or not. There
+were all sorts of things to be considered, he said, and they had better
+take a nap now while they could.
+
+"Well, I'd jest like to ask you this, Eri Hedge," demanded Captain
+Jerry. "What in time did you tell the Doctor that she was a relation of
+mine for? That was a nice thing to do, wa'n't it? I'll have to answer
+more fool questions 'bout that than a little. What sort of a relation
+shall I tell folks she is? Jest tell me that, will you?"
+
+"Oh, tell 'em she's a relation by marriage," was the answer, muffled by
+the bed clothes. "Maybe that 'll be true by the time they ask you."
+
+"I'll BET it won't!" snorted the rebel.
+
+Captain Perez fell asleep almost immediately. Captain Jerry, tired out,
+did the same, but Captain Eri's eyes did not close. The surf pounded
+and grumbled. A rooster, early astir, crowed somewhere in the distance.
+Daniel thumped the side of his stall and then subsided for another nap.
+The gray morning light brightened the window of the little house.
+
+Then Captain Eri slid silently out of bed, dressed with elaborate
+precautions against noise, put on his cap, and tiptoed out of the house.
+He walked through the dripping grass, climbed the back fence and
+hurried to the hill where John Baxter had fallen. Once there, he looked
+carefully around to be sure that no one was watching. Orham, as a rule,
+is an early riser, but this morning most of the inhabitants, having been
+up for the greater part of the night, were making up lost sleep and the
+Captain was absolutely alone.
+
+Assured of this, he turned to the bush underneath which he had hidden
+the burned coat, pushed aside the drenched boughs with their fading
+leaves and reached down for the tell-tale garment.
+
+And then he made an unpleasant discovery. The coat was gone.
+
+He spent an agitated quarter of an hour hunting through every clump of
+bushes in the immediate vicinity, but there was no doubt of it. Someone
+had been there before him and had taken the coat away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HOUSEKEEPER AND BOOK AGENT
+
+
+There was a knock on the door of Captain Perez's sleeping apartment.
+
+"Cap'n Hedge," said Mrs. Snow, "Cap'n Hedge! I'm sorry to wake you up,
+but it's 'most ten o'clock and--"
+
+"What? Ten o'clock! Godfrey scissors! Of all the lazy--I'll be out in a
+jiffy. Perez, turn out there! Turn out, I tell you!"
+
+Captain Eri had fallen asleep in the rocker where he had seated himself
+upon his return from the fruitless search for the coat. He had had no
+intention of sleeping, but he was tired after his strenuous work at the
+fire, and had dropped off in the midst of his worry. He sprang to his
+feet, and tried to separate dreams from realities.
+
+"Land of love, Perez!" he ejaculated. "Here you and me have been
+sleepin' ha'f the forenoon. We'd ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Let's
+git dressed quicker 'n chain lightnin'."
+
+"Dressed?" queried Perez, sitting up in bed. "I should think you was
+dressed now, boots and all. What are you talkin' 'bout?"
+
+The Captain glanced down at his clothes and seemed as much surprised as
+his friend. He managed to pull himself together, however, and stammered:
+
+"Dressed? Oh, I'm dressed, of course. It's you I'm tryin' to git some
+life into."
+
+"Well, why didn't you call a feller, 'stead of gittin' up and dressin'
+all by yourself. I never see such a critter. Where's my socks?"
+
+To avoid further perplexing questions Captain Eri went into the dining
+room. The table was set, really set, with a clean cloth and dishes that
+shone. The knives and forks were arranged by the plates, not piled in a
+heap for each man to help himself. The Captain gasped.
+
+"Well, I swan to man!" he said. "Has Jerry had a fit or what's struck
+him? I ain't seen him do anything like this for I don't know when."
+
+"Oh, Cap'n Burgess didn't fix the table, if that's what you mean," said
+the new nurse. "Cap'n Baxter seemed to be sleepin' or in a stupor like,
+and the Doctor, when he come, said I might leave him long enough to run
+downstairs for a few minutes, so--"
+
+"The Doctor? Has the Doctor been here this mornin'?"
+
+"Yes, he come 'bout an hour ago. Now, if you wouldn't mind goin' up
+and stayin' with Cap'n Baxter for a few minutes while I finish gettin'
+breakfast. I've been up and down so many times in the last ha'f hour, I
+don't know's I'm sartin whether I'm on my head or my heels."
+
+The Captain went upstairs in a dazed state. As he passed through what
+had been his room he vaguely noticed that the bureau top was clean, and
+that most of the rubbish that had ornamented it had disappeared.
+
+The sick man lay just as he had left him, his white face as colorless
+as the clean pillow case against which it rested. Captain Eri remembered
+that the pillow cases in the spare room had looked a little yellow the
+night before, possibly owing to the fact that, as the room had not been
+occupied for months, they had not been changed. He reasoned that the
+improvement was another one of the reforms instituted by the lady from
+Nantucket.
+
+He sat down in the rocker by the bed and thought, with a shiver, of the
+missing coat. There were nine chances out of ten that whoever found it
+would recognize it as belonging to the old "Come-Outer." The contents
+of the pocket would be almost certain to reveal the secret if the coat
+itself did not. It remained to be seen who the finder was and what
+he would do. Meanwhile there was no use worrying. Having come to this
+conclusion the Captain, with customary philosophy, resolved to think of
+something else.
+
+Mrs. Snow entered and announced that breakfast was ready and that
+he must go down at once and eat it while it was hot. She, having
+breakfasted some time before, would stay with the patient until the meal
+was over. Captain Eri at first flatly declined to listen to any such
+arrangement, but the calm insistence of the Nantucket visitor prevailed
+as usual. The Captain realized that the capacity for "bossin' things,"
+that he had discerned in the letter, was even more apparent in the lady
+herself. One thing he did insist upon, however, and this was that Mrs.
+Snow should "turn in" as soon as breakfast was over. One of the three
+would take the watch in the sick room while the other two washed the
+dishes. The nurse was inclined to balk on the dishwashing proposition,
+saying that she could do it herself after she had had a wink or two,
+but this the Captain wouldn't hear of. He went away, however, with an
+unsettled conviction that, although he and his partners might wash
+the dishes, Mrs. Snow would wash them again as soon as she had an
+opportunity. "She didn't say so, but she sort of looked it," he
+explained afterward.
+
+He found his friends seated at the table and feasting on hot biscuits,
+eggs, and clear, appetizing coffee. They greeted him joyously.
+
+"Hey, Eri!" hailed Captain Perez. "Ain't this gay? Look at them eggs;
+b'iled jest to a T. Ain't much like Jerry's h'af raw kind."
+
+"Humph! You needn't say nothin', Perez," observed Captain Jerry, his
+mouth full of biscuit. "When you was cook, you allers b'iled 'em so hard
+they'd dent the barn if you'd fired 'em at it. How's John, Eri?"
+
+Captain Eri gave his and the Doctor's opinion of his friend's condition
+and then said, "Now, we've got to have some kind of a settlement on this
+marryin' question. Last night, when I was up in the room there, it come
+acrost me all of a sudden that, from what I'd seen of this Nantucket
+woman, she'd be jest the sort of nurse that John needed. So I skipped
+out while you fellers was busy with the Doctor, found her at the hotel,
+explained things to her, and got her to come down. That's all there is
+to that. I ain't made no arrangement with her, and somethin's got to be
+done. What do you think of her, jedgin' by what you've seen?"
+
+Captain Perez gave it as his opinion that she was "all right," and
+added, "If Jerry here wa'n't so pigheaded all at once, he'd marry her
+without waitin' another minute."
+
+Eri nodded. "That's my idee," he said emphatically.
+
+But Captain Jerry was as obstinate as ever. He simply would not consider
+immediate marriage. In vain his comrades reminded him of the original
+compact, and the fact that the vote was two to one against him; he
+announced that he had changed his mind, and that that was all there was
+about it.
+
+At length Captain Eri lost patience.
+
+"Jerry," he exclaimed, "you remind me of that old white hen we used
+to have. When we didn't want her to set she'd set on anything from a
+doorknob to a rock, couldn't keep her off; but when we give in finally
+and got a settin' of eggs for her, she wouldn't come nigher to 'em than
+the other end of the hen-yard. Now you might as well make up your mind
+that somethin's got to be done. This Mrs. Snow ain't nobody's fool. We
+put out a bait that anybody with sense would say couldn't catch nothin'
+but sculpin, and, by mighty, we hooked a halibut! If the woman was
+anything like what you'd think she'd be, answerin' an advertisement like
+that, I'd be the fust to say let her go, but she ain't; she's all right,
+and we need her to nuss John besides."
+
+"Tell you what we might do," said Perez slowly; "we might explain to her
+that Jerry don't feel that 'twould be right to think of marryin' with
+Cap'n Baxter so sick in the house and that, if she's willin', we'll put
+it off till he dies or gets better. Meantime, we'll pay her so much to
+stay here and nuss. Seems to me that's about the only way out of it."
+
+So they agreed to lay this proposal before the Nantucket lady, Captain
+Jerry reluctantly consenting. Then Captain Eri took up another subject.
+
+John Baxter, as has been said, had one relative, a granddaughter, living
+somewhere near Boston. Captain Eri felt that this granddaughter should
+be notified of the old man's illness at once. The difficulty was that
+none of them knew the young lady's address.
+
+"Her fust name's Elizabeth, same as her mothers was," said Eri, "and her
+dad's name was Preston. They called her Elsie. John used to write to her
+every once in a while. P'raps Sam would know where she lived."
+
+"Jest' cause Sam's postmaster," observed Perez, "it don't foller that he
+reads the name on every letter that goes out and remembers 'em besides."
+
+"Well, if he don't," said Captain Jerry decidedly, "Mary Emma does. She
+reads everything, postals and all."
+
+Miss Mary Emma Cahoon was the assistant at the post-office, and was
+possessed of a well-developed curiosity concerning other people's
+correspondence.
+
+"Humph!" exclaimed Captain Eri, "that's so. We'll write the letter, and
+I'll ask Mary Emma for the address when I go up to mail it."
+
+So Captain Perez went upstairs to take Mrs Snow's place as nurse, while
+that lady "turned in." Captain Jerry went into the kitchen to wash the
+dishes, and Captain Eri sat down to write the note that should inform
+Elizabeth Preston of her grandfather's illness. It was a very short
+note, and merely stated the fact without further information. Having had
+some experience in that line, the Captain placed very little reliance
+upon the help to be expected from relatives.
+
+Dr. Palmer had spread the news as he went upon his round of visits that
+morning, and callers began to drop in to inquire after the sick man.
+Miss Busteed was one of the first arrivals, and, as Captain Eri had
+seen her through the window, he went upstairs and took Perez' place
+as temporary nurse. To Perez, therefore, fell the delightful task of
+entertaining the voluble female for something like an hour, while she
+talked fire, paralysis, and general gossip at express speed.
+
+Ralph Hazeltine came in a little later, and was introduced to Mrs.
+Snow, that lady's nap having been but a short one. Ralph was favorably
+impressed with the capable appearance of the new nurse, and so expressed
+himself to Captain Eri as they walked together toward the post-office.
+
+"I like her," he said emphatically. "She's quiet and sensible and
+cheerful besides. She looks as if trouble didn't trouble her very much."
+
+"I jedge she's seen enough of it in her time, too," observed the Captain
+reflectively. "Queer thing how trouble acts different on folks. Kind
+of like hot weather, sours milk, but sweetens apples. She's one of the
+sweetened kind. And yet, I cal'late she can be pretty sharp, too, if you
+try to tread on her toes. Sort of a sweet pickle, hey?" and he laughed.
+
+Miss Cahoon remembered the Preston girl's address. It was Cambridge,
+Kirkland Street, but the number, she did declare, had skipped her mind.
+The Captain said he would chance it without the number, so the letter
+was posted. Then, with the electrician, he strolled over to inspect the
+remains of the billiard saloon.
+
+There was a small crowd gathered about the building, prominent among
+its members being the "train committee," who were evidently holding
+a special session on this momentous occasion. The busy "Squealer," a
+trifle enlivened by some of Mr. Saunders' wet goods that had escaped
+the efforts of the volunteer salvage corps, hailed the new arrivals as
+brother heroes.
+
+"Well now, Cap'n Eri!" he exclaimed, shaking hands vigorously. "And Mr.
+Hazeltine, too! How're you feelin' after last night? I says to Web, I
+says, 'There's folks in this town besides me that kept you from losin'
+the whole thing and you ought to thank 'em,' I says. 'One of 'em 's
+Cap'n Eri and t'other one's Mr. Hazeltine. If we three didn't work, then
+_I_ don't know,' I says."
+
+"Web found out how the fire started yit?" inquired the Captain with
+apparent unconcern.
+
+"No, he hain't for sure. There was a lot of us thought old Baxter might
+have set it, but they tell me it couldn't have been him, cause he was
+took down runnin' to the fire. Web, he's sort of changed his tune, and
+don't seem to think anybody set it; thinks it catched itself."
+
+Mr. Saunders, his smooth self again, with all traces of mental
+disturbance gone from his face and all roughness from his tongue, came
+briskly up, smiling as if the burning of his place of business was but a
+trifling incident, a little annoying, of course, but not worth fretting
+about. He thanked the Captain and Hazeltine effusively for their service
+of the previous night, and piled the weight of his obligations upon them
+until, as Captain Eri said afterwards, "the syrup fairly dripped off his
+chin." The Captain broke in upon the sugary flow as soon as he could.
+
+"How d'you think it started, Web?" he asked.
+
+"Well," replied Mr. Saunders slowly, "I kind of cal'late she started
+herself. There was some of the boys in here most of the evenin',
+and, jest like's not, a cigar butt, or a match, or somethin'
+dropped somewheres and got to smolderin', and smoldered along till
+bime-by--puff!" An expressive wave of a fat hand finished the sentence.
+
+"Humph!" grunted the Captain. "Changed your mind sence last night. Seems
+to me I heard you then swearin' you knew 'twas set and who set it."
+
+"Well, ye-es. I was considerable shook up last night and maybe I said
+things I hadn't ought to. You see there's been a good deal of hard
+feelin's towards me in town and for a spell I thought some feller'd
+tried to burn me out. But I guess not; I guess not. More I think of it,
+more I think it catched itself. Seems to me I remember smellin' sort of
+a scorchin' smell when I was lockin' up. Oh, say! I was mighty sorry to
+hear 'bout Cap'n Baxter bein' took sick. The old man was dreadful
+down on liquor, but I laid that to his religion and never had no hard
+feelin's against him. How's he gittin' along?"
+
+Captain Eri brusquely replied that his friend was "'bout the same," and
+asked if Mr. Saunders intended to rebuild. "Web" didn't know just yet.
+He was a poor man, didn't carry much insurance, and so on. Thought
+likely he should fix up again if it didn't cost too much. Did the Doctor
+say whether Captain Baxter would pull through or not?
+
+Captain Eri gave an evasive answer and turned away. He was silent for
+some little time, and when Ralph commented on "Web's" overnight change
+of manner, his rejoinder was to the effect that "ile was bound to rise,
+but that didn't mean there wa'n't dirty water underneath." On the way
+home he asked Hazeltine concerning the trouble at the cable station, and
+how Mr. Langley had treated the matter.
+
+Ralph replied that Mr. Langley had said nothing to him about it. It was
+his opinion that the old gentleman understood the affair pretty well,
+and was not disposed to blame him. As for the men, they had been as
+docile as lambs, and he thought the feeling toward himself was not as
+bitter as it had been. All of which his companion said he was glad to
+hear.
+
+They separated at the gate, and the Captain entered the house to find
+Mrs. Snow wielding a broom and surrounded by a cloud of dust. Perez
+was upstairs with the patient, and Captain Jerry, whose habits had been
+considerably upset by the sweeping, was out in the barn.
+
+That evening the situation was explained to Mrs. Snow by Captain Eri, in
+accordance with the talk at the breakfast table. The lady from Nantucket
+understood and respected Captain Jerry's unwillingness to discuss the
+marriage question while John Baxter's condition continued critical, and
+she agreed to act as nurse and housekeeper for a while, at least,
+for the sum of six dollars a week. This price was fixed only after
+considerable discussion by the three mariners, for Captain Eri was
+inclined to offer eight, and Captain Jerry but four.
+
+When Ralph Hazeltine called late in the afternoon of the following day,
+the dining room was so transformed that he scarcely knew it. The dust
+had disappeared; the chronometer was polished till it shone; the table
+was covered with a cloth that was snow-white, and everything movable had
+the appearance of being in its place. Altogether, there was an evidence
+of order that was almost startling.
+
+Captain Eri came to the door in response to his knock, and grinned
+appreciatively at his caller's look of wonder.
+
+"I don't wonder you're s'prised," he said, with a chuckle. "I ain't
+begun to git over it yit, myself, and Lorenzo's so shook up he ain't
+been in the house sence breakfast time. He's out in the barn, keepin'
+Dan'l comp'ny and waitin' for the end of the world to strike, I
+cal'late."
+
+Ralph laughed. "Mrs. Snow?" he inquired.
+
+"Mrs. Snow," answered the Captain. "It beats all what a woman can do
+when she's that kind of a woman. She's done more swabbin' decks and
+overhaulin' runnin' riggin' than a new mate on a clipper. The place is
+so all-fired clean that I feel like brushin' myself every time I go to
+set down."
+
+"How's Captain Baxter?" asked Hazeltine.
+
+"Seems to be some better. He come to a little this mornin', and seemed
+to know some of us, but he ain't sensed where he is yit, nor I don't
+b'lieve he will fur a spell. Set down and keep me comp'ny. It's my watch
+jest now. Perez, he's over to Barry's; Jerry's up to the schoolhouse,
+and Mrs. Snow's run up to the post-office to mail a letter. John's
+asleep, so I can stay downstairs a little while, long's the door's open.
+What's the news uptown? Web changed his mind ag'in 'bout the fire?"
+
+It appeared that Mr. Saunders had not changed his mind, at least so
+current gossip reported. And it may be remarked here that, curiously
+enough, the opinion that the fire "caught itself" came at last to
+be generally accepted in the village. For some weeks Captain Eri was
+troubled with thoughts concerning the missing coat, but, as time passed,
+and the accusing garment did not turn up, he came to believe that
+some boy must have found it and that it had, in all probability, been
+destroyed. There were, of course, some persons who still suspected John
+Baxter as the incendiary, but the old man's serious illness and respect
+for his former standing in the community kept these few silent. The
+Baxter house had been locked up and the Captain had the key.
+
+Hazeltine and his host chatted for a few minutes on various topics. The
+gilt titles on the imposing "Lives of Great Naval Commanders,"
+having received their share of the general dusting, now shone forth
+resplendent, and the Captain noticed Ralph's eye as it involuntarily
+turned toward them.
+
+"Noticin' our library?" he chuckled. "Perez' property, that is. 'Gusty
+Black talked him into buyin' 'em. Never met 'Gusty, did you? No, I
+guess likely not. She lives over to the Neck, and don't git down to the
+village much. 'Gusty's what you call a business woman. She' always up to
+somethin' to make a dollar, and she's as slick a talker as ever was,
+I guess. She never give Perez no rest till he signed the deed for them
+books. Told him they'd give liter'ry tone to the shebang. Perez started
+to read 'em out loud when they fust come, but he had to stop so often to
+spell out the furrin names that me and Jerry used to go to sleep. That
+made him mad, and he said, liter'ry tone be durned; he wa'n't goin' to
+waste his breath readin' us to sleep; so they've been on the shelf ever
+sence."
+
+Ralph laughed. "So you have book agents, too?" he said.
+
+"Well, we've got 'Gusty," was the reply, "and she's enough to keep us
+goin'. Gits round reg'lar as clockwork once a month to collect the two
+dollars from Perez. It's her day now, and I told Perez that that was
+why he sneaked off to Barry's. You see, 'Gusty's after him to buy the
+history of Methuselah, or some old critter, and he don't like to
+see her. She's after me, too, but I'm 'fraid she don't git much
+encouragement."
+
+After they had talked a little longer, the Captain seemed to remember
+something, for he glanced at his watch and said, "Mr. Hazeltine, I
+wonder if I could git you to do me a favor. I really ought to go down
+and see to my shanty. Ain't been there sence day afore yesterday,
+and there's so many boys 'round, I'm 'fraid to leave it unlocked much
+longer. I thought some of the folks would be back 'fore this, but if you
+could stay here long enough for me to run down there a minute or two,
+I'd be ever so much obliged. I'll step up and see how John is."
+
+He went upstairs and returned to report that the patient was quiet and
+seemed to be asleep.
+
+"If you hear him groan, or anything," he said, "jest come to the door
+and whistle. Whistle anyway, if you want me. Ain't nobody likely to
+come, 'less it's 'Gusty or the Reverend Perley come to ask 'bout John.
+If it's a middlin' good-lookin' young woman with a satchel, that's
+'Gusty. Don't whistle; tell her I'm out. I'll be back in a jiffy, but
+you needn't tell either of them so unless your conscience hurts you TOO
+much."
+
+After the Captain had gone Ralph took down a volume of the "Great
+Commanders" and sat down in a chair by the table to look it over. He
+was smiling over the gaudy illustrations and flamboyant descriptions
+of battles, when there was a step on the walk outside and knock at the
+door. "Which is it," he thought, "'Gusty or the Reverend?"
+
+Obviously it was Miss Black. She stood on the mica slab that formed the
+step and looked up at him as he swung the door open. She had a small
+leather bag in her hand, just as the Captain had said she would
+have, but it flashed across Mr. Hazeltine's mind that the rest of
+the description was not a fair one; she was certainly much more than
+"middlin' good-lookin'!"
+
+"Is Captain Hedge in?" she asked.
+
+Now, from his friend's hints, Ralph had expected to hear a rather sharp
+and unpleasant voice,--certain disagreeable remembrances of former
+encounters with female book agents had helped to form the impression
+perhaps,--but Miss Black's voice was mellow, quiet, and rather pleasing
+than otherwise.
+
+"No," said Mr. Hazeltine, obeying orders with exactitude. "Captain Hedge
+is out just now."
+
+"'Gusty"--somehow the name didn't seem to fit--was manifestly
+disappointed.
+
+"Oh, dear!" she said, and then added, "Will he be back soon?"
+
+Now this was a question unprovided for. Ralph stammered, and then
+miserably equivocated. He really couldn't say just when the Captain
+would return.
+
+"Oh, dear!" said the young lady again. Then she seemed to be waiting for
+some further observation on the part of the gentleman at the door. None
+being forthcoming, she seemed to make up her mind to act on her own
+initiative.
+
+"I think I will come in and wait," she said with decision. And come
+in she did, Mr. Hazeltine not knowing exactly what to do, under the
+circumstances.
+
+Now this was much more in keeping with the electrician's preconceived
+ideas of a book agent's behavior; nevertheless, when he turned and found
+the young lady standing in the middle of the floor, he felt obliged to
+be at least decently polite.
+
+"Won't you take a chair?" he asked.
+
+"Thank you," said the caller, and took one.
+
+The situation was extremely awkward, but Ralph felt that loyalty
+to Captain Eri forbade his doing anything that might urge the
+self-possessed Miss Black to prolong her visit, so for a time he said
+nothing. The young lady looked out of the window and Mr. Hazeltine
+looked at her. He was more than ever of the opinion that the "middlin'"
+term should be cut out of her description. He rather liked her
+appearance, so he decided. He liked the way she wore her hair; so simple
+an arrangement, but so effective. Also he liked her dress. It was the
+first tailor-made walking suit he had seen since his arrival in Orham.
+And worn by a country book agent, of all people.
+
+Just then Miss Black turned and caught him intently gazing at her.
+She colored, apparently with displeasure, and looked out of the window
+again. Mr. Hazeltine colored also and fidgeted with the book on the
+table. The situation was confoundedly embarrassing. He felt that he must
+say something now, so he made the original observation that it had been
+a pleasant day.
+
+To this the young lady agreed, but there was no enthusiasm in her tone.
+Then Ralph, nervously fishing for another topic, thought of the book in
+his hand.
+
+"I was just reading this," he said. "I found it quite interesting."
+
+The next moment he realized that he had said what, of all things, was
+the most impolitic. It was nothing less than a bid for a "canvass,"
+and he fully expected to be confronted with the necessary order blanks
+without delay. But, strangely enough, the book lady made no such move.
+She looked at him, it is true, but with an expression of surprise and
+what seemed to be amusement on her face. He was certain that her lips
+twitched as she said calmly:
+
+"Did you? I am glad to hear it."
+
+This dispassionate remark was entirely unexpected, and the electrician,
+as Captain Eri would have said, "lost his bearings" completely.
+
+"Yes--er, yes," he stammered. "Very interesting indeed. I--I suppose you
+must take a good many orders in the course of a week."
+
+"A good many ORDERS?"
+
+"Why, yes. Orders for the books, I mean. The books--the 'Great Naval
+Lives'--er--these books here."
+
+"I beg your pardon, but who do you think I am?"
+
+And it was then that the perception of some tremendous blunder began
+to seize upon Mr. Hazeltine. He had been red before; now, he felt the
+redness creeping over his scalp under his hair.
+
+"Why, why, Miss Black, I suppose; that is, I--"
+
+Just here the door opened and Captain Eri came in. He took off his cap
+and then, seeing the visitor, remained standing, apparently waiting for
+an introduction. But the young lady did not keep him waiting long.
+
+"Are you Captain Eri Hedge?" she asked.
+
+"Yes'm," answered the Captain.
+
+"Oh, I'm SO glad. Your letter came this morning, and I hurried down on
+the first train. I'm Elizabeth Preston."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ELSIE PRESTON
+
+
+Perhaps, on the whole, it is not surprising that Captain Eri didn't
+grasp the situation. Neither his two partners nor himself had given
+much thought to the granddaughter of the sick man in the upper room. The
+Captain knew that there was a granddaughter, hence his letter; but
+he had heard John Baxter speak of her as being in school somewhere
+in Boston, and had all along conceived of her as a miss of sixteen or
+thereabouts. No wonder that at first he looked at the stylishly gowned
+young woman, who stood before him with one gloved hand extended, in a
+puzzled, uncomprehending way.
+
+"Excuse me, ma'am," he said slowly, mechanically swallowing up the
+proffered hand in his own mammoth fist, "but I don't know's I jest
+caught the name. Would you mind sayin' it ag'in?"
+
+"Elizabeth Preston," repeated the visitor. "Captain Baxter's
+granddaughter. You wrote me that he was ill, you know, and I--"
+
+"What!" roared the Captain, delighted amazement lighting up his face
+like a sunrise. "You don't mean to tell me you're 'Liz'beth Baxter's
+gal Elsie! Well! Well! I want to know! If this don't beat all! Set down!
+Take your things right off. I'm mighty glad to see you."
+
+Captain Eri's hand, with Miss Preston's hidden in it, was moving up
+and down as if it worked by a clock-work arrangement. The young lady
+withdrew her fingers from the trap as soon as she conveniently could,
+but it might have been noticed that she glanced at them when she had
+done so, as if to make sure that the original shape remained.
+
+"Thank you, Captain Hedge," she said. "And now, please tell me about
+grandfather. How is he? May I see him?"
+
+The Captain's expression changed to one of concern.
+
+"Why, now, Miss Preston," he said, "your grandpa is pretty sick. Oh, I
+don't mean he's goin' to die right off or anything like that," he added
+hastily. "I mean he's had a stroke of palsy, or somethin', and he ain't
+got so yit that he senses much of what goes on. Now I don't want to
+frighten you, you know, but really there's a chance--a leetle mite of
+a chance--that he won't know you. Don't feel bad if he don't, now will
+you?"
+
+"I knew he must be very ill from your letter," said the girl simply. "I
+was afraid that he might not be living when I reached here. They told me
+at the station that he was at your house and so I came. He has been very
+good to me and I--"
+
+Her voice broke a little and she hesitated. Captain Eri was a picture of
+nervous distress.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," he said hastily. "Don't you worry now. He's better;
+the Doctor said he was consid'rably better to-day; didn't he, Mr.
+Hazeltine? Why, what am I thinkin' of? Let me make you known to Mr.
+Hazeltine; next-door neighbor of ours; right acrost the road," and he
+waved toward the bay.
+
+Ralph and Miss Preston shook hands. The electrician managed to utter
+some sort of formality, but he couldn't have told what it was. He was
+glad when the Captain announced that, if Mr. Hazeltine would excuse
+them, he guessed Miss Preston and he would step upstairs and see John.
+The young lady took off her hat and jacket, and Captain Eri lighted a
+lamp, for it was almost dark by this time. As its light shone upon
+the visitor's face and hair the crimson flush before mentioned
+circumnavigated the electrician's head once more, and his bump of
+self-esteem received a finishing blow. That any man supposed to possess
+two fairly good eyes and a workable brain could have mistaken her for an
+Orham Neck book agent by the name of "'Gusty--'Gusty Black!" Heavens!
+
+"I'll be down in a few minutes, Mr. Hazeltine," said the Captain. "Set
+still, won't you?"
+
+But Mr. Hazeltine wouldn't sit still. He announced that it was late and
+he must be going. And go he did, in spite of his host's protestations.
+
+"Look out for the stairs," cautioned the Captain, leading the way with
+the lamp. "The feller that built 'em must have b'lieved that savin'
+distance lengthens out life. Come to think of it, I wouldn't wonder if
+them stairs was the reason why me and Jerry and Perez took this house.
+They reminded us so of the shrouds on a three-master."
+
+Elsie Preston did her best to smile as her companion rattled on in this
+fashion, but both the smile and the Captain's cheerfulness were too
+plainly assumed to be convincing, and they passed down the hall in
+silence. At the open door of the sick room Captain Eri paused.
+
+"He's asleep," he whispered, "and, remember, if he wakes up and doesn't
+know you, you needn't feel bad."
+
+Elsie slipped by him and knelt by the bed, looking into the white, old
+face on the pillow. Somehow the harsh lines had faded out of it, and it
+looked only old and pitiful.
+
+The Captain watched the tableau for a moment or two, and then tiptoed
+into the room and placed the lamp on the bureau.
+
+"Now, I think likely," he said in a rather husky whisper, "that you'd
+like to stay with your grandpa for a little while, so I'll go downstairs
+and see about supper. No, no, no!" he added, holding up his hand as the
+girl spoke some words of protest, "you ain't goin' nowheres to supper.
+You're goin' to stay right here. If you want me, jest speak."
+
+And he hurried downstairs and into the kitchen, clearing his throat with
+vigor and making a great to-do over the scratching of a match.
+
+Mrs. Snow returned a few minutes later and to her the news of the
+arrival was told, as it was also to Perez and Jerry when they came. Mrs.
+Snow took charge of the supper arrangements. When the meal was ready,
+she said to Captain Eri:
+
+"Now, I'll go upstairs and tell her to come down. I'll stay with Cap'n
+Baxter till you're through, and then p'raps, if one of you'll take my
+place, I'll eat my supper and wash the dishes. You needn't come up now.
+I'll introduce myself."
+
+Some few minutes passed before Miss Preston came down. When she did so
+her eyes were wet, but her manner was cheerful, and the unaffected way
+in which she greeted Captain Perez and Captain Jerry, when these two
+rather bashful mariners were introduced by Eri, won them at once.
+
+The supper was a great success. It was Saturday night, and a Saturday
+night supper to the average New Englander means baked beans. The
+captains had long ago given up this beloved dish, because, although each
+had tried his hand at preparing it, none had wholly succeeded, and the
+caustic criticisms of the other two had prevented further trials. But
+Mrs. Snow's baked beans were a triumph. So, also, was the brown bread.
+
+"I snum," exclaimed Captain Perez, "if I don't b'lieve I'd sooner have
+these beans than turkey. What do you say, Jerry?"
+
+"I don't know but I had," assented the sacrifice, upon whose countenance
+sat a placidity that had not been there since the night of the
+"matching." "'Specially if the turkey was like the one we tried to cook
+last Thanksgivin'. 'Member that, Eri?"
+
+Captain Eri, his mouth full, grunted an emphatic assent.
+
+"Tell me," said Miss Preston, who had eaten but little, but was
+apparently getting more satisfaction from watching her companions, "did
+you three men try to keep house here alone?"
+
+"Yes," answered Eri dryly. "We tried. First we thought 'twas goin' to
+be fine; then we thought we'd like it better after we got used to it;
+finally we decided that by the time we got used to it we'd die, like the
+horse that was fed on sawdust."
+
+"And so you hired Mrs. Snow to keep house for you? Well, I don't see how
+you could have made a better choice; she's a dear, good woman; I'm
+sure of it. And now I want to thank you all for what you've done for
+grandfather. Mrs. Snow told me all about it; you've been so kind that
+I--"
+
+"That's all right! that's all right!" hastily interrupted Captain Eri.
+"Pity if we couldn't help out a shipmate we've sailed with for years and
+years. But you'd ought to have tried some of OUR cookin'. Tell her about
+the sugar cake you made, Perez. The one that killed the yaller chicken."
+
+So Captain Perez told it, and then their visitor set them all laughing
+by relating some queer housekeeping experiences that she and a school
+friend had had while camping at Chautauqua. Somehow each one felt at
+home with her. As Captain Eri said afterwards, "She didn't giggle, and
+then ag'in she didn't talk down at you."
+
+As they rose from the table the young lady asked a question concerning
+the location of the hotel. The Captain made no answer at the time, but
+after a short consultation with the remainder of the triumvirate, he
+came to her as she stood by the window and, laying his hand on her
+shoulder, said:
+
+"Now, Elsie--I hope you don't mind my callin' you Elsie, but I've
+been chums with your grandpa so long seems's if you must be a sort of
+relation of mine--Elsie, you ain't goin' to no hotel, that is, unless
+you're real set on it. Your grandpa's here and we're here, and there's
+room enough. I don't want to say too much, but I'd like to have you
+b'lieve that me and Perez and Jerry want you to stay right in this house
+jest as long's you stop in Orham. Now you will, won't you?"
+
+And so it was settled, and Captain Perez harnessed Daniel and went to
+the station for the trunk.
+
+That evening, just before going to bed, the captains stood by the door
+of the sick room watching Elsie and the lady from Nantucket as they sat
+beside John Baxter's bed. Mrs. Snow was knitting, and Elsie was reading.
+Later, as Captain Eri peered out of the dining-room window to take a
+final look at the sky in order to get a line on the weather, he said
+slowly:
+
+"Fellers, do you know what I was thinkin' when I see them two women in
+there with John? I was thinkin' that it must be a mighty pleasant thing
+to know that if you're took sick somebody like that 'll take care of
+you."
+
+Perez nodded. "I think so, too," he said.
+
+But if this was meant to influence the betrothed one, it didn't succeed,
+apparently, for all Captain Jerry said was:
+
+"Humph! 'Twould take more than that to make me hanker after a stroke of
+palsy."
+
+
+
+And with the coming of Elsie Preston and Mrs. Snow life in the little
+house by the shore took on a decided change. The Nantucket lady having
+satisfied herself that John Baxter's illness was likely to be a long
+one, wrote several letters to persons in her native town, which letters,
+although she did not say so, were supposed by the captains to deal with
+the care of her property while she was away. Having apparently relieved
+her mind by this method, and evidently considering the marriage question
+postponed for the present, she settled down to nurse the sick man and to
+keep house as, in her opinion, a house should be kept. The captains knew
+nothing of her past history beyond what they had gathered from stray
+bits of her conversation. She evidently did not consider it necessary to
+tell anything further, and, on the other hand, asked no questions.
+
+In her care of Baxter she was more like a sister than a hired nurse. No
+wife could have been more tender in her ministrations or more devotedly
+anxious for the patient's welfare.
+
+In her care of the house, she was neatness itself. She scoured and swept
+and washed until the rooms were literally spotless. Order was Heaven's
+first law, in her opinion, and she expected everyone else to keep up to
+the standard. Captain Perez and Captain Eri soon got used to the change
+and gloried in it, but to Captain Jerry it was not altogether welcome.
+
+"Oh, cat's foot!" he exclaimed one day, after hunting everywhere for his
+Sunday tie, and at length finding it in his bureau drawer. "I can't git
+used to this everlastin' spruced-up bus'ness. Way it used to be, this
+necktie was likely to be 'most anywheres 'round, and if I looked out in
+the kitchen or under the sofy, I was jest as likely to find it. But now
+everything's got a place and is in it."
+
+"Well, that's the way it ought to be, ain't it?" said Eri. "Then all
+you've got to do is look in the place."
+
+"Yes, and that's jest it, I'm always forgittin' the place. My shoes is
+sech a place; my hankerchers is sech a place; my pipe is sech a place;
+my terbacker is another place. When I want my pipe I look where my shoes
+is, and when I want my shoes I go and look where I found my pipe. How a
+feller's goin' to keep run of 'em is what _I_ can't see."
+
+"You was the one that did most of the growlin' when things was the old
+way."
+
+"Yes, but jest 'cause a man don't want to live in a pigpen it ain't no
+sign he wants to be put under a glass case."
+
+Elsie's influence upon the house and its inmates had become almost as
+marked as Mrs. Snow's. The young lady was of an artistic bent, and the
+stiff ornaments in the shut-up parlor and the wonderful oil-paintings
+jarred upon her. Strange to say, even the wax-dipped wreath that hung
+in its circular black frame over the whatnot did not appeal to her.
+The captains considered that wreath--it had been the principal floral
+offering at the funeral of Captain Perez's sister, and there was a lock
+of her hair framed with it--the gem of the establishment. They could
+understand, to a certain degree, why Miss Preston objected to the
+prominence given the spatter-work "God bless our Home" motto, but her
+failure to enthuse over the wreath was inexplicable.
+
+But by degrees they became used to seeing the blinds open at the parlor
+windows the week through, and innovations like muslin curtains and vases
+filled with late wild flowers came to be at first tolerated and then
+liked. "Elsie's notions," the captains called them.
+
+There were some great discussions on art, over the teacups after supper.
+Miss Preston painted very prettily in water-colors, and her sketches
+were received with enthusiastic praise by the captains and Mrs. Snow.
+But one day she painted a little picture of a fishing boat and, to her
+surprise, it came in for some rather sharp criticism.
+
+"That's a pretty picture, Elsie," said Captain Eri, holding the sketch
+at arm's length and squinting at it with his head on one side, "but
+if that's Caleb Titcomb's boat, and I jedge 'tis, it seems to me she's
+carryin' too much sail. What do you think, Jerry?"
+
+Captain Jerry took the painting from his friend and critically examined
+it, also at arm's length.
+
+"Caleb's boat ain't got no sech sail as that," was his deliberate
+comment. "She couldn't carry it and stand up that way. Besides, the way
+I look at it, she's down by the head more 'n she'd ought to be."
+
+"But I didn't try to get it EXACTLY right," said the bewildered artist.
+"The boat's sails were so white, and the water was so blue, and the sand
+so yellow that I thought it made a pretty picture. I didn't think of the
+size of the sail."
+
+"Well, I s'pose you wouldn't, nat'rally," observed Captain Perez, who
+was looking over Jerry's shoulder. "But you have to be awful careful
+paintin' vessels. Now you jest look at that picture," pointing to the
+glaring likeness of the Flying Duck, that hung on the wall. "Jest look
+at them sails, every one of 'em drawin' fine; and them ropes, every one
+in JEST the right place. That's what I call paintin'."
+
+"But don't you think, Captain Perez, that the waves in that picture
+would be better if they weren't so all in a row, like a picket fence?"
+
+"Well, now, that ain't it. That's a picture of the A1 two-masted
+schooner Flyin' Duck, and the waves is only thrown in, as you might say.
+The reel thing is the schooner, rigged jest right, trimmed jest right,
+and colored jest the way the Flyin' Duck was colored. You understand
+them waves was put there jest 'cause there had to be some to set the
+schooner in, that's all."
+
+"But you needn't feel bad, Elsie," said Captain Jerry soothingly.
+"'Tain't to be expected that you could paint vessels like Eben Lothrop
+can. Eben he used to work in a shipyard up to East Boston once, and when
+he was there he had to paint schooners and things, reely put the paint
+onto 'em I mean, so, of course, when it come to paintin' pictures of
+'em, why--"
+
+And Captain Jerry waved his hand.
+
+So, as there was no answer to an argument like this, Miss Preston gave
+up marine painting for the time and began a water-color of the house and
+its inmates. This was an elaborate affair, and as the captains insisted
+that each member of the family, Daniel and Lorenzo included, should
+pose, it seemed unlikely to be finished for some months, at least.
+
+Ralph Hazeltine called on the afternoon following Elsie's arrival, and
+Captain Eri insisted on his staying to tea. It might have been noticed
+that the electrician seemed a trifle embarrassed when Miss Preston came
+into the room, but as the young lady was not embarrassed in the least,
+and had apparently forgotten the mistaken-identity incident, his
+nervousness soon wore off.
+
+But it came back again when Captain Eri said:
+
+"Oh, I say, Mr. Hazeltine, I forgot to ask you, did 'Gusty come
+yesterday?"
+
+Ralph answered, rather hurriedly, that she did not. He endeavored to
+change the subject, but the Captain wouldn't let him.
+
+"Well, there!" he exclaimed amazedly; "if 'Gusty ain't broke her record!
+Fust time sence Perez was took with the 'Naval Commander' disease that
+she ain't been on hand when the month was up, to git her two dollars.
+Got so we sort of reckoned by her like an almanac. Kind of thought she
+was sure, like death and taxes. And now she has gone back on us. Blessed
+if I ain't disapp'inted in 'Gusty!"
+
+"Who is she?" inquired Mrs. Snow. "One of those book-agent critters?"
+
+"Well, if you called her that to her face, I expect there'd be squalls,
+but I cal'late she couldn't prove a alibi in court."
+
+Now it may have been Mr. Hazeltine's fancy, but he could have sworn that
+there was just the suspicion of a twinkle in Miss Preston's eye as she
+asked, innocently enough:
+
+"Is she a young lady, Captain Eri?"
+
+"Well, she hopes she is," was the deliberate answer. "Why?"
+
+"Does she look like me?"
+
+"Like YOU? Oh, my soul and body! Wait till you see her. What made you
+ask that?"
+
+"Oh, nothing! I was a little curious, that's all. Have you seen her, Mr.
+Hazeltine?"
+
+Ralph stammered, somewhat confusedly, that he hadn't had the pleasure.
+The Captain glanced from the electrician to Miss Preston and back again.
+Then he suddenly realized the situation.
+
+"Ho! ho!" he roared, slapping his knee and rocking back and forth in his
+chair. "Don't for the land's sake tell me you took Elsie here for 'Gusty
+Black! Don't now! Don't!"
+
+"He asked me if I had taken many orders," remarked the young lady
+demurely.
+
+When the general hilarity had abated a little Ralph penitently explained
+that it was dark, that Captain Eri had said Miss Black was young, and
+that she carried a bag.
+
+"So I did, so I did," chuckled the Captain. "I s'pose 'twas nat'ral
+enough, but, oh dear, it's awful funny! Now, Elsie, you'd ought to
+feel flattered. Wait till you see 'Gusty's hat, the one she got up to
+Boston."
+
+"Am I forgiven, Miss Preston?" asked Hazeltine, as he said good-night.
+
+"Well, I don't know," was the rather non-committal answer. "I think I
+shall have to wait until I see 'Gusty."
+
+But Mr. Hazeltine apparently took his forgiveness for granted, for his
+calls became more and more frequent, until his dropping in after supper
+came to be a regular occurrence. Young people of the better class are
+scarce in Orham during the fall and winter months, and Ralph found few
+congenial companions. He liked the captains and Mrs. Snow, and Elsie's
+society was a relief after a day with the operators at the station. Mr.
+Langley was entirely absorbed in his business, and spent his evenings in
+his room, reading and smoking.
+
+So September and October passed and November came. School opened in
+October and the captains had another boarder, for Josiah Bartlett,
+against his wishes, gave up his position as stage-driver, and was sent
+to school again. As the boy was no longer employed at the livery stable,
+Captain Perez felt the necessity of having him under his eye, and so
+Josiah lived at the house by the shore, a cot being set up in the parlor
+for his use. His coming made more work for Mrs. Snow, but that energetic
+lady did not seem to mind, and even succeeded in getting the youngster
+to do a few "chores" about the place, an achievement that won the
+everlasting admiration of Captain Perez, who had no governing power
+whatever over the boy, and condoned the most of his faults or scolded
+him feebly for the others.
+
+John Baxter continued to waver between this world and the next. He
+had intervals of consciousness in which he recognized the captains and
+Elsie, but these rational moments were few and, although he talked a
+little, he never mentioned recent events nor alluded to the fire.
+
+The fire itself became an old story and gossip took up other subjects.
+The "Come-Outers" held a jubilee service because of the destruction
+of the saloon, but, as "Web" soon began to rebuild and repair, their
+jollification was short-lived. As for Mr. Saunders, he was the same
+unctuous, smiling personage that he had formerly been. It was a curious
+fact, and one that Captain Eri noted, that he never ceased to inquire
+after John Baxter's health, and seemed honestly glad to hear of the old
+man's improvement. He asked a good many questions about Elsie, too, but
+received little satisfaction from the Captain on this subject.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MATCHMAKING AND LIFE-SAVING
+
+
+Captain Jerry sat behind the woodshed, in the sunshine, smoking and
+thinking. He had done a good deal of the first ever since he was sixteen
+years old; the second was, in a measure, a more recent acquirement. The
+Captain had things on his mind.
+
+It was one of those perfect, springlike mornings that sometimes come
+in early November. The sky was clear blue, and the air was so free from
+haze that the houses at Cranberry Point could be seen in every detail.
+The flag on the cable station across the bay stood out stiff in the
+steady breeze, and one might almost count the stripes. The pines on
+Signal Hill were a bright green patch against the yellow grass. The sea
+was a dark sapphire, with slashes of silver to mark the shoals, and
+the horizon was notched with sails. The boats at anchor in front of the
+shanties swung with the outgoing tide.
+
+Then came Captain Eri, also smoking.
+
+"Hello!" said Captain Jerry. "How is it you ain't off fishin' a mornin'
+like this?"
+
+"Somethin' else on the docket," was the answer. "How's matchmakin' these
+days?"
+
+Now this question touched vitally the subject of Captain Jerry's
+thoughts. From a placid, easygoing retired mariner, recent events had
+transformed the Captain into a plotter, a man with a "deep-laid scheme,"
+as the gentlemanly, cigarette-smoking villain of the melodrama used to
+love to call it. To tell the truth, petticoat government was wearing on
+him. The marriage agreement, to which his partners considered him bound,
+and which he saw no way to evade, hung over him always, but he had put
+this threat of the future from his mind so far as possible. He had not
+found orderly housekeeping the joy that he once thought it would be, but
+even this he could bear. Elsie Preston was the drop too much.
+
+He liked Mrs. Snow, except in a marrying sense. He liked Elsie better
+than any young lady he had ever seen. The trouble was, that between
+the two, he, as he would have expressed it, "didn't have the peace of a
+dog."
+
+Before Elsie came, a game of checkers between Perez and himself had been
+the regular after-supper amusement. Now they played whist, Captain Eri
+and Elsie against him and his former opponent. As Elsie and her partner
+almost invariably won, and as Perez usually found fault with him because
+they lost, this was not an agreeable change. But it was but one. He
+didn't like muslin curtains in his bedroom, because they were a nuisance
+when he wanted to sit up in bed and look out of the window; but the
+curtains were put there, and everybody else seemed to think them
+beautiful, so he could not protest. Captain Perez and Captain Eri had
+taken to "dressing up" for supper, to the extent of putting on neckties
+and clean collars. Also they shaved every day. He stuck to the old
+"twice-a-week" plan for a while, but looked so scrubby by contrast that
+out of mere self-respect he had to follow suit. Obviously two females in
+the house were one too many. Something had to be done.
+
+Ralph Hazeltine's frequent calls gave him the inspiration he was looking
+for. This was to bring about a marriage between Ralph and Miss Preston.
+After deliberation he decided that if this could be done the pair would
+live somewhere else, even though John Baxter was still too ill to be
+moved. Elsie could come in every day, but she would be too busy with her
+own establishment to bother with the "improvement" of theirs. It wasn't
+a very brilliant plan and had some vital objections, but Captain Jerry
+considered it a wonder.
+
+He broached it to his partners, keeping his real object strictly in the
+background and enlarging upon his great regard for Ralph and Elsie, and
+their obvious fitness for each other. Captain Perez liked the scheme
+well enough, provided it could be carried out. Captain Eri seemed to
+think it better to let events take their own course. However, they both
+agreed to help if the chance offered.
+
+So, when Mr. Hazeltine called to spend the evening, Captain Jerry
+would rise from his chair and, with an elaborate cough and several
+surreptitious winks to his messmates, would announce that he guessed
+he would "take a little walk," or "go out to the barn," or something
+similar. Captain Perez would, more than likely, go also. As for Captain
+Eri, he usually "cal'lated" he would step upstairs, and see how John was
+getting along.
+
+But in spite of this loyal support, the results obtained from Captain
+Jerry's wonderful plan had not been so startlingly successful as to
+warrant his feeling much elated. Ralph and Elsie were good friends and
+seemed to enjoy each other's society, but that was all that might be
+truthfully said, so far.
+
+Captain Jerry, therefore, was a little discouraged as he sat in the
+sunshine and smoked and pondered. He hid his discouragement, however,
+and in response to Captain Eri's question concerning the progress of the
+matchmaking, said cheerfully:
+
+"Oh, it's comin' along, comin' along. Kind of slow, of course, but you
+can't expect nothin' diff'rent. I s'pose you noticed he was here four
+times last week?"
+
+"Why, no," said Captain Eri, "I don't know's I did."
+
+"Well, he was, and week a fore that 'twas only three. So that's a gain,
+ain't it?"
+
+"Sartin."
+
+"I didn't count the time he stopped after a drink of water neither. That
+wasn't a real call, but--"
+
+"Oh, it ought to count for somethin'! Call it a ha'f a time. That would
+make four times and a ha'f he was here."
+
+Captain Jerry looked suspiciously at his friend's face, but its
+soberness was irreproachable, so he said:
+
+"Well, it's kind of slow work, but, as I said afore, it's comin' along,
+and I have the satisfaction of knowin' it's all for their good."
+
+"Yes, like the feller that ate all the apple-dumplin's so's his children
+wouldn't have the stomach-ache. But say, Jerry, I come out to ask if
+you'd mind bein' housekeeper to-day. Luther Davis has been after me
+sence I don't know when to come down to the life-savin' station and stay
+to dinner. His sister Pashy--the old maid one--is down there, and it's
+such a fine day I thought I'd take Perez and Elsie and Mrs. Snow and,
+maybe, Hazeltine along. Somebody's got to stay with John, and I thought
+p'raps you would. I'd stay myself only Luther asked me so particular,
+and you was down there two or three months ago. When Josiah comes back
+from school he'll help you some, if you need him."
+
+Captain Jerry didn't mind staying at home, and so Eri went into the
+house to make arrangements for the proposed excursion. He had some
+difficulty in persuading Mrs. Snow and Elsie to leave the sick man,
+but both were tired and needed a rest, and there was a telephone at the
+station, so that news of a change in the patient's condition could be
+sent almost immediately. Under these conditions, and as Captain Jerry
+was certain to take good care of their charge, the two were persuaded
+to go. Perez took the dory and rowed over to the cable station to see if
+Mr. Hazeltine cared to make one of the party. When he returned, bringing
+the electrician with him, Daniel, harnessed to the carryall, was
+standing at the side door, and Captain Eri, Mrs. Snow, and Elsie were
+waiting.
+
+Ralph glanced at the carryall, and then at those who were expected to
+occupy it.
+
+"I think I'd better row down, Captain," he said. "I don't see how five
+of us are going to find room in there."
+
+"What, in a carryall?" exclaimed the Captain. "Why, that's what a
+carryall's for. I've carried six in a carryall 'fore now. 'Twas a good
+while ago, though," he added with a chuckle, "when I was consid'rable
+younger 'n I am now. Squeezin' didn't count in them days, 'specially if
+the girls wanted to go to camp-meetin'. I cal'late we can fix it. You
+and me'll set on the front seat, and the rest in back. Elsie ain't a
+very big package, and Perez, he's sort of injy-rubber; he'll fit in
+'most anywheres. Let's try it anyhow."
+
+And try it they did. While it was true that Elsie was rather small,
+Mrs. Snow was distinctly large, and how Captain Perez, in spite of his
+alleged elasticity, managed to find room between them is a mystery. He,
+however, announced that he was all right, adding, as a caution:
+
+"Don't jolt none, Eri, 'cause I'm kind of hangin' on the little aidge of
+nothin'."
+
+"I'll look out for you," answered his friend, picking up the reins. "All
+ashore that's goin' ashore. So long, Jerry. Git dap, Thousand Dollars!"
+
+Daniel complacently accepted this testimony to his monetary worth and
+jogged out of the yard. Fortunately appearances do not count for much in
+Orham, except in the summer, and the spectacle of five in a carryall
+is nothing out of the ordinary. They turned into the "cliff road," the
+finest thoroughfare in town, kept in good condition for the benefit of
+the cottagers and the boarders at the big hotel. The ocean was on the
+left, and from the hill by the Barry estate--Captain Perez' charge--they
+saw twenty miles of horizon line with craft of all descriptions
+scattered along it.
+
+Schooners there were of all sizes, from little mackerel seiners to big
+four- and five-masters. A tug with a string of coal barges behind it
+was so close in that they could make out the connecting hawsers. A black
+freight steamer was pushing along, leaving a thick line of smoke like a
+charcoal mark on the sky. One square-rigger was in sight, but far out.
+
+"What do you make of that bark, Perez?" inquired Captain Eri, pointing
+to the distant vessel. "British, ain't she?"
+
+Captain Perez leaned forward and peered from under his hand. "French,
+looks to me," he said.
+
+"Don't think so. Way she's rigged for'ard looks like Johnny Bull. Look
+at that fo'tops'l."
+
+"Guess you're right, Eri, now I come to notice it. Can you make out her
+flag? Wish I'd brought my glass."
+
+"Great Scott, man!" exclaimed Ralph. "What sort of eyes have you got? I
+couldn't tell whether she had a flag or not at this distance. How do you
+do it?"
+
+"'Cordin' to how you're brought up, as the goat said 'bout eatin'
+shingle-nails," replied Captain Eri. "When you're at sea you've jest got
+to git used to seein' things a good ways off and knowin' 'em when you
+see 'em, too."
+
+"I remember, one time," remarked Mrs. Snow, "that my brother
+Nathan--he's dead now--was bound home from Hong Kong fust mate on
+the bark Di'mond King. 'Twas the time of the war and the Alabama was
+cruisin' 'round, lookin' out for our ships. Nate and the skipper--a
+Bangor man he was--was on deck, and they sighted a steamer a good ways
+off. The skipper spied her and see she was flyin' the United States
+flag. But when Nate got the glass he took one look and says, 'That
+Yankee buntin' don't b'long over that English hull,' he says. You see
+he knew she was English build right away. So the skipper pulled down his
+own flag and h'isted British colors, but 'twa'n't no use; the steamer
+was the Alabama sure enough, and the Di'mond King was burned, and
+all hands took pris'ners. Nate didn't git home for ever so long, and
+everybody thought he was lost."
+
+This set the captains going, and they told sea-stories until they came
+to the road that led down to the beach beneath the lighthouse bluff. The
+lifesaving station was in plain sight now, but on the outer beach, and
+that was separated from them by a two-hundred-yard stretch of water.
+
+"Well," observed Captain Eri, "here's where we take Adam's bridge."
+
+"Adam's bridge?" queried Elsie, puzzled.
+
+"Yes; the only kind he had, I cal'late. Git dap, Daniel! What are you
+waitin' for? Left your bathin' suit to home?"
+
+Then, as Daniel stepped rather gingerly into the clear water, he
+explained that, at a time ranging from three hours before low tide
+to three hours after, one may reach the outer beach at this point
+by driving over in an ordinary vehicle. The life-savers add to this
+time-limit by using a specially built wagon, with large wheels and a
+body considerably elevated.
+
+"Well, there now!" exclaimed the lady from Nantucket, as Daniel
+splashingly emerged on the other side. "I thought I'd done about
+everything a body could do with salt water, but I never went ridin' in
+it afore."
+
+The remainder of the way to the station was covered by Daniel at a walk,
+for the wheels of the heavy carryall sank two inches or more in the
+coarse sand as they turned. The road wound between sand dunes, riven and
+heaped in all sorts of queer shapes by the wind, and with clumps of the
+persevering beach grass clinging to their tops like the last treasured
+tufts of hair on partially bald heads. Here and there, half buried,
+sand-scoured planks and fragments of spars showed, relics of wrecks that
+had come ashore in past winters.
+
+"Five years ago," remarked Captain Eri, "there was six foot of water
+where we are now. This beach changes every winter. One good no'theaster
+jest rips things loose over here; tears out a big chunk of beach and
+makes a cut-through one season, and fills in a deep hole and builds
+a new shoal the next. I've heard my father tell 'bout pickin'
+huckleberries when he was a boy off where them breakers are now. Good
+dry land it was then. Hey! there's Luther. Ship ahoy, Lute!"
+
+The little brown life-saving station was huddled between two sand-hills.
+There was a small stable and a henhouse and yard just behind it. Captain
+Davis, rawboned and brown-faced, waved a welcome to them from the side
+door.
+
+"Spied you comin', Eri," he said in a curiously mild voice, that sounded
+odd coming from such a deep chest. "I'm mighty glad to see you, too?
+Jump down and come right in. Pashy 'll be out in a minute. Here she is
+now."
+
+Miss Patience Davis was as plump as her brother was tall. She impressed
+one as a comfortable sort of person. Captain Eri did the honors and
+everyone shook hands. Then they went into the living room of the
+station.
+
+What particularly struck Mrs. Snow was the neatness of everything. The
+brass on the pump in the sink shone like fire as the sunlight from the
+window struck it. The floor was white from scouring. There were shelves
+on the walls and on these, arranged in orderly piles, were canned goods
+of all descriptions. The table was covered with a figured oilcloth.
+
+Two or three men, members of the crew, were seated in the wooden chairs
+along the wall, but rose as the party came in. Captain Davis introduced
+them, one after the other. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of
+these men was the quiet, almost bashful, way in which they spoke; they
+seemed like big boys, as much as anything, and yet the oldest was nearly
+fifty.
+
+"Ever been in a life-saving station afore?" asked Captain Eri.
+
+Elsie had not. Ralph had and so had Mrs. Snow, but not for years.
+
+"This is where we keep the boat and the rest of the gear," said Captain
+Davis, opening a door and leading the way into a large, low-studded
+room. "Them's the spare oars on the wall. The reg'lar ones are in the
+boat."
+
+The boat itself was on its carriage in the middle of the room. Along the
+walls on hooks hung the men's suits of oilskins and their sou'westers.
+The Captain pointed out one thing after another, the cork jackets and
+life-preservers, the gun for shooting the life line across a stranded
+vessel, the life car hanging from the roof, and the "breeches buoy."
+
+"I don't b'lieve you'd ever git me into that thing," said the Nantucket
+lady decidedly, referring to the buoy. "I don't know but I'd 'bout as
+liefs be drownded as make sech a show of myself."
+
+"Took off a bigger woman than you one time," said Captain Davis. "Wife
+of a Portland skipper, she was, and he was on his fust v'yage in a
+brand-new schooner jest off the stocks. Struck on the Hog's Back off
+here and then drifted close in and struck again. We got 'em all, the
+woman fust. That was the only time we've used the buoy sence I've been
+at the station. Most of the wrecks are too fur off shore and we have to
+git out the boat."
+
+He took them upstairs to the men's sleeping rooms and then up to the
+little cupola on the roof.
+
+"Why do you have ground-glass windows on this side of the house?" asked
+Elsie, as they passed the window on the landing.
+
+Captain Davis laughed.
+
+"Well, it is pretty nigh ground-glass now," he answered, "but it wa'n't
+when it was put in. The sand did that. It blows like all possessed when
+there's a gale on."
+
+"Do you mean that those windows were ground that way by the beach sand
+blowing against them?" asked Ralph, astonished.
+
+"Sartin. Git a good no'therly wind comin' up the beach and it fetches
+the sand with it. Mighty mean stuff to face, sand blowin' like that is;
+makes you think you're fightin' a nest of yaller-jackets."
+
+With the telescope in the cupola they could see for miles up and down
+the beach and out to sea. An ocean tug bound toward Boston was passing,
+and Elsie, looking through the glass, saw the cook come out of the
+galley, empty a pan over the side, and go back again.
+
+"Let me look through that a minute," said Captain Eri, when the rest had
+had their turn. He swung the glass around until it pointed toward their
+home away up the shore.
+
+"Perez," he called anxiously, "look here quick!"
+
+Captain Perez hastily put his eye to the glass, and his friend went on:
+
+"You see our house?" he said. "Yes; well, you see the dinin'-room door.
+Notice that chair by the side of it?"
+
+"Yes, what of it?"
+
+"Well, that's the rocker that Elsie made the velvet cushion for. I want
+you to look at the upper southeast corner of that cushion, and see if
+there ain't a cat's hair there. Lorenzo's possessed to sleep in that
+chair, and--"
+
+"Oh, you git out!" indignantly exclaimed Captain Perez, straightening
+up.
+
+"Well, it was a pretty important thing, and I wanted to make sure. I
+left that chair out there, and I knew what I'd catch if any cat's hairs
+got on that cushion while I was gone. Ain't that so, Mrs. Snow?"
+
+The housekeeper expressed her opinion that Captain Eri was a "case,"
+whatever that may be.
+
+They had clam chowder for dinner--a New England clam chowder, made with
+milk and crackers, and clams with shells as white as snow. They were
+what the New Yorker calls "soft-shell" clams, for a Fulton Market
+chowder is a "quahaug soup" to the native of the Cape.
+
+Now that chowder was good; everybody said so, and if the proof of the
+chowder, like that of the pudding, is in the eating of it, this one had
+a clear case. Also, there were boiled striped bass, which is good enough
+for anybody, hot biscuits, pumpkin pie, and beach-plum preserves. There
+was a running fire of apologies from Miss Patience and answering volleys
+of compliments from Mrs. Snow.
+
+"I don't see how you make sech beach-plum preserves, Miss Davis,"
+exclaimed the lady from Nantucket. "I declare! I'm goin' to ask you for
+another sasserful. I b'lieve they're the best I ever ate."
+
+"Well, now! Do you think so? I kind of suspected that the plums was a
+little mite too ripe. You know how 'tis with beach-plums, they've got to
+be put up when they're jest so, else they ain't good for much. I was at
+Luther for I don't know how long 'fore I could git him to go over to the
+P'int and pick 'em, and I was 'fraid he'd let it go too long. I only put
+up twenty-two jars of 'em on that account. How much sugar do you use?"
+
+There was material here for the discussion that country housewives love,
+and the two ladies took advantage of it. When it was over the female
+portion of the company washed the dishes, while the men walked up and
+down the beach and smoked. Here they were joined after a while by the
+ladies, for even by the ocean it was as mild as early May, and the wind
+was merely bracing and had no sting in it.
+
+The big blue waves shouldered themselves up from the bosom of the sea,
+marched toward the beach, and tumbled to pieces in a roaring tumult
+of white and green. The gulls skimmed along their tops or dropped
+like falling stones into the water after sand eels, emerging again,
+screaming, to repeat the performance.
+
+The conversation naturally turned to wrecks, and Captain Davis, his
+reserve vanishing before the tactful inquiries of the captains and
+Ralph, talked shop and talked it well.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+HEROES AND A MYSTERY
+
+
+Luther Davis had been commandant at the life-saving station for years
+and "Number One Man" before that, so his experience with wrecks and
+disabled craft of all kinds had been long and varied. He told them
+of disasters the details of which had been telegraphed all over the
+country, and of rescues of half-frozen crews from ice-crested schooners
+whose signals of distress had been seen from the observatory on the roof
+of the station. He told of long rows in midwinter through seas the spray
+of which turned to ice as they struck, and froze the men's mittens to
+the oar-handles. He told of picking up draggled corpses in the surf at
+midnight, when, as he said, "You couldn't tell whether 'twas a man or
+a roll of seaweed, and the only way to make sure was to reach down and
+feel."
+
+Captain Eri left them after a while, as he had some acquaintances
+among the men at the station, and wished to talk with them. Miss Davis
+remembered that she had not fed the chickens, and hurried away to
+perform that humane duty, gallantly escorted by Captain Perez. The
+Captain, by the way, was apparently much taken with the plump spinster
+and, although usually rather bashful where ladies were concerned, had
+managed to keep up a sort of side conversation with Miss Patience while
+the storytelling was going on. But Ralph and Elsie and Mrs. Snow were
+hungry for more tales, and Captain Davis obligingly told them.
+
+"One of the wust wrecks we ever had off here," he said, "was the
+Bluebell, British ship, she was: from Singapore, bound to Boston, and
+loaded with hemp. We see her about off that p'int there, jest at dusk,
+and she was makin' heavy weather then. It come on to snow soon as it got
+dark, and blow--don't talk! Seems to me 'twas one of the meanest nights
+I ever saw. 'Tween the snow flyin' and the dark you couldn't see
+two feet ahead of you. We was kind of worried about the vessel all
+evenin'--for one thing she was too close in shore when we see her
+last--but there wa'n't nothin' to be done except to keep a weather eye
+out for signs of trouble.
+
+"Fust thing we knew of the wreck was when the man on patrol up the
+beach--Philander Vose 'twas--telephoned from the shanty that a ship's
+long-boat had come ashore at Knowles' Cove, two mile above the station.
+That was about one o'clock in the mornin'. 'Bout h'af-past two Sim
+Gould--he was drownded the next summer, fishin' on the Banks--telephoned
+from the shanty BELOW the station--the one a mile or so 'tother side of
+the cable house, Mr. Hazeltine--that wreckage was washin' up abreast of
+where he was; that was six miles from where the longboat come ashore.
+So there we was. There wa'n't any way of tellin' whereabouts she was
+layin'; she might have been anywheres along them six miles, and you
+couldn't hear nothin' nor see nothin'. But anyhow, the wreckage kept
+comin' in below the cable station, so I jedged she was somewheres in
+that neighborhood and we got the boat out--on the cart, of course--and
+hauled it down there.
+
+"'Twas a tremendous job, too, that haulin' was. We had the horse and
+the whole of us helpin' him, but I swan! I begun to think we'd never git
+anywheres. 'Tween the wind and the sand and the snow I thought we'd flap
+to pieces, like a passel of shirts on a clothes line. But we got there
+after a spell, and then there was nothin' to do but wait for daylight.
+
+"'Bout seven o'clock the snow let up a little bit, and then we see her.
+There was a bar jest about opposite the cable station--it's been washed
+away sence--and she'd struck on that, and the sea was makin' a clean
+breach over her. There was a ha'f a dozen of her crew lashed in the
+riggin', but I didn't see 'em move, so I presume likely they was froze
+stiff then, for 'twas perishin' cold. But we wrastled the boat down to
+the water and was jest goin' to launch her when the whole three masts
+went by the 'board, men and all. We put off to her, but she was in a
+reg'lar soapsuds of a sea and awash from stem to stern, so we knew there
+was nothin' livin' aboard.
+
+"Yes, siree," continued the Captain meditatively, "that was a mean
+night. I had this ear frost-bit, and it's been tender ever sence. One
+of the fellers had a rib broke; he was a little light chap, and the wind
+jest slammed him up against the cart like as if he was a chip. And jest
+to show you," he added, "how the tide runs around this place, the bodies
+of that crew was picked up from Wellmouth to Setuckit P'int--twenty-mile
+stretch that is. The skipper's body never come ashore. He had a son,
+nice young feller, that was goin' to meet him in Boston, and that boy
+spent a month down here, waitin' for his father's body to be washed up.
+He'd walk up and down this beach, and walk up and down. Pitiful sight as
+ever I see."
+
+"And they were all lost?" asked Elsie with a shiver.
+
+"Every man Jack. But 'twas cu'rus about that hemp. The Bluebell was
+loaded with it, as I told you, and when she went to pieces the tide
+took that hemp and strung it from here to glory. They picked it up all
+'longshore, and for much as a month afterwards you'd go along the 'main
+road' over in the village, and see it hung over fences or spread out in
+the sun to dry. Looked like all the blonde girls in creation had had a
+hair-cut."
+
+"Captain Davis," said Ralph, "you must have seen some plucky things in
+your life. What was the bravest thing you ever saw done?"
+
+The life saver took the cigar that Hazeltine had given him from his
+mouth, and blew the smoke into the air over his head.
+
+"Well," he said slowly, "I don't know exactly. I've seen some pretty
+gritty things done 'long-shore here, in the service. When there's
+somebody drowndin', and you know there's a chance to save 'em, you'll
+take chances, and think nothin' of 'em, that you wouldn't take if you
+had time to set down and cal'late a little. I see somethin' done once
+that may not strike you as bein' anything out of the usual run, but that
+has always seemed to me clear grit and nothin' else. 'Twa'n't savin'
+life neither; 'twas jest a matter of bus'ness.
+
+"It happened up off the coast of Maine 'long in the seventies. I was
+actin' as sort of second mate on a lumber schooner. 'Twas a pitch-black
+night, or mornin' rather, 'bout six o'clock, blowin' like all possessed
+and colder 'n Greenland. We struck a rock that wa'n't even down on an
+Eldredge chart and punched a hole in the schooner's side, jest above
+what ought to have been the water line, only she was heeled over so that
+'twas consider'ble below it most of the time. We had a mean crew aboard,
+Portugees mainly, and poor ones at that. The skipper was below, asleep,
+and when he come on deck things was in a bad way. We'd got the canvas
+off her, but she was takin' in water every time she rolled, and there
+was a sea goin' that was tearin' things loose in great shape. We shipped
+one old grayback that ripped off a strip of the lee rail jest the same
+as you'd rip the edge off the cover of a pasteboard box--never made no
+more fuss about it, either.
+
+"I didn't see nothin' to do but get out the boats, but the skipper he
+wa'n't that kind. He sized things up in a hurry, I tell you. He drove
+the crew--ha'f of 'em was prayin' to the Virgin and t'other ha'f
+swearin' a blue streak--to the pumps, and set me over 'em with a
+revolver to keep 'em workin'. Then him and the fust mate and one or two
+of the best hands rousted out a spare sail, weighted one edge of it to
+keep it down, and got it over the side, made fast, of course.
+
+"Then him and the mate stripped to their underclothes, rigged a sort of
+bos'n's chair over where the hole in the side was, took hammers and a
+pocketful of nails apiece, and started in to nail that canvas over the
+hole.
+
+"'Twas freezin' cold, and the old schooner was rollin' like a washtub.
+One minute I'd see the skipper and the mate h'isted up in the air,
+hammerin' for dear life, and then, swash! under they'd go, clear under,
+and stay there, seemed to me, forever. Every dip I thought would be the
+end, and I'd shet my eyes, expectin' to see 'em gone when she lifted;
+but no, up they'd come, fetch a breath, shake the salt water out of
+their eyes, and go to work again.
+
+"Four hours and a quarter they was at it, four hours, mind you, and
+under water a good ha'f of the time; but they got that sail nailed fast
+fin'lly. We got 'em on deck when 'twas done, and we had to carry the
+fust mate to the cabin. But the skipper jest sent the cook for a pail
+of bilin' hot coffee, drunk the whole of it, put on dry clothes over his
+wet flannels, and stayed on deck and worked that schooner into Portland
+harbor, the men pumpin' clear green water out of the hold every minute
+of the way.
+
+"Now, that always seemed to me to be the reel thing. 'Twa'n't a question
+of savin' life--we could have took to the boats and, nine chances out
+of ten, got ashore all right, for 'twa'n't very fur. But no, the skipper
+said he'd never lost a vessel for an owner yit and he wa'n't goin' to
+lose this one. And he didn't either, by Judas! No, sir!"
+
+"That was splendid!" exclaimed Elsie. "I should like to have known that
+captain. Who was he, Captain Davis?"
+
+"Well, the fust mate was Obed Simmons--he's dead now--but he used to
+live over on the road towards East Harniss. The skipper--well, he was a
+feller you know."
+
+"'Twas Cap'n Eri," said Mrs. Snow with conviction.
+
+"That's right, ma'am. Perez told you, I s'pose."
+
+"No, nobody told me. I jest guessed it. I've seen a good many folks in
+my time, and I cal'late I've got so I can tell what kind a man is after
+I've known him a little while. I jedged Cap'n Eri was that kind, and,
+when you said we knew that skipper, I was almost sartin 'twas him."
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Ralph, "I don't believe I should have guessed it.
+I've always liked the Captain, but he has seemed so full of fun and
+so easy-going that I never thought of his doing anything quite so
+strenuous."
+
+Captain Davis laughed. "I've seen fo'mast hands try to take advantage
+of that easy-goin' way 'fore now," he said, "but they never did it but
+once. Cap'n Eri is one of the finest fellers that ever stepped, but you
+can't stomp on his toes much, and he's clear grit inside. And say," he
+added, "don't you tell anybody I told that story, for he'd skin me alive
+if he knew it."
+
+As they walked back toward the station Ralph and Elsie lingered a little
+behind the others, and then stopped to watch a big four-master that,
+under full sail, was spinning along a mile or two from the beach. They
+watched it for a moment or two without speaking. Elsie's cheeks were
+brown from the sun, stray wisps of her hair fluttered in the wind, and
+her trim, healthy figure stood out against the white sandhill behind
+them as if cut from cardboard. The electrician looked at her, and again
+the thought of that disgraceful "'Gusty" Black episode was forced into
+his mind. They had had many a good laugh over it since, and Elsie had
+apparently forgotten it, but he had not, by a good deal.
+
+She was the first to speak, and then as much to herself as to him.
+
+"I think they are the best people I ever knew," she said.
+
+"Who?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, all of them! The captains and Mrs. Snow, and Captain Davis and his
+sister. They are so simple and kind and generous. And the best of it is,
+they don't seem to know it, and wouldn't believe it if you told them."
+
+Ralph nodded emphatically.
+
+"I imagine it would take a good deal to convince Davis or any of these
+station men that there was anything heroic in their lives," he said. "As
+for Captain Eri, I have known him only a month or two, but I don't know
+of anyone to whom I would rather go if I were in trouble."
+
+"He has been so kind to grandfather and me," said Elsie, "that I feel
+as though we were under an obligation we never could repay. When I came
+down here I knew no one in Orham, and he and Captain Jerry and Captain
+Perez have made me feel more at home than I have ever felt before. You
+know," she added, "grandfather is the only relative I have."
+
+"I suppose you will go back to your studies when your grandfather
+recovers."
+
+"I don't know. If grandfather is well enough I think I shall try to
+persuade him to come up to Boston and live with me. Then I might perhaps
+teach. This was to have been my last year at Radcliffe, so my giving it
+up will not make so much difference. Do you intend to stay here long? I
+suppose you do. Your profession, I know, means so much to you, and your
+work at the station must be very interesting."
+
+"It would be more so if I had someone who was interested with me. Mr.
+Langley is kind, but he is so wrapped up in his own work that I see very
+little of him. I took the place because I thought it would give me a
+good deal of spare time that I might use in furthering some experiments
+of my own. Electricity is my hobby, and I have one or two ideas that
+I am foolish enough to hope may be worth developing. I have had time
+enough, goodness knows, but it's a lonesome sort of life. If it had not
+been for the captains--and you--I think I should have given it up before
+this."
+
+"Oh, I hope you won't."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why--why, because it seems like running away, almost, doesn't it? If
+a thing is hard to do, but is worth doing, I think the satisfaction IN
+doing it is ever so much greater, don't you? I know it must be lonely
+for you; but, then, it is lonely for Mr. Langley and the other men,
+too."
+
+"I doubt if Mr. Langley would be happy anywhere else, and the other men
+are married, most of them, and live over in the village."
+
+Now, there isn't any real reason why this simple remark should have
+caused a halt in the conversation, but it did. Miss Preston said, "Oh,
+indeed!" rather hurriedly, and her next speech was concerning the height
+of a particularly big wave. Mr. Hazeltine answered this commonplace
+somewhat absent-mindedly. He acted like a man to whom a startling idea
+had suddenly occurred. Just then they heard Captain Eri calling them.
+
+The Captain was standing on a sand dune near the station, shouting their
+names through a speaking trumpet formed by placing his hands about his
+mouth. As the pair came strolling toward him, he shifted his hands to
+his trousers pockets and stood watching the young couple with a sort of
+half smile.
+
+"I s'pose if Jerry was here now," he mused, "he'd think his scheme was
+workin'. Well, maybe 'tis, maybe 'tis. You can't never tell. Well, I
+swan!"
+
+The exclamation was called forth by the sight of Captain Perez and Miss
+Patience, who suddenly came into view around the corner of the station.
+The Captain was gallantly assisting his companion over the rough places
+in the path, and she was leaning upon his arm in a manner that implied
+implicit confidence. Captain Eri glanced from one couple to the other,
+and then grinned broadly. The grin had not entirely disappeared when
+Captain Perez came up, and the latter rather crisply asked what the joke
+was.
+
+"Oh, nothin'!" was the reply. "I was jest thinkin' we must be playin'
+some kind of a game, and I was It."
+
+"It?" queried Miss Patience, puzzled.
+
+"Why, yes. I'm kinder like 'Rastus Bailey used to be at the dances
+when you and me was younger, Perez. Old man Alexander--he was the
+fiddler--used to sing out 'Choose partners for Hull's Vict'ry,' or
+somethin' like that, and it always took 'Ras so long to make up his mind
+what girl to choose that he gin'rally got left altogether. Then he'd
+set on the settee all through the dance and say he never cared much for
+Hull's Vict'ry, anyway. Seems to me, I'm the only one that ain't choosed
+partners. How 'bout it, Perez?"
+
+"More fool you, that's all I've got to say," replied Captain Perez
+stoutly.
+
+Miss Patience laughed so heartily at this rejoinder that Perez began
+to think he had said a very good thing indeed, and so repeated it for
+greater effect.
+
+"You want to look out for him, Miss Davis," said Captain Eri. "He's the
+most fascinatin' youngster of his age I ever see. Me and Jerry's been
+thinkin' we'd have to build a fence 'round the house to keep the girls
+away when he's home. Why, M'lissy Busteed fairly--"
+
+"Oh, give us a rest, Eri!" exclaimed Perez, with even more indignation
+than was necessary. "M'lissy Busteed!"
+
+Just then Ralph and Elsie came up, and Captain Eri explained that he had
+hailed them because it was time to be going if they wanted to get across
+to the mainland without swimming. They walked around to the back door of
+the station and there found Mrs. Snow and Captain Davis by the hen-yard.
+The lady from Nantucket had discovered a sick chicken in the collection,
+and she was holding it in her lap and at the same time discoursing
+learnedly on the relative value of Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds,
+as layers.
+
+"See there!" exclaimed Captain Eri delightedly, pointing to the
+suffering pullet, "what did I tell you? D'you wonder we picked her out
+for nuss for John, Luther? Even a sick hen knows enough to go to her."
+
+They harnessed Daniel to the carryall, and stowed the living freight
+aboard somehow, although Captain Perez protested that he had eaten so
+much dinner he didn't know's he'd be able to hang on the way he did
+coming down. Then they said farewell to Captain Davis and his sister and
+started for home. The members of the crew, such of them as were about
+the station, waved good-by to them as they passed.
+
+"Things kind of average up in this world, don't they?" said Captain Eri
+reflectively, as he steered Daniel along the soft beach toward the ford.
+"We're all the time readin' 'bout fellers that work for the Gov'ment
+gittin' high sal'ries and doin' next to nothin'. Now there's a gang--the
+life-savin' crew, I mean--that does what you and me would call almighty
+hard work and git next to nothin' for it. Uncle Sam gits square there,
+it seems to me. A few dollars a month and find yourself ain't gilt-edged
+wages for bein' froze and drownded and blown to pieces ten months out of
+the year, is it?"
+
+The tide was higher when they came to the crossing than it had been when
+they drove over before, but they made the passage all right, although
+there was some nervousness displayed by the feminine portion of the
+party. When they reached home they found Captain Jerry contentedly
+smoking his pipe, the sick man was asleep, and everything was serene.
+Josiah appeared from behind the barn, where he had been smoking a
+cigarette.
+
+They pressed Mr. Hazeltine to stay to supper, but he declined, alleging
+that he had been away from business too long already. He had been
+remarkably silent during the homeward ride, and Elsie, too, had seemed
+busy with her thoughts. She was full of fun at the supper table,
+however, and the meal was a jolly one. Just as it was finished Captain
+Jerry struck the table a bang with his palm that made the knives and
+forks jump, and so startled Captain Perez as to cause him to spill half
+a cup of tea over his shirt bosom.
+
+"Land of love!" ejaculated the victim, mopping his chin and his tie
+with his napkin. "It's bad enough to scare a feller to death, let alone
+drowndin' and scaldin' him at the same time. What did you do that for?"
+
+"I jest thought of somethin'," exclaimed Captain Jerry, going through
+one pocket after the other.
+
+"Well, I wish you'd have your thinkin' fits in the barn or somewheres
+else next time. I put this shirt on clean this mornin' and now look at
+it!"
+
+His friend was too busy to pay any attention to this advice. The pocket
+search apparently being unsatisfactory, he rose from the table and
+hurriedly made a round of the room, looking on the mantelpiece and under
+chairs.
+
+"I had it when I come in," he soliloquized. "I know I did, 'cause I was
+wearin' it when I went out to see to the hens. I don't see where--"
+
+"If it's your hat you're looking for," observed Josiah, "I saw Mrs. Snow
+hang it up on the nail behind the door. There it is now."
+
+The reply to this was merely a grunt, which may, or may not have
+expressed approval. At any rate, the hat was apparently the object of
+his search, for he took it from the nail, looked inside, and with a sigh
+of relief took out a crumpled envelope.
+
+"I knew I put it somewheres," he said. "It's a letter for you, Elsie.
+Josiah, here, he brought it down from the post-office when he come from
+school this afternoon. I meant to give it to you afore."
+
+Captain Eri, who sat next to the young lady, noticed that the envelope
+was addressed in an irregular, sprawling hand to "Miss Elizabeth
+Preston, Orham, Mass." Elsie looked it over in the absent way in which
+so many of us examine the outside of a letter which comes unexpectedly.
+
+"I wonder who it is from," she said.
+
+She did not open it at once, but, tucking it into her waist, announced
+that she must run upstairs, in order that Mrs. Snow might come down to
+supper. The housekeeper did come down a few minutes later, and, as she
+was interested to know more about Luther Davis and his sister, the talk
+became animated and general.
+
+It was after eight o'clock when Mrs. Snow, having finished washing the
+dishes--she allowed no one to assist her in this operation since the
+time when she caught Captain Jerry absent-mindedly using the dust
+rag instead of the dishcloth--went upstairs to her patient. Shortly
+afterward Elsie came down, wearing her hat and jacket.
+
+"I'm going out for a little while," she said. "No, I don't want anyone
+to go with me. I'll be back soon."
+
+Her back was turned to the three captains as she spoke, but, as she
+opened the door, the lamplight shone for an instant on her face, and
+Captain Eri noticed, or fancied that he did, that she was paler than
+usual. He rose, and again offered to accompany her, but met with such a
+firm refusal that he could not insist further.
+
+"Now, that's kind of funny, ain't it?" remarked Perez. "I don't b'lieve
+she's been out alone afore after dark sence she's been here."
+
+"Where did you git that letter, Josiah?" asked Captain Eri.
+
+It may as well be explained here that Captain Perez' grand-nephew was a
+thorn in the flesh to everyone, including his indulgent relative. He was
+a little afraid of Mrs. Snow, and obeyed her better than he did anyone
+else, but that is not saying a great deal. He was in mischief in school
+two-thirds of the time, and his reports, made out by the teacher, were
+anything but complimentary. He was a good-looking boy, the image of his
+mother, who had been her uncle's favorite, and he was popular with a
+certain class of youngsters. Also, and this was worse, his work at
+the livery stable had thrown him in contact with a crowd of men like
+"Squealer" Wixon, "Web" Saunders, and others of their class, and they
+appreciated his New York street training and made much of him. Captain
+Perez, mindful of his promise to the boy's mother, did not use the
+necessary measures to control him, and Captain Eri and Captain Jerry did
+not like to interfere.
+
+Just now he was seated in the corner, and he looked up with a start,
+hurriedly folded up the tattered paper book he was reading, stuffed it
+into his pocket, and said, "What?"
+
+"Who give you that letter that come for Elsie?"
+
+"Miss Cahoon up at the office. It was in our box," said the boy.
+
+"Humph! What are you readin' that's so interestin'?"
+
+"Oh, nothin'. A book, that's all."
+
+"Let me look at it."
+
+Josiah hesitated, looked as if he would like to refuse, and then
+sullenly took the ragged volume from his pocket and handed it to the
+Captain, who deliberately unfolded it, and looked at the cover.
+
+"'Fightin' Fred Starlight, the Boy Rover of the Pacific,'" he read
+aloud. "Humph! Is it good?"
+
+"Bet your life! It's a red-hot story."
+
+"I want to know! Who was Mr. Moonshine--what's his name--Starlight?"
+
+"He was a sailor," was the sulky answer. Josiah was no fool, and knew
+when he was being made fun of.
+
+The Captain opened the book, and read a page or two to himself. Then he
+said, "I see he knocked the skipper down 'cause he insulted him. Nice,
+spunky chap; I'd like to have had him aboard a vessel of mine. And he
+called the old man a 'caitiff hound'? Awful thing to call a feller, that
+is. I'll bet that skipper felt ashamed. Looks like a good book. I'll
+borrow it to-night to read while you're doin' your lessons."
+
+"I ain't got any lessons to do."
+
+"Oh, ain't you? I thought that was a 'rithmetic over there."
+
+"Well, I know 'em now. Besides, you ain't got any right to order me
+around. You ain't my uncle. Can't I read that book, Uncle Perez?"
+
+Poor Perez! He hesitated, swallowed once or twice, and answered, "You
+can read it after you've studied a spell. You'll let him have it then,
+won't you, Eri? Now study, like a good boy."
+
+Captain Eri looked as if he would like to say something further, but
+he evidently thought better of it, and tossed the paper novel across to
+Captain Perez, who put it on the table, saying, rather feebly:
+
+"There now, it's right there, where you can have it soon's you've
+l'arned your examples. Now pitch in, so's the teacher can see how smart
+you are."
+
+His nephew grumblingly got his paper and pencil, took the arithmetic
+and went to work. No one spoke for a while, Captain Perez twirling his
+thumbs and looking, as he felt, uncomfortable. Soon Josiah, announcing
+that his studies were completed, grabbed the novel from the table, took
+a lamp from the kitchen and went off to bed. When he had gone Captain
+Jerry said, "Perez, you're sp'ilin' that boy."
+
+"I s'pose I am, I s'pose I am, but I can't bear to be cross to him,
+somehow. Poor Lizzie, she made me promise I wouldn't be, and I jest
+can't; that's all. You understand how 'tis, don't you, Eri?"
+
+The Captain nodded. "I understand," he said. "I'm sorry I said anything.
+I hadn't ought to be givin' orders 'bout what's none of my affairs. What
+time is it gittin' to be?"
+
+Captain Jerry announced that it was bedtime, and that he was going to
+turn in. Perez, still looking worried and anxious, said that he also was
+going to bed. Captain Eri thought that he would sit up for a while.
+
+Another hour and still another went by, and the Captain sat there in his
+rocker. His two friends were sound asleep. Mrs. Snow called twice from
+the head of the stairs to know if Elsie had come back, and where on
+earth she could be. Captain Eri's answers were cheery and to the effect
+that the young lady had an errand up town, and would be home pretty
+soon, he guessed. Nevertheless, it might have been noticed that he
+glanced at the clock every few minutes, and grew more and more fidgety.
+
+It was after eleven when Elsie came in. She hurriedly and with some
+confusion apologized for being so late, and thanked the Captain for
+sitting up for her. She made no offer to explain her long absence
+and, as she went upstairs, Captain Eri noticed that her face was, if
+anything, paler than when she went out, and her eyes looked as if
+she had been crying. He wanted to ask her some questions, but didn't,
+because she evidently did not wish to talk. He pondered over the matter
+while undressing, and for a long time after that lay awake thinking.
+That the girl was in trouble of some sort was plain, but he could not
+understand why she said nothing about it, or what its cause might be.
+She had been her bright, happy self all day and a part of the evening.
+Then she had suddenly changed. The Captain wondered what was in that
+letter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A LITTLE POLITICS
+
+
+Elsie, when she came down to breakfast next morning, was quieter than
+usual, and to the joking questions of Captain Jerry and Captain Perez,
+who were curious concerning her "errand" of the previous evening, and
+who pretended to believe that she had gone to a dance or "time" with
+some "feller" unknown, she gave evasive, but good-humored replies.
+Captain Eri was on his usual fishing trip, and after breakfast was over
+Perez departed to the Barry place, and Jerry to his beloved schoolhouse.
+The sacrifice, whose impending matrimonial doom had not been mentioned
+for some time by the trio interested, was gradually becoming his own
+garrulous self, and his principal topic of conversation recently had
+been the coming marriage of the "upstairs teacher"--that is, the lady
+who presided over the grammar grade of the school--and the question of
+her probable successor. In fact, this question of who the new teacher
+was to be was the prevailing subject of surmise and conjecture in the
+village just then.
+
+When Captain Jerry came back to the house he went out to the barn to
+feed Lorenzo and the hens, and attend to Daniel's toilet. He was busy
+with the curry-comb when Elsie came in. She seated herself on a box, and
+watched the performance for a while without speaking. The Captain, who
+took this part of his duties very seriously, was too intent on crimping
+Daniel's rather scraggy forelock to talk much. At length Miss Preston
+broke the silence.
+
+"Captain Jerry," she said, "you have never told me just where you found
+grandfather that night when he was taken sick. On the hill back of the
+post-office, wasn't it?"
+
+"Yes, jest on the top. You see, he'd fell down when he was runnin' to
+the fire."
+
+"Captain Eri found him, didn't he?"
+
+"Yep. Whoa there, Dan'l; stand still, can't you? Yes, Eri found him."
+
+"How was he dressed?"
+
+"Who? John? Oh, he was bareheaded and in his shirtsleeves, jest as he
+run outdoors when he heard the bell. Queer, he didn't put on that
+old white hat of his. I never knew him to be without it afore; but a
+feller's li'ble to forgit 'most anything a night like that was. Did Eri
+tell you how Perez forgot his shoes? Funniest thing I ever see, that
+was."
+
+He began the story of his friend's absent-mindedness, but his companion
+did not seem to pay much attention to it. In fact, it was evident that
+her thoughts were somewhere else, for when the Captain asked her a
+question that plainly called for a negative, she replied "Yes," very
+calmly, and didn't seem to know that she had said it. She went into
+the house soon after and Captain Jerry, after considering the matter,
+decided that she was probably thinking of Hazeltine. He derived much
+comfort from the idea.
+
+When he, too, entered the dining room, Elsie said to him:
+
+"Oh, Captain Jerry! Please don't tell the others that I asked about
+grandfather. They would think that I was worrying, and I'm not, a bit.
+You won't mention it, will you? Just promise, to please me."
+
+So the Captain promised, although he did not understand why it was asked
+of him.
+
+When Captain Eri came home that afternoon, and was cleaning his catch at
+the shanty, he was surprised to receive a call from Miss Preston.
+
+"Hello!" he exclaimed. "Come to l'arn the trade?"
+
+Elsie smiled, and disclaimed any intention of apprenticeship.
+
+"Captain Eri," she said, "I want to have a talk with you, a business
+talk."
+
+The Captain looked at her keenly. All he said, however, was, "You don't
+tell me!"
+
+"Yes, I want to talk with you about getting me a position."
+
+"A position?"
+
+"Yes, I've been thinking a great deal lately, and, now that grandfather
+seems to be a little better, and I'm not needed to help take care of
+him, I want to do something to earn my living."
+
+"Earn your livin'? Why, child alive, you don't need to do that. You
+ain't a mite of trouble at the house; fact is, I don't know how we'd get
+along without you, and, as for money, why I cal'late your grandpa ain't
+so poor but what, if I let you have a little change once in a while,
+he'd be able to pay me back, when he got better."
+
+"But I don't want to use your money or his either. Captain Eri, you
+don't know what he has done for me ever since I was a little girl. He
+has clothed me and given me an education, and been so kind and good
+that, now that he is ill and helpless, I simply can't go on using his
+money. I can't, and I won't."
+
+The tears stood in the girl's eyes, as she spoke, and the Captain,
+noticing her emotion, thought it better to treat the matter seriously,
+for the present at any rate.
+
+"All right," he said. "'Independence shows a proper sperit and saves
+grocery bills,' as old man Scudder said when his wife run off with the
+tin-peddler. What kind of a place was you thinkin' of takin'?"
+
+"I want to get the appointment to teach in the grammar school here. Miss
+Nixon is going to be married, and when she leaves I want her place--and
+I want you to help me get it."
+
+Captain Eri whistled. "I want to know!" he exclaimed. Then he said,
+"Look here, Elsie, I don't want you to think I'm tryin' to be cur'ous
+'bout your affairs, or anything like that, but are you sure there ain't
+some reason more 'n you've told me of for your wantin' this place? I
+ain't no real relation of yours, you understand, but I would like to
+have you feel that you could come to me with your troubles jest the
+same as you would to your grandpa. Now, honest and true, ain't there
+somethin' back of this?"
+
+It was only for a moment that Elsie hesitated, but that moment's
+hesitation and the manner in which she answered went far toward
+confirming the Captain's suspicions.
+
+"No, Captain Eri," she said. "It is just as I've told you. I don't want
+to be dependent on grandfather any longer."
+
+"And there ain't a single other reason for--Of course, I ought to mind
+my business, but--Well, there! what was it you wanted me to do? Help you
+git the place?"
+
+"Yes, if you will. I know Captain Perez has said that you were
+interested in the town-meetings and helped to nominate some of the
+selectmen and the school-committee, so I thought perhaps, if you used
+your influence, you might get the position for me."
+
+"Well, I don't know. I did do a little electioneerin' for one or two
+fellers and maybe they'd ought to be willin' to do somethin' for me.
+Still, you can't never tell. A cat 'll jump over your hands if she knows
+there's a piece of fish comin' afterwards, but when she's swallowed that
+fish, it's a diff'rent job altogether. Same way with a politician. But,
+then, you let me think over it for a spell, and p'raps to-morrow we'll
+see. You think it over, too. Maybe you'll change your mind."
+
+"No, I shan't change my mind. I'm ever and ever so much obliged to you,
+though."
+
+She started toward the door, but turned impulsively and said, "Oh,
+Captain Eri, you don't think that I'm ungrateful, do you? You nor
+Captain Perez nor Captain Jerry won't think that I do not appreciate
+all your kindness? You won't think that I'm shirking my duty, or that
+I don't want to help take care of grandfather any longer? You won't?
+Promise me you won't."
+
+She choked down a sob as she asked the question.
+
+Captain Eri was as much moved as she was. He hastened to answer.
+
+"No, no, no!" he exclaimed. "Course we won't do no such thing. Run right
+along, and don't think another word about it. Wait till to-morrer. I'll
+have a plan fixed up to land that school-committee, see if I don't."
+
+But all that evening he worked at the model of the clipper, and the
+expression on his face as he whittled showed that he was puzzled, and
+not a little troubled.
+
+He came back from his fishing next day a little earlier than usual,
+changed his working-clothes for his second best suit, harnessed Daniel
+into the buggy, and then came into the house, and announced that he was
+going over to the Neck on an errand, and if Elsie wanted to go with him,
+he should be glad of her company. As this was but part of a pre-arranged
+scheme, the young lady declared that a ride was just what she needed.
+
+Captain Eri said but little, as they drove up to the "main road"; he
+seemed to be thinking. Elsie, too, was very quiet. When they reached the
+fruit and candy shop, just around the corner, the Captain stopped the
+horse, got down, and went in. When he came out he had a handful of
+cigars.
+
+"Why, Captain Eri," said Elsie, "I didn't know that you smoked cigars. I
+thought a pipe was your favorite."
+
+"Well, gin'rally speakin', 'tis," was the answer, "but I'm
+electioneerin' now, and politics without cigars would be like a chowder
+without any clams. Rum goes with some kind of politics, but terbacker
+kind of chums in with all kinds. 'Tain't always safe to jedge a
+candidate by the kind of cigars he gives out neither; I've found that
+out.
+
+"Reminds me of a funny thing that Obed Nickerson told me one time. Obed
+used to be in politics a good deal up and down the Cape, here, and he
+had consider'ble influence. 'Twas when Bradley up to Fall River was
+runnin' for Congress. They had a kind of pow-wow in his office--a whole
+gang of district leaders--and Obed he was one of 'em. Bradley went to
+git out the cigar-box, and 'twas empty, so he called in the boy that
+swept out and run errands for him, give the youngster a ten-dollar bill,
+and told him to go down to a terbacker store handy and buy another box.
+Well, the boy, he was a new one that Bradley'd jest hired, seemed kind
+of surprised to think of anybody's bein' so reckless as to buy a whole
+box of cigars at once, but he went and pretty soon come back with the
+box.
+
+"The old man told him to open it and pass 'em round. Well, everybody
+was lookin' for'ard to a treat, 'cause Bradley had the name of smokin'
+better stuff than the average; but when they lit up and got a-goin',
+Obed said you could see that the gang was s'prised and some disgusted.
+The old man didn't take one at fust, but everybody else puffed away, and
+the smoke and smell got thicker 'n' thicker. Obed said it reminded him
+of a stable afire more 'n anything else. Pretty soon Bradley bit the end
+of one of the things and touched a match to it. He puffed twice--Obed
+swears 'twa'n't more'n that--and then he yelled for the boy.
+
+"'For the Lord's sake!' he says, 'where'd you git them cigars?' Well,
+it come out that the boy hadn't told who the cigars was for, and he'd
+bought a box of the kind his brother that worked in the cotton mill
+smoked. Obed said you'd ought to have seen Bradley's face when the
+youngster handed him back seven dollars and seventy-five cents change."
+
+They reached that part of Orham which is called the Neck, and pulled
+up before a small building bearing the sign "Solomon Bangs,
+Attorney-at-Law, Real Estate and Insurance." Here the Captain turned to
+his companion and asked, "Sure you haven't changed your mind, Elsie? You
+want that school-teachin' job?"
+
+"I haven't changed my mind, Captain Eri."
+
+"Well, I wanted to be sure. I should hate to ask Sol Bangs for anything
+and then have to back out afterwards. Come on, now."
+
+Mr. Soloman Bangs was the chairman of the Orham school-committee. He was
+a short, stout man with sandy side-whiskers and a bald head. He received
+them with becoming condescension, and asked if they wouldn't sit down.
+
+"Why, I've got a little bus'ness I want to talk with you 'bout,
+Sol," said the Captain. "Elsie, you set down here, and make yourself
+comf'table, and Sol and me 'll go inside for a minute."
+
+As he led the way into the little private office at the back of the
+building, and seemed to take it for granted that Mr. Bangs would follow,
+the latter gentleman couldn't well refuse. The private office was
+usually reserved for interviews with widows whose homestead mortgages
+were to be foreclosed, guileless individuals who had indorsed notes
+for friends, or others whose business was unpleasant and likely to
+be accompanied with weeping or profanity. Mr. Bangs didn't object to
+foreclosing a mortgage, but he disliked to have a prospective customer
+hear the dialogue that preceded the operation.
+
+On this occasion the door of the sanctum was left ajar so that Elsie,
+although she did not try to listen, could not very well help hearing
+what was said.
+
+She heard the Captain commenting on the late cranberry crop, the
+exceptionally pleasant weather of the past month, and other irrelevant
+subjects. Then the perfumes of the campaign cigars floated out through
+the doorway.
+
+"Let's see," said Captain Eri, "when's town meetin' day?"
+
+"First Tuesday in December," replied Mr. Bangs.
+
+"Why, so 'tis, so 'tis. Gittin' pretty nigh, ain't it? What are you
+goin' to git off the school-committee for?"
+
+"Me? Get off the committee? Who told you that?"
+
+"Why, I don't know. You are, ain't you? Seems to me I heard Seth Wingate
+was goin' to run and he's from your district, so I thought, of course--"
+
+"Is Seth going to try for the committee?"
+
+"Seth's a good man," was the equivocal answer.
+
+"A good man! He ain't any better man than I am. What's he know about
+schools, or how to run 'em?"
+
+"Well, he's pretty popular. Folks like him. See here, Sol; what's this
+'bout your turnin' Betsy Godfrey off her place?"
+
+"Who said I turned her off? I've been carrying that mortgage for so long
+it's gray-headed. I can't be Santa Claus for the whole town. Business is
+business, and I've got to look out for myself."
+
+"Ye-es, I s'pose that's so. Still, folks talk, and Seth's got lots of
+friends."
+
+"Eri, I ain't denying that you could do a heap to hurt me if you wanted
+to, but I don't know why you should. I've always been square with you,
+far's I know. What have you got against me?"
+
+"Oh, nuthin', nuthin'! Didn't I hear you was tryin' to get that Harniss
+teacher to come down here and take Carrie Nixon's place when she got
+married?"
+
+"Well, I thought of her. She's all night, isn't she?"
+
+"Yes, I s'pose she is. 'Twould be better if she lived in Orham, maybe,
+and folks couldn't say you went out of town for a teacher when you could
+have had one right from home. Then, she's some relation of your cousin,
+ain't she? 'Course, that's all right, but--well, you can't pay attention
+to everything that's said."
+
+"Could have got one right from home! Who'd we get? Dave Eldredge's girl,
+I suppose. I heard she was after it."
+
+The conversation that followed was in a lower tone, and Elsie heard but
+little of it. She heard enough, however, to infer that Captain Eri was
+still the disinterested friend, and that Solomon was very anxious to
+retain that friendship. After a while the striking of matches indicated
+that fresh cigars were being lighted, and then the pair rose from their
+chairs, and entered the outer office. Mr. Bangs was very gracious,
+exceedingly so.
+
+"Miss Preston," he said, "Cap'n Hedge tells me that it--er--might be
+possible for us--er--for the town to secure--er--to--in short, for us to
+have you for our teacher in the upstairs room. It ain't necessary for me
+to say that--er--a teacher from Radcliffe don't come our way very often,
+and that we--that is, the town of Orham, would--er--feel itself lucky if
+you'd be willing to come."
+
+"Of course, I told him, Elsie," said Captain Eri, "that you wouldn't
+think of comin' for forty-five dollars a month or anything like that. Of
+course, 'tisn't as though you really needed the place."
+
+"I understand, I understand," said the pompous committeeman. "I think
+that can be arranged. I really think--er--Miss Preston, that there ain't
+any reason why you can't consider it settled. Ahem!"
+
+Elsie thanked him, trying her best not to smile, and they were bowed
+out by the great man, who, however, called the Captain to one side,
+and whispered eagerly to him for a moment or two. The word "Seth" was
+mentioned at least once.
+
+"Why, Captain Eri!" exclaimed Elsie, as they drove away.
+
+The Captain grinned. "Didn't know I was such a heeler, did you?" he
+said. "Well, I tell you. If you're fishin' for eels there ain't no use
+usin' a mack'rel jig. Sol, he's a little mite eely, and you've got to
+use the kind of bait that 'll fetch that sort of critter."
+
+"But I shouldn't think he would care whether he was on the
+school-committee or not. It isn't such an exalted position."
+
+Captain Eri's answer was in the form of a parable. "Old Laban Simpkins
+that lived 'round here one time," he said, "was a mighty hard ticket.
+Drank rum by the hogshead, pounded his wife till she left him, and was
+a tough nut gin'rally. Well, one evenin' Labe was comin' home pretty
+how-come-you-so, and he fell into Jonadab Wixon's well. Wonder he wa'n't
+killed, but he wa'n't, and they fished him out in a little while. He
+said that was the deepest well he ever saw; said he begun to think it
+reached clear through to the hereafter, and when he struck the water he
+was s'prised to find it wa'n't hot. He j'ined the church the next
+week, and somebody asked him if he thought religion would keep him from
+fallin' into any more wells. He said no; said he was lookin' out for
+somethin' further on.
+
+"Well, that's the way 'tis with Sol. School-committee's all right, but
+this section of the Cape nominates a State representative next year.
+
+"I mustn't forgit to see Seth," he added. "I promised I would, and
+besides," with a wink, "I think 'twould be better to do it 'cause,
+between you and me, I don't b'lieve Seth knows that he's been thinkin'
+of runnin' for the committee and has decided not to."
+
+The second member of the school board, John Mullett, was, so the Captain
+said, a sort of "me too" to Mr. Bangs, and would vote as his friend
+directed. The third member was Mr. Langworthy, the Baptist minister
+and, although two to one was a clear majority, Captain Eri asserted that
+there was nothing like a unanimous vote, and so they decided to call
+upon the reverend gentleman.
+
+They found him at home, and Elsie was surprised, after the previous
+interview, to see how differently her champion handled the case. There
+was no preliminary parley and no beating about the bush. Miss Preston's
+claim to the soon-to-be-vacant position was stated clearly and with
+vigor. Also the reasons why she should receive a higher salary than had
+previously been paid were set forth. It was something of a surprise to
+Elsie, as it had been to Ralph, to see how highly the towns-people, that
+is, the respectable portion of them, seemed to value the opinions of
+this good-natured but uneducated seaman. And yet when she considered
+that she, too, went to him for advice that she would not have asked of
+other and far more learned acquaintances, it did not seem so surprising
+after all.
+
+The clergyman had had several candidates in mind, but he was easily
+won over to Elsie's side, partly by the Captain's argument, and partly
+because he was favorably impressed by the young lady's appearance
+and manner. He expressed himself as being convinced that she would be
+exactly the sort of teacher that the school required and pledged his
+vote unconditionally.
+
+And so, as Captain Eri said, the stump-speaking being over, there was
+nothing to do but to wait for the election, and Elsie and he agreed
+to keep the affair a secret until she received formal notice of the
+appointment. This was undoubtedly a good plan, but, unfortunately for
+its success, Solomon Bangs called upon his fellow in the committee, Mr.
+Mullett, to inform the latter that he, entirely unaided, had discovered
+the very teacher that Orham needed in the person of John Baxter's
+granddaughter. Mr. Mullett, living up to his "me too" reputation,
+indorsed the selection with enthusiasm, and not only did that, but
+also told everyone he met, so that Captain Perez heard of it at the
+post-office the very next afternoon.
+
+The natural surprise of this gentleman and of Captain Jerry at their
+guest's sudden determination was met by plausible explanations from
+Captain Eri, to the effect that Elsie was a smart girl, and didn't
+like to be "hangin' 'round doin' nothin', now that her grandpa was some
+better." Elsie's own reason, as expressed to them, being just this, the
+pair accepted it without further questioning. Neither of them attached
+much importance to the letter which she had received, although Captain
+Perez did ask Mrs. Snow if she knew from whom it came.
+
+The lady from Nantucket was not so easily satisfied. At her first
+opportunity she cornered Captain Eri, and they discussed the whole
+affair from beginning to end. There was nothing unusual in this
+proceeding, for discussions concerning household matters and questions
+of domestic policy were, between these two, getting to be more and more
+frequent. Mrs. Snow was now accepted by all as one of the family, and
+Captain Eri had come to hold a high opinion of her and her views. What
+he liked about her, he said, was her "good old-fashioned common-sense,"
+and, whereas he had formerly trusted to his own share of this virtue
+almost altogether, now he was glad to have hers to help out.
+
+The marriage idea, that which had brought the housekeeper to Orham, was
+now seldom mentioned. In fact, Captain Eri had almost entirely ceased to
+ruffle Jerry's feelings with reference to it. Mrs. Snow, of course,
+said nothing about it. But, for that matter, she said very little about
+herself or her affairs.
+
+It was a curious fact that the lady from Nantucket had never referred,
+except in a casual way, to her past history. She had never told how she
+came to answer the advertisement in the Nuptial Chime, nor to explain
+how so matter-of-fact a person as she was had ever seen that famous
+sheet. As she said nothing concerning these things, no one felt at
+liberty to inquire, and, in the course of time, even Captain Perez'
+lively curiosity had lapsed into a trance.
+
+Mrs. Snow was certain that Elsie's reason for wishing to obtain the
+position of school-teacher was something more specific than the
+one advanced. She was also certain that the girl was troubled about
+something. The root of the matter, she believed, was contained in the
+mysterious letter. As Captain Eri was of precisely the same opinion,
+speculation between the two as to what that letter might have contained
+was as lively as it was unfruitful.
+
+One thing was certain, Elsie was not as she had formerly been. She did
+her best to appear the same, but she was much more quiet, and had fits
+of absentmindedness that the Captain and the housekeeper noticed. She
+had no more evening "errands," but she occasionally took long walks in
+the afternoons, and on these walks she evidently preferred to be alone.
+
+Whether Mr. Hazeltine noticed this change in her was a question. The
+Captain thought he did, but at any rate, his calls were none the less
+frequent, and he showed no marked objection when Captain Jerry, who now
+considered himself bound in honor to bring about the union he had so
+actively championed, brought to bear his artful schemes for leaving the
+young folks alone. These devices were so apparent that Elsie had more
+than once betrayed some symptoms of annoyance, all of which were lost on
+the zealous match-maker. Ralph, like the others, was much surprised at
+Miss Preston's application for employment, but, as it was manifestly
+none of his business, he, of course, said nothing.
+
+At the next committee meeting Elsie was unanimously chosen to fill Miss
+Nixon's shoes as trainer of the young idea at the grammar school, and,
+as Miss Nixon was very anxious to be rid of her responsibilities in
+order that she might become the carefree bride of a widower with two
+small children, the shoe-filling took place in a fortnight.
+
+From her first day's labors Elsie returned calm and unruffled. She had
+met the usual small rebellion against a new teacher, and had conquered
+it. She said she believed she had a good class and she should get on
+with them very nicely. It should be mentioned in passing, however, that
+Josiah Bartlett, usually the ring-leader in all sorts of trouble, was a
+trifle upset because the new schoolmistress lived in the same house
+with him, and so had not yet decided just how far it was safe to go in
+trespassing against law and order.
+
+Thanksgiving day came, and the Captains entertained Miss Patience Davis
+and her brother and Ralph Hazeltine at dinner. That dinner was an event.
+Captain Eri and Mrs. Snow spent a full twenty minutes with the driver of
+the butcher's cart, giving him directions concerning the exact breed
+of turkey that was to be delivered, and apparently these orders were
+effectual, for Captain Luther, who was obliged to hurry back to the
+life-saving station as soon as dinner was over, said that he was so full
+of white meat and stuffing that he cal'lated he should "gobble" all the
+way to the beach. His sister stayed until the next day, and this was
+very pleasing to all hands, particularly Captain Perez.
+
+They had games in the evening, and here the captains distinguished
+themselves. Seth Wingate and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Obed Nickerson
+came in, as did several other retired mariners and their better-halves.
+Obed brought his fiddle and sat in the corner and played the music for
+a Virginia reel, and Ralph laughed until he choked to see Captain
+Jerry--half of his shirt-collar torn loose from the button and flapping
+like a sail--convoy stout Mrs. Wingate from one end of the line to
+the other, throwing into the performance all the fancy "cuts" and
+"double-shuffles" he learned at the Thanksgiving balls of a good many
+years before. Captain Perez danced with Miss Patience, who assured him
+she had never had such a good time since she was born. The only scoffer
+was the bored Josiah, who, being a sophisticated New Yorker, sat in the
+best chair and gazed contemptuously upon the entire proceeding. He told
+"Web" Saunders the next day that he never saw such a gang of "crazy
+jays" in his life.
+
+Even John Baxter was better that day. He seemed a trifle more rational,
+and apparently understood when they told him that it was Thanksgiving.
+There would have been no cloud anywhere had not Mrs. Snow, entering her
+room after Elsie had gone to bed, found that young lady awake and crying
+silently.
+
+"And she wouldn't tell what the trouble was," said the housekeeper to
+Captain Eri, the next day. "Said it was nothin'; she was kind of worried
+'bout her grandpa. Now, you and me know it wa'n't THAT. I wish to
+goodness we knew WHAT it was."
+
+The Captain scratched his nose with a perplexed air. "There's one feller
+I'd like to have a talk with jest 'bout now," he said; "that's the
+one that invented that yarn 'bout a woman's not bein' able to keep a
+secret."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+CAPTAIN JERRY MAKES A MESS OF IT
+
+
+It was during the week that followed the holiday so gloriously
+celebrated that Captain Jerry made a mess of it, and all with the
+best intentions in the world. Elsie had had a hard day at the school,
+principally owing to the perversity of the irrepressible Josiah, whose
+love for deviltry was getting the better of his respect for the new
+teacher. The boy had discovered that Elsie never reported his bad
+conduct to Captain Perez, and, therefore, that the situation was not
+greatly different from what it had been during the reign of Miss Nixon.
+
+On this particular day he had been a little worse than usual, and,
+as uneasiness and mischief in a schoolroom are as catching as the
+chickenpox, Elsie came home tired and nervous. Captain Eri and Mrs. Snow
+were certain that this increasing nervousness on the part of their guest
+was not due to school troubles alone, but, at any rate, nervous she was,
+and particularly nervous, and, it must be confessed, somewhat inclined
+to be irritable, during the supper and afterward, on this ill-starred
+night.
+
+The beginning of the trouble was when Ralph Hazeltine called. Mrs. Snow
+was with her patient in the upper room, Captain Eri was out, and
+Captain Perez and Captain Jerry were with Elsie in the dining room.
+The electrician was made welcome by the trio--more especially by the
+captains, for Miss Preston was in no mood to be over-effusive--and a
+few minutes of general conversation followed. Then Captain Jerry, in
+accordance with his plan of campaign, laid down his newspaper, coughed
+emphatically to attract the attention of his partner, and said, "Well, I
+guess I'll go out and look at the weather for a spell. Come on, Perez."
+
+"Why, Captain Jerry!" exclaimed Elsie, "you were out looking at the
+weather only ten minutes ago. I don't think it has changed much since
+then. Why don't you stay here and keep us company?"
+
+"Oh, you can't never tell about the weather 'long this coast. It's
+likely to change most any time. Besides," with a wink that expressed
+comprehension unlimited, "I reckon you and Mr. Hazeltine don't care much
+'bout the company of old fogies like me and Perez. Two's company and
+three's a crowd, you know. Ho, ho, ho!"
+
+"Captain Jerry, come back this minute!"
+
+But the Captain chuckled and shook out of the door, followed by the
+obedient Perez, who, having pledged fealty, stuck to his colors whatever
+might happen.
+
+At another time, Elsie would probably have appreciated and enjoyed the
+joke as much as anyone, but this evening it did not appeal to her in
+the least. Ralph put in a very uncomfortable half-hour, and then cut his
+visit short and departed. It was rather sharp and chilly outside,
+but the breeze felt like a breath from the tropics compared with the
+atmosphere of that dining room.
+
+It certainly was Captain Jerry's unlucky evening, for he left Perez
+chatting with a fisherman friend, who had left a favorite pipe in his
+shanty and had come down to get it, and entered the house alone. He had
+seen the electrician go, and was surprised at the brevity of his call,
+but he was as far from suspecting that he himself was the indirect cause
+of the said brevity as a mortal could be.
+
+He came into the dining room, hung his cap on the back of a chair, and
+remarked cheerfully, "Well, Elsie, what did you send your company home
+so quick for? Land sake! twelve o'clock wa'n't none too late for me when
+I was young and goin' round to see the girls."
+
+But Miss Preston did not smile. On the contrary, she frowned, and when
+she spoke the Captain had a vague feeling that someone had dropped an
+icicle inside his shirt collar.
+
+"Captain Jerry," said the young lady, "I want to have a talk with you.
+Why do you think it necessary to get up and leave the room whenever Mr.
+Hazeltine calls? You do it every time, and to-night was no exception,
+except that by what you said you made me appear a little more ridiculous
+than usual. Now, why do you do it?"
+
+The Captain's jaw fell. He stared at his questioner to see if she was
+not joking, but, finding no encouragement of that kind, stammered, "Why
+do I do it? Why?"
+
+"Yes, why?"
+
+"Why, 'cause I thought you wanted me to."
+
+"_I_ wanted you to! Why should you think that, please?"
+
+"Well, I don't know. I thought you two would ruther be alone. I know,
+when I used to go to see my wife 'fore we was married, I--"
+
+"Please, what has that got to do with Mr. Hazeltine's visits here?"
+
+"Why, why, nothin', I s'pose, if you say so. I jest thought--"
+
+"What right have you to suppose that Mr. Hazeltine is calling on me more
+than any other person or persons in this house?"
+
+This was something of a poser, but the Captain did his best. He sat on
+the edge of a chair and rubbed his knee, and then blurted out, "Well,
+I s'pose I--that is, we thought he was, jest 'cause he nat'rally would;
+that's 'bout all. If I'd thought--why, see here, Elsie, don't YOU think
+he's comin' to see you?"
+
+This was a return thrust that was hard to parry, but, although the
+young lady's color heightened just a bit, she answered without much
+hesitation:
+
+"I don't know that I do. At any rate, I have given you no authority to
+act on any such assumption, and I DON'T want you to put me again in the
+ridiculous position you did this evening, and as you have done so often
+before. Why, his visits might be perfect torture to me, and still I
+should have to endure them out of common politeness. I couldn't go away
+and leave him alone."
+
+Captain Jerry's face was a study of chagrin and troubled repentance.
+
+"Elsie," he said, "I'm awful sorry; I am so. If I'd thought I was
+torturin' of you, 'stead of makin' it pleasant, I'd never have done it,
+sure. I won't go out again; I won't, honest. I hope you won't lay it up
+against me. I meant well."
+
+Now, if Captain Perez had delayed his entrance to that dining room
+only two or three minutes longer, if he had not come in just in time to
+prevent Elsie's making the explanatory and soothing answer that was on
+her tongue, events would probably have been entirely different, and a
+good deal of trouble might have been saved. But in he came, as if some
+perverse imp had been waiting to give him the signal, and the interview
+between Captain Jerry and the young lady whom he had unwittingly
+offended broke off then and there.
+
+Elsie went upstairs feeling a little conscience-stricken, and with an
+uneasy idea that she had said more than she should have. Captain Perez
+took up the newspaper and sat down to read. As for Captain Jerry, he sat
+down, too, but merely to get his thoughts assorted into an arrangement
+less like a spilled box of jackstraws. The Captain's wonderful scheme,
+that he had boasted of and worked so hard for, had fallen to earth like
+an exploded airship, and when it hit it hurt.
+
+His first idea was to follow the usual procedure, and take the whole
+matter to Captain Eri for settlement, but the more he considered this
+plan the less he liked it. Captain Eri was an unmerciful tease, and he
+would be sure to "rub it in," in a way the mere thought of which made
+his friend squirm. There wasn't much use in confiding to Captain Perez,
+either. He must keep the secret and pretend that everything was working
+smoothly.
+
+Then his thoughts turned to Hazeltine, and when he considered the wrong
+he had done that young man, he squirmed again. There wasn't a doubt in
+his mind that Ralph felt exactly as Elsie did about his interference.
+Captain Jerry decided that he owed the electrician an apology, and
+determined to offer it at the first opportunity.
+
+And the opportunity came the very next morning, for Mrs. Snow wanted
+some clams for dinner, and asked him to dig some for her. The best clams
+in the vicinity were those in the flat across the bay near the cable
+station, and the Captain took his bucket and hoe and rowed over there.
+As he was digging, Ralph came strolling down to the shore.
+
+Mr. Hazeltine's "Good-morning" was clear and hearty. Captain Jerry's
+was hesitating and formal. The talk that followed was rather one-sided.
+Finally, the Captain laid down his hoe, and came splashing over to where
+his friend was standing.
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine," he said confusedly, "I kind of feel as if I ought to
+beg your pardon. I'm awful sorry I done what I did, but, as I said to
+Elsie, I meant well, and I'm sorry."
+
+"Sorry? Sorry for what?"
+
+"Why, for leavin' you and her alone so when you come to the house. You
+see, I never thought but what you'd both like it, and 'twa'n't till she
+raked me over the coals so for doin' it that I realized how things was."
+
+"Raked you over the coals? I'm afraid I don't understand."
+
+It is unnecessary to repeat the whole of the long and tangled
+conversation that ensued. The Captain tried to explain, tumbled down,
+metaphorically speaking, got up again, and started off on another tack.
+In his anxiety to make his position perfectly clear, he quoted from
+Elsie's remarks of the previous evening, and then, thinking perhaps
+he had gone too far, tried to smooth these over by more explanations.
+Repeating this process several times got him into such a snarl that
+he scarcely knew what he was saying. When the agony was over Ralph had
+received the impression that Miss Preston had said his visits were a
+perfect torture to her, that she objected to being left alone with him,
+that she held Captain Jerry responsible for these things, and that the
+latter was sorry for something or other, though what it was he, Ralph,
+didn't know or care particularly. To the Captain's continued apologies
+he muttered absently that it was "all right," and walked slowly away
+with his hands in his pockets. Captain Jerry was relieved by this
+expression of forgiveness. He felt that the situation wasn't what he
+would like to have it, but, at any rate, he had done his duty. This was
+a great consolation.
+
+Ralph didn't call that evening or the next. When he did drop in it was
+merely to inquire concerning John Baxter's progress, and to chat for a
+moment with the captains. His next visit was a week later, and was just
+as brief and formal.
+
+If Elsie noticed this sudden change she said nothing. There might have
+been some comment by the others, had not a new sensation so occupied
+their minds as to shut out everything else. This sensation was caused by
+Josiah Bartlett, who ran away one night, with his belongings tied up in
+a brown paper parcel, leaving a note saying that he had gone to enlist
+in the Navy and wasn't coming back any more.
+
+There were lively times the next morning when the note was found.
+Captain Perez was for harnessing up immediately and starting off to find
+the lost one, hit or miss. Captain Eri soon showed him the folly of
+this proceeding and, instead, hurried to the railway station and sent a
+telegram describing the fugitive to the conductor of the Boston
+train. It caught the conductor at Sandwich, and the local constable at
+Buzzard's Bay caught the boy. Josiah was luxuriously puffing a five-cent
+cigar in the smoking car, and it was a crest-fallen and humiliated
+prodigal that, accompanied by the a fore-mentioned constable, returned
+to Orham that night.
+
+But the stubbornness remained, and the next day Perez sought Captain Eri
+in a troubled frame of mind.
+
+"Eri," he said dejectedly, "I don't know what I'm goin' to do with that
+boy. He's too many for ME, that boy is. Seems he's been plannin' this
+runnin' away bus'ness for more 'n a month; been doin' errands and odd
+jobs 'round town and savin' up his money on purpose. Says he won't go
+back to school again, no matter what we do to him, and that he's goin'
+to git into the Navy if it takes ten year. He says he'll run away again
+fust chance he gits, and he WILL, too. He's got the sperit of the Old
+Scratch in him, and I can't git it out. I'm clean discouraged and wore
+out, and I know that he'll do somethin' pretty soon that 'll disgrace us
+all."
+
+"Humph!" exclaimed his friend. "Stuffy as all that, is he? You don't
+say! He ain't a bad boy, that is a REEL bad boy, either."
+
+"No, that's jest it. He ain't reel bad--yit. But he will be if he ain't
+fetched up pretty sudden. 'Course, I know what he needs is to be made
+to mind fust, and then preached to afterwards. And I know that nat'rally
+I'm the one that ought to do it, but I jest can't--there! If I should
+start out to give him the dressin' down he needs, I'd be thinkin' of his
+mother every minute, and how I promised to treat him gentle and not be
+cross to him. But SOMETHIN'S got to be done, and if you can help me out
+any way I'll never forgit it, Eri."
+
+Captain Eri scratched his chin. "Humph!" he grunted reflectively. "He
+couldn't git into the Navy, he's too young. More likely to be a stowaway
+on a merchantman and then roustabout on a cattle boat, or some such
+thing. Even if he lied 'bout his age and did git to be a sort of
+a ship's boy on a sailin' vessel, you and me know what that means
+nowadays. I presume likely 'twould end in his bein' killed in some
+rumshop scrimmage later on. Let--me--see. Bound to be a sailor, is he?"
+
+"He's dead sot on it."
+
+"More fool he. Comes from readin' them ridic'lous story books, I s'pose.
+He ain't been on the water much sence he's been down here, has he?"
+
+"Not more 'n once or twice, except in a dory goin' to the beach, or
+somethin' like that."
+
+"That's so, that's what I thought. Well, Perez, I'll tell you. The boy
+does need breakin' in, that's a fact, and I think maybe I could do it. I
+could use a young feller on my boat; to go coddin' with me, I mean.
+Let me have the boy under me--no meddlin' from anybody--for a couple
+of months. Let him sign reg'lar articles and ship 'long of me for that
+time. Maybe I could make a white man of him."
+
+"I don't b'lieve he'd do it."
+
+"I cal'late I could talk him into it. There's some butter on my tongue
+when it's necessary."
+
+"You'd have to promise not to lay a hand on him in anger. That's what I
+promised his mother."
+
+"All right, I promise it now. That's all right, Perez. You and me are
+old shipmates, and bound to help each other out. Just trust him to me,
+and don't ask too many questions. Is it a trade? Good! Shake."
+
+They shook hands on it, and then Captain Eri went in to talk to the
+unreconciled runaway. That young gentleman, fresh from his triumph over
+his uncle, at first refused to have anything to do with the scheme. He
+wasn't going to be a "cheap guy fisherman," he was going into the
+Navy. The Captain did not attempt to urge him, neither did he preach or
+patronize. He simply leaned back in the rocker and began spinning sailor
+yarns. He told of all sorts of adventures in all climates, and with all
+sorts of people. He had seen everything under the sun, apparently, and,
+according to him, there was no life so free and void of all restraint
+as that of an able seaman on a merchant ship, or, preferably, on a
+fisherman; but one point he made clear, and that was that, unless the
+applicant had had previous training, his lot was likely to be an unhappy
+one.
+
+"Of course," he said, as he rose to go, "it was my idea to sort of train
+you up so's you could be ready when 'twas time to ship, but long's you
+don't want to, why it's all off."
+
+"I'll go with you, Cap!" said Josiah, whose eyes were shining.
+
+"Good! That's the talk! You might as well sign articles right away. Wait
+till I git 'em ready."
+
+He brought pen, ink, and paper, and proceeded to indite a formidable
+document to the effect that "Josiah Bartlett, able seaman," was to ship
+aboard the catboat Mary Ellen for a term of two months. Wages, five
+dollars a month.
+
+"You see," he said, "I've put you down as able seaman 'cause that's what
+you'll be when I git through with you. Now sign."
+
+So Josiah signed, and then Captain Eri affixed his own signature with a
+flourish.
+
+"There!" exclaimed the Captain, bringing his big palm down on the back
+of the "able seaman" with a thump that brought water into the eyes of
+that proud youth, "You're my man, shipmate. We sail to-morrer mornin' at
+four, rain or shine. I'll call you at quarter of. Be ready."
+
+"You bet, old man!" said Josiah.
+
+Captain Perez met his friend as they came out of the parlor.
+
+"Now, Eri," he whispered, "be easy as you can with him, won't you?"
+
+The Captain answered in the very words of his crew.
+
+"You bet!" he said fervently, and went away whistling. Captain Perez
+slept better that night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE VOYAGE OF AN "ABLE SEAMAN"
+
+
+Promptly at a quarter to four the next morning Captain Eri rapped on the
+parlor door. Josiah, who had been dressed since three, appeared almost
+instantly. They walked down to the shore together, and the Captain's
+eyes twinkled as he noted the elaborate roll in the boy's walk.
+
+The Mary Ellen was anchored between the beaches, and they rowed off to
+her in a dory. It was pitch-dark, and cold and raw. Lanterns showed on
+two or three of the other boats near by, and, as Josiah and the Captain
+pulled up the eelgrass-covered anchor, a dim shape glided past in the
+blackness. It was the You and I, bound out. Ira Sparrow was at the helm,
+and he hailed the Mary Ellen, saying something about the weather.
+
+"It 'll be kind of ca'm for a spell," replied Captain Eri, "but I
+wouldn't wonder if we had some wind 'fore night. Here you, fo'mast
+hand," he added, turning to Josiah, "stand by to git the canvas on her."
+
+The mainsail was soon hoisted, and the catboat moved slowly out of the
+bay.
+
+"Gee! it's dark," exclaimed Josiah, "what are you goin' way off here
+for? Why don't you go straight out?"
+
+"I gin'rally take the short cut through the narrers," replied the
+Captain, "but I thought you mightn't like the breakers on the shoals, so
+I'm goin' 'round the p'int flat."
+
+"Huh! I ain't a-scared of breakers. Can't be too rough for me. Wisht
+'twould blow to beat the band."
+
+"Maybe 'twill by and by. Pretty toler'ble slick now, though."
+
+It was after sunrise when they reached the ledge where codfish most do
+congregate. The land was a mere yellow streak on the horizon. The stiff
+easterly blow of the day before had left a smooth, heavy swell that,
+tripping over the submerged ledge, alternately tossed the Mary Ellen
+high in air and dropped her toward the bottom. It was cold, and the
+newly risen December sun did not seem to have much warmth in it. Anchor
+over the side, the Captain proposed breakfast.
+
+The "able seaman" did not feel very hungry, but he managed to swallow
+a hard-boiled egg and a sandwich, and then, just to show that he had
+reached the dignity of manhood, leaned back against the side of the
+cockpit, lit a cigarette, and observed cheerfully, "This is hot stuff,
+ain't it, Cap?"
+
+Captain Eri wiped the crumbs from his mouth, leisurely produced his
+pipe, and proceeded to fill it with tobacco shaved from a chunky plug.
+
+"What d'you smoke them things for?" he asked contemptuously, referring
+to the cigarette. "Nobody but dudes and sissies smoke that kind of
+truck. Here, take this pipe, and smoke like a man."
+
+Josiah looked askance at the proffered pipe.
+
+"Oh, no!" he said magnanimously, "you'll want it yourself. I'll get
+along with these things till I git ashore; then I'll buy a pipe of my
+own."
+
+"Never you mind 'bout me. I've got two or three more below there,
+some'eres. Take it and light up."
+
+The "able seaman" took the reeking, nicotine soaked affair, placed it
+gingerly between his teeth, held a match to the bowl and coughingly
+emitted a cloud of ill-smelling smoke. The pipe wheezed and gurgled, and
+the Mary Ellen rocked and rolled.
+
+"Now, then," said Captain Eri, "we've sojered long enough. Go below, and
+bring up the bait bucket and the lines."
+
+Josiah staggered into the little cabin, reappeared with the heavy cod
+lines and the bucket of mussels, and watched while the Captain "baited
+up."
+
+"All ready!" said the skipper. "Two lines apiece, one over each side.
+Watch me."
+
+The cod bit almost immediately, and for ten minutes the work was
+exciting and lively. The Captain, watching from the corner of his eye,
+noticed that his assistant's pipe was wheezing less regularly, and that
+his lines were thrown over more and more listlessly. At length he said,
+"Haven't stopped smokin' so quick, have you? What's the matter--gone
+out? Here's a match."
+
+"I guessed I've smoked enough for now. I can't fish so well when I'm
+smokin'."
+
+"Bosh! If you want to be a reel sailor you must smoke all the time.
+Light up."
+
+Reluctantly the boy obeyed, and puffed with feverish energy. Also he
+swallowed with vigor. The cod smelt fishy; so did the bait, and the
+catboat rolled and rolled. Suddenly Josiah pulled in his lines, and took
+the pipe from his lips.
+
+"What's the matter?" inquired the watchful skipper.
+
+"I--I guess I won't fish any more, Cap. Kind of slow sport, ain't it?
+Guess I'll go in there and take a snooze."
+
+"I guess you won't! You shipped to fish, and you're goin' to fish. Pick
+up them lines."
+
+The boy sullenly turned toward the cabin door. Was he, who had just
+declared himself independent of school restraint, he who had once
+been the thorn in the flesh of every policeman in the --th ward, to be
+ordered about by this Cape Cod countryman! "Aw, go chase yourself!" he
+said contemptuously. A minute after, when he picked himself up from
+the heap of slimy fish in the bottom of the boat, he saw the Captain
+standing solidly on one cowhide-shod foot, while the other was drawn
+easily back and rested on its toe. When Josiah recovered his breath, the
+burst of bad language with which he assailed his companion did credit to
+his street bringing up. It was as short as it was fierce, however, and
+ended amid the cod and the mussels from the overturned bait bucket.
+But, as the Captain said afterwards, he was "spunky" and rose again,
+incoherent with rage.
+
+"You--you--I'll kill you!" he shrieked. "You promised not to touch me,
+you lyin' old--"
+
+He tried to get out of the way, but didn't succeed, and this time merely
+sat up and sobbed as Captain Eri said in even tones:
+
+"No, I'm not lyin'. I promised not to lay a hand on you in anger, that's
+all. Fust place, I don't kick with my hands, and, second place, I ain't
+angry. Now, then, pick up them lines."
+
+The "able seaman" was frightened. This sort of treatment was new to
+him. He judged it best to obey now and "get square" later on. He sulkily
+picked up the codlines, and threw the hooks overboard. Captain Eri,
+calmly resuming his fishing, went on to say, "The fust thing a sailor
+has to l'arn is to obey orders. I see you've stopped smokin'. Light up."
+
+"I don't want to."
+
+"Well, I want you TO. Light up."
+
+"I won't. Oh, yes, I will!"
+
+He eyed the threatening boot fearfully and lit the awful pipe with
+shaking fingers. But he had taken but a few puffs when it went over the
+side, and it seemed to Josiah that the larger half of himself went with
+it. The Captain watched the paroxysm grimly.
+
+"Sick, hey?" he grunted, "and not a capful of wind stirrin'. You're
+a healthy sailor! I thought I'd shipped a man, but I see 'twas only a
+sassy baby. My uncle Labe had a good cure for seasickness. You take a
+big hunk of fat salt pork, dip it in molasses, and--"
+
+"Oh, d-o-n-'t!" Another spasm.
+
+"Dip it in molasses," repeated Captain Eri.
+
+"Don't, Cap! PLEASE don't!"
+
+"Another thing a sailor learns is not to call his skipper 'Cap.' A
+fo'mast hand always says 'Aye, aye, sir,' when his off'cer speaks to
+him. Understand that?"
+
+"Y-e-s. Oh, Lord!"
+
+"WHAT?"
+
+"Ye--I mean aye, aye."
+
+"Aye, aye, WHAT?"
+
+"Aye, aye, SIR! OH, dear me!"
+
+"That's better. Now pick up them lines."
+
+Well, 'twas a dreadful forenoon for Josiah; one not to be forgotten. The
+boat rolled unceasingly, his head ached, and pulling the heavy cod made
+his back and shoulders lame; also, he was wet and cold. The other boats
+scattered about the fishing grounds pulled up their anchors and started
+for home, but Captain Eri did not budge. At noon he opened his lunch
+basket again, and munched serenely. The sight of the greasy ham
+sandwiches was too much for the "able seaman." He suffered a relapse
+and, when it was over, tumbled on the seat which encircled the cockpit
+and, being completely worn out, went fast asleep. The Captain watched
+him for a minute or two, smiled in a not unkindly way, and, going into
+the cabin, brought out an old pea jacket and some other wraps with which
+he covered the sleeper. Then he went back to his fishing.
+
+When Josiah awoke the Mary Ellen was heeled over on her side, her sail
+as tight as a drumhead. The wind was whistling through the cordage, and
+the boat was racing through seas that were steel-blue and angry, with
+whitecaps on their crests. The sun was hidden by tumbling, dust-colored
+clouds. The boy felt weak and strangely humble; the dreadful nausea was
+gone.
+
+Captain Eri, standing at the tiller, regarded him sternly, but there was
+the suspicion of a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Feelin' better?" he asked.
+
+"Ye--aye, aye, sir."
+
+"Humph! Want to smoke again. Pipe right there on the thwart."
+
+"No, thank you, sir."
+
+It was some time before anything more was said. Josiah was gazing at
+the yellow sand-cliffs that, on every tack, grew nearer. At length the
+Captain again addressed him.
+
+"Perez ever tell you 'bout our fust v'yage? Never did, hey? Well, I
+will. Him and me run away to sea together, you know."
+
+And then Captain Eri began a tale that caused the cold shivers to chase
+themselves from Josiah's big toe to the longest hair on his head. It
+was the story of two boys who ran away and shipped aboard an Australian
+sailing packet, and contained more first-class horrors than any one of
+his beloved dime novels. As a finishing touch the narrator turned back
+the grizzled hair on his forehead and showed a three-inch scar, souvenir
+of a first mate and a belaying pin. He rolled up his flannel shirtsleeve
+and displayed a slightly misshapen left arm, broken by a kick from a
+drunken captain and badly set by the same individual.
+
+"Now," he said in conclusion, "I cal'late you think I was pretty hard
+on you this mornin', but what do you figger that you'd have got if you
+talked to a mate the way you done to me?"
+
+"Don't know. S'pose I'd have been killed,--sir."
+
+"Well, you would, mighty nigh, and that's a fact. Now, I'll tell you
+somethin' else. You wanted to enlist in the Navy, I understand. You
+couldn't git in the Navy, anyway, you're too young, but s'pose you
+could, what then? You'd never git any higher 'n a petty officer, 'cause
+you don't know enough. The only way to git into the Navy is to go
+through Annapolis, and git an education. I tell you, education counts.
+Me and Perez would have been somethin' more 'n cheap fishin' and
+coastin' skippers if we'd had an education; don't forgit that."
+
+"I guess I don't want to be a sailor, anyway, sir. This one trip is
+enough for me, thank you."
+
+"Can't help that. You shipped 'long with me for two months, and you'll
+sail with me for two months, every time I go out. You won't run away
+again neither, I'll look out for that. You'll sail with me and you'll
+help clean fish, and you'll mind me and you'll say 'sir.' You needn't
+smoke if you don't want to," with a smile. "I ain't p'tic'lar 'bout
+that.
+
+"Then," went on the Captain, "when the two months is up you'll be your
+own master again. You can go back to 'Web' Saunders and 'Squealer' Wixon
+and 'Ily' Tucker and their tribe, if you want to, and be a town nuisance
+and a good-for-nuthin'. OR you can do this: You can go to school for a
+few years more and behave yourself and then, if I've got any influence
+with the Congressman from this district--and I sort of b'lieve I have,
+second-handed, at any rate--you can go to Annapolis and learn to be a
+Navy officer. That's my offer. You've got a couple of months to think it
+over in."
+
+The catboat swung about on her final tack and stood in for the narrows,
+the route which the Captain had spoken of as the "short cut." From
+where Josiah sat the way seemed choked with lines of roaring, frothing
+breakers that nothing could approach and keep above water. But Captain
+Eri steered the Mary Ellen through them as easily as a New York
+cabdriver guides his vehicle through a jam on Broadway, picking out the
+smooth places and avoiding the rough ones until the last bar was crossed
+and the boat entered the sheltered waters of the bay.
+
+"By gum!" exclaimed the enthusiastic "able seaman." "That was
+great--er--sir!"
+
+"That's part of what I'll l'arn you in the next two months," said the
+Captain. "'Twon't do you any harm to know it when you're in the Navy
+neither. Stand by to let go anchor!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+IN JOHN BAXTER'S ROOM
+
+
+If Josiah expected any relaxation in Captain Eri's stern discipline he
+was disappointed, for he was held to the strict letter of the "shipping
+articles." The Captain even went to the length of transferring Perez
+to the parlor cot and of compelling the boy to share his own room. This
+was, of course, a precaution against further attempts at running away.
+Morning after morning the pair rose before daylight and started for the
+fishing grounds. There were two or three outbreaks on the part of the
+"able seaman," but they ended in but one way, complete submission. After
+a while Josiah, being by no means dull, came to realize that when he
+behaved like a man he was treated like one. He learned to steer the Mary
+Ellen, and to handle her in all weathers. Also, his respect for Captain
+Eri developed into a liking.
+
+Captain Perez was gratified and delighted at the change in his
+grandnephew's behavior and manners, and was not a little curious to
+learn the methods by which the result had been brought about. His hints
+being fruitless, he finally asked his friend point-blank. Captain Eri's
+answer was something like this:
+
+"Perez," he said, "do you remember old man Sanborn, that kept school
+here when you and me was boys? Well, when the old man run foul of a
+youngster that was sassy and uppish he knocked the sass out of him fust,
+and then talked to him like a Dutch uncle. He used to call that kind of
+treatment 'moral suasion.' That's what I'm doin' to Josiah; I'm 'moral
+suasionin' him."
+
+Captain Perez was a little anxious concerning the first part of this
+course of training, but its results were so satisfactory that he
+asked no more questions. The fact is, Captain Perez' mind was too much
+occupied with another subject just at this time to allow him to be
+over-anxious. The other subject was Miss Patience Davis.
+
+Miss Davis, her visit with her brother being over, was acting as
+companion to an old lady who lived in a little house up the shore, a
+mile or so above the station. This elderly female, whose name was Mayo,
+had a son who kept a grocery store in the village and was, therefore,
+obliged to be away all day and until late in the evening. Miss Patience
+found Mrs. Mayo's crotchets a bit trying, but the work was easy and
+to her liking, and she was, as she said, "right across the way, as you
+might say, from Luther." The "way" referred to was the stretch of water
+between the outer beach and the mainland.
+
+And Captain Perez was much interested in Miss patience--very much so,
+indeed. His frequent visits to the Mayo homestead furnished no end of
+amusement to Captain Eri, and also to Captain Jerry, who found poking
+fun at his friend an agreeable change from the old programme of being
+the butt himself. He wasn't entirely free from this persecution,
+however, for Eri more than once asked him, in tones the sarcasm of which
+was elaborately veiled, if his match-making scheme had gotten tired and
+was sitting down to rest. To which the sacrifice would reply stoutly,
+"Oh, it's comin' out all right; you wait and see."
+
+But in his heart Captain Jerry knew better. He had been wise enough
+to say nothing to his friends concerning his interviews with Elsie
+and Ralph, but apparently the breaking-off between the pair was final.
+Hazeltine called occasionally, it is true, but his stays were short
+and, at the slightest inclination shown by the older people to leave the
+room, he left the house. There was some comment by Eri and Mrs. Snow on
+this sudden change, but they were far from suspecting the real reason.
+Elsie continued to be as reticent as she had been of late; her school
+work was easier now that Josiah was no longer a pupil.
+
+Christmas was rather a failure. There were presents, of course, but
+the planned festivities were omitted owing to a change in John Baxter's
+condition. From growing gradually better, he now grew slowly, but
+surely, worse. Dr. Palmer's calls were more frequent, and he did not
+conceal from Mrs. Snow or the captains his anxiety. They hid much of
+this from Elsie, but she, too, noticed the change, and was evidently
+worried by it. Strange to say, as his strength ebbed, the patient's mind
+grew clearer. His speech, that in his intervals of consciousness had
+heretofore dealt with events of the past, was now more concerned with
+recent happenings. But Captain Eri had never heard him mention the fire.
+
+One afternoon in January Mrs. Snow and Captain Eri were together in
+the sick room. The rest of the household was absent on various errands;
+Captain Perez paying a visit to the life-saver's sister and Elsie
+staying after school to go over some examination papers. There was snow
+on the ground, and a "Jinooary thaw" was causing the eaves to drip, and
+the puddles in the road to grow larger. The door of the big stove was
+open, and the coals within showed red-hot. Captain Baxter was apparently
+asleep.
+
+"Let me see," said Mrs. Snow musingly, in a low tone. "I've been here
+now, two, three, over four months. Seems longer, somehow."
+
+"Seems almost as if you'd always been here," replied Captain Eri. "Queer
+how soon we git used to a change. I don't know how we got along afore,
+but we did some way or other, if you call it gittin' along," he added
+with a shrug. "I should hate to have to try it over again."
+
+"It's always seemed funny to me," remarked the lady, "that you men, all
+sailors so--and used to doin' for yourselves, should have had such a
+time when you come to try keepin' house. I should have expected it if
+you was--well, doctors, or somethin' like that--used to havin' folks
+wait on you, but all sea captains, it seems queer."
+
+"It does, don't it? I've thought of that myself. Anybody'd think we was
+the most shif'less lot that ever lived, but we wa'n't. Even Jerry--and
+he's the wust one of the three when it comes to leavin' things at loose
+ends--always had a mighty neat vessel, and had the name of makin' his
+crews toe the mark. I honestly b'lieve it come of us bein' on shore and
+runnin' the shebang on a share and share alike idee. If there'd been a
+skipper, a feller to boss things, we'd have done better, but when all
+hands was boss--nobody felt like doin' anything. Then, too, we begun too
+old. A feller gits sort of sot in his ways, and it's hard to give in to
+the other chap.
+
+"Now, take that marryin' idee," he went on. "I laughed at that a good
+deal at fust and didn't really take any stock in it, but I guess 'twas
+real hoss sense, after all. Anyhow, it brought you down here, and what
+we'd done without you when John was took sick, _I_ don't know. I haven't
+said much about it, but I've felt enough, and I know the other fellers
+feel the same way. You've been so mighty good and put up with so many
+things that must have fretted you like the nation, and the way you've
+managed--my!"
+
+The whole-souled admiration in the Captain's voice made the housekeeper
+blush like a girl.
+
+"Don't say a word, Cap'n Eri," she protested. "It's been jest a pleasure
+to me, honest. I've had more comfort and--well, peace, you might say,
+sence I've been in this house than I've had afore for years."
+
+"When I think," said the Captain, "of what we might have got for that
+advertisement, I swan it makes my hair curl. Advertisin' that way in
+that kind of a paper, why we might have had a--a play actress, or I
+don't know what, landed on us. Seems 's if there was a Providence in it:
+seems 's if you was kind of SENT--there!"
+
+"I don't know what you must think of me answerin' an advertisement for
+a husband that way. It makes me 'shamed of myself when I think of it, I
+declare. And in that kind of a paper, too."
+
+"I've wondered more times than a few how you ever got a hold of that
+paper. 'Tain't one you'd see every day nat'rally, you know."
+
+Mrs. Snow paused before she answered. Then she said slowly, "Well, I'm
+s'prised you ain't asked that afore. I haven't said much about myself
+sence I've been here, for no p'tic'lar reason that I know of, except
+that there wasn't much to tell and it wasn't a very interestin' yarn to
+other folks. My husband's name was Jubal Snow--"
+
+"You don't say!" exclaimed the Captain. "Why, Jerry used to know him."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder. Jubal knew a lot of folks on the Cape here. He
+was a good husband--no better anywheres--and he and I had a good life
+together long as he was well. I've sailed a good many v'yages with him,
+and I feel pretty nigh as much at home on the water as I do on land.
+Our trouble was the same that a good many folks have; we didn't cal'late
+that fair weather wouldn't last all the time, that's all.
+
+"It wasn't his fault any more than 'twas mine. We saved a little money,
+but not enough, as it turned out. Well, he was took down sick and had to
+give up goin' to sea, and we had a little place over in Nantucket, and
+settled down on it. Fust along, Jubal was able to do a little farmin'
+and so on, and we got along pretty well, but by and by he got so he
+wa'n't able to work, and then 'twas harder. What little we'd saved went
+for doctor's bills and this, that, and t'other. He didn't like to have
+me leave him, so I couldn't earn much of anything, and fin'lly we come
+to where somethin' had to be done right away, and we talked the thing
+over and decided to mortgage the house. The money we got on the mortgage
+lasted until he died.
+
+"He had a little life insurance, not enough, of course, but a little. He
+was plannin' to take on more, but somehow it never seemed as if he could
+die, he so big and strong, and we put it off until he got so he couldn't
+pass the examination. When the insurance money come I took it to Jedge
+Briar, a mighty good friend of Jubal's and mine and the one that held
+the mortgage on the house, and I told him I wanted to pay off the
+mortgage with it, so's I'd have the house free and clear. But the Jedge
+advised me not to, said the mortgage was costin' me only six per
+cent., and why didn't I put the money where 'twas likely to be a good
+investment that would pay me eight or ten per cent.? Then I'd be makin'
+money, he said. I asked him to invest it for me, and he put it into the
+Bay Shore Land Company, where most of his own was."
+
+"Sho! I want to know!" broke in the Captain. "He did, hey! Well, I had
+some there, too, and so did Perez. Precious few fam'lies on the Cape
+that didn't."
+
+"Yes, he thought 'twas the safest and best place he knew of. The
+officers bein' sons of Cape people and their fathers such fine men,
+everybody said 'twas all right. I got my dividends reg'lar for a while,
+and I went out nussin' and did sewin' and got along reel well. I kept
+thinkin' some day I'd be able to pay off the mortgage and I put away
+what little I could towards it, but then _I_ was took sick and that
+money went, and then the Land Company went up the spout."
+
+The Captain nodded. The failure of the company had brought poverty to
+hundreds of widows. Mrs. Snow's case was but another instance.
+
+"Let me see," said the lady. "Where was I? Oh, yes! the Land Company's
+failin'. Well, it failed and the insurance money went with it. It was
+discouragin', of course, but I had my house, except for the mortgage,
+and I had my health again, and, if I do say it, I ain't afraid of work,
+so I jest made up my mind there was no use cryin' over spilt milk, and
+that I must git along and begin to save all over again. Then Jedge Briar
+died and his nephew up to Boston come into the property. I was behind
+in my payments a little, and they sent me word they should foreclose the
+mortgage, and they did."
+
+"Well, I swan! The mean sculpins! Didn't you have NOBODY you could go
+to; no relations nor nothin'?"
+
+"I've got a brother out in Chicago, but he married rich and his wife
+doesn't care much for her husband's relations. I never saw her but once,
+and then one of the first things she asked me was if it was true that
+there was more crazy people in Nantucket than in any other place of
+its size on earth, and afore I could answer she asked me what made 'em
+crazy. I told her I didn't know unless it was answerin' city folks'
+questions. She didn't like that very well, and I haven't heard from
+Job--that's my brother--for a long time. All my other near relations are
+dead.
+
+"So they foreclosed the mortgage, and gave me notice to move out. I
+packed my things, and watered my flowers--I had quite a pretty flower
+garden--for the last time, and then come in and set down in the rocker
+to wait for the wagon that was goin' to move me. I got to thinkin' how
+proud Jubal and me was when we bought that house and how we planned
+about fixin' it up, and how our baby that died was born in it, and
+how Jubal himself had died there, and told me that he was glad he was
+leavin' me a home, at any rate; and I got so lonesome and discouraged
+that I jest cried, I couldn't help it. But I've never found that cryin'
+did much good, so I wiped my eyes and looked for somethin' to read to
+take up my mind. And that Chime paper was what I took up.
+
+"You see, there'd been a big excursion from Boston down the day before,
+and some of the folks come down my way to have a sort of picnic. Two
+of 'em, factory girls from Brockton, they was, come to the house for a
+drink of water. They were gigglin', foolish enough critters, but I asked
+'em in, and they eat their lunches on my table. They left two or three
+story papers and that Chime thing when they went away.
+
+"Well, I looked it over, and almost the first thing I saw was that
+advertisement signed 'Skipper.' It didn't read like the other trashy
+things in there, and it sounded honest. And all of a sudden it come over
+me that I'd answer it. I was lonesome and tired and sort of didn't care,
+and I answered it right off without waitin' another minute. That's all
+there is to tell. When I come here to be housekeeper I wrote the folks
+that's takin' care of my furniture--they're reel kind people; I was
+goin' to board there if I had stayed in Nantucket--to keep it till I
+come back. There! I meant to tell you this long ago, and I don't know
+why I haven't."
+
+The Captain knew why she hadn't. It was easy to read between the lines
+the tale of the years of disappointment and anxiety. Such stories are
+not easy to tell, and he respected the widow more than ever for the
+simple way in which she had told hers.
+
+"That Land Company bus'ness," he said, "carried off a good lot of Cape
+Cod money. I never saw but one man that I thought was glad it busted,
+and that was old Caleb Weeks, over to Harniss. The old man was rich,
+but closer 'n the bark of a tree--he'd skin a flea for the hide and
+taller--and used to be a hard case into the bargain. One time they had
+a big revival over there and he got religion. The boys used to say what
+caught Caleb was the minister's sayin' salvation was free. Well, anyhow,
+he got converted and j'ined the church. That was all right, only while
+the fit was fresh he pledged himself to give five hundred dollars to
+help build the new chapel. When he cooled down a little he was sorry,
+and every time they'd hint at his comin' down with the cash, he'd back
+and fill, and put it off for a spell. When the Land Company went up he
+was the only happy one in town, 'cause he said he'd lost all his money.
+Course, under the circumstances, they couldn't ask him to pay, so he
+didn't. From what I hear he lost as much as fifty dollars."
+
+They both laughed, and Mrs. Snow was about to answer when she was
+interrupted.
+
+"Eri," said a weak voice. "Eri."
+
+The Captain started, turned sharply, and saw the sick man watching him,
+his eyes fixed and unwavering.
+
+"Eri," said John Baxter again, "come here."
+
+Mrs. Snow hurried to her patient, but the latter impatiently bade her
+let him alone.
+
+"Not you," he said, "I want Eri."
+
+Captain Eri stooped down beside the bed.
+
+"What is it, John?" he asked.
+
+"Eri s'pose God called you to break man's law and keep his, what would
+you do?"
+
+The Captain glanced anxiously at the house-keeper. Then he said
+soothingly:
+
+"Oh, that's all right, John. Don't worry 'bout that. You and me settled
+that long ago. How are you feelin' now?"
+
+"I know, I know," with the monotonous persistence of those whose minds
+are wandering,--and then cleanly once more, "Eri, I've been called."
+
+"Ssh-h! That's all right, John; that's all right. Don't you want Mrs.
+Snow to fix your piller? P'raps you'd lay a little easier, then. Now,
+Mrs. Snow, if you'll jest turn it while I lift him. So; that's
+better now, ain't it, shipmate, hey?" But the sick man muttered an
+unintelligible something, and relapsed once more into the half-doze,
+half-stupor that was his usual state.
+
+Captain Eri sighed in relief.
+
+"That was queer, wa'n't it?" he observed.
+
+"He's had two or three of those spells in the last day or two," was the
+answer.
+
+The Captain wondered what his friend might have said during those
+"spells," but he was afraid to inquire. Instead, he asked, "What did the
+doctor say when he was here this mornin'?"
+
+"Nothin' very hopeful. I asked him plain what he thought of the case,
+and he answered jest as plain. He said Cap'n Baxter had failed dreadful
+in the last week, and that he wouldn't be s'prised if he dropped off
+most any time. Then again, he said he might live for months."
+
+"I see, I see."
+
+They were silent for a while, watching the sick man, whose sleep,
+or stupor, was not as tranquil as usual. Two or three times his eyes
+opened, and he muttered audibly.
+
+"I never saw him so restless afore," commented Captain Eri anxiously.
+
+"He was so last night."
+
+"Did Elsie see him?"
+
+"No, I was alone here, and she was asleep in the next room. I got up and
+shut the door."
+
+The Captain glanced keenly at the housekeeper, but her face was placid
+and inscrutable. He shifted uneasily and then said, "Elsie's late
+to-night, ain't she? I wonder what's keepin' her."
+
+"School work, I s'pose. She's workin' harder 'n she ought to, I think."
+
+"FIRE!"
+
+The word was shouted, and the room rang with it. John Baxter, whose
+weakness had hitherto been so great that he could not turn himself in
+bed, was leaning on his elbow and pointing with outstretched finger to
+the open stove door.
+
+"Fire!" he shouted again. "It's blazin'! It's burnin'! It's wipin' the
+plague spot from the earth. I hear you, Lord! I'm old, but I hear you,
+and your servant's ready. Where will it be to-morrer? Gone! burnt up!
+and the ways of the wicked shan't prevail."
+
+They forced him back on the pillow, but he fought them fiercely for a
+moment or two. After they thought they had quieted him, he broke out
+again, talking rapidly and clearly.
+
+"I hear the call, Lord," he said. "I thank thee for showin' it to me in
+your Book. 'And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all
+their goodly castles, with fire.' With fire! With fire!"
+
+"Ssh-h! There, there, John! Don't talk so," entreated the Captain.
+
+"Where's the kerosene?" continued the old man. "And the matches? Now
+softly, softly. The shavin's. It's dark. Here, in the corner. Ah, ha!
+ah, ha! 'And all their goodly castles with fire!' Now, Web Saunders, you
+wicked man! Now! Burn! I've done it, Lord! I've done it!"
+
+"Hush!" almost shouted the agonized Captain Eri. "Hush, John! Be still!"
+
+"There, there, Cap'n Baxter," said Mrs. Snow soothingly, laying her hand
+on the sick man's forehead. Somehow, the touch seemed to quiet him; his
+eyes lost their fire, and he muttered absently that he was tired. Then
+the eyes closed and he lay still, breathing heavily.
+
+"Land of love!" exclaimed the Captain. "That was awful! Hadn't I better
+go for the doctor?"
+
+"I don't think so, unless he gits worse. He had jest such a turn, as I
+told you, last night."
+
+"Did he talk like he did jest now?"
+
+"Jest the same."
+
+"'Bout the same things?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The Captain gasped. "Then you knew!" he said.
+
+"That he set the billiard room afire? Yes. I've always rather
+suspicioned that he did, and last night, of course, made me sure of it."
+
+"Well, well! You haven't said nothin' 'bout it to anybody?"
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"No, 'course you haven't. You must excuse me--I'm kind of upset, I
+guess. Dear! dear! Did you think _I_ knew it?"
+
+"I sort of guessed that you did."
+
+"Well, I did. I've known it ever sence that night he was found. He had
+his coat on when I found him, and 'twas all burnt, and there was an
+empty kerosene bottle in his pocket. I hid the coat, and threw the
+bottle away, and turned him so he was facin' towards the saloon 'stead
+of from it. And I lied when I told the doctor that he was jest as he
+fell. There! the murder's out! Now, what do you think of me?"
+
+"Think? I think you did exactly right."
+
+"You DO?"
+
+"I sartinly do."
+
+"Well, I snum! I've been over that thing time and time again, and I've
+felt like I was sort of a firebug myself sometimes. I've heard folks
+layin' it to fust one and then the other, and cal'latin' that Web did it
+himself to git the insurance, and all the time I've known who really
+did do it, and haven't said anything. I jest couldn't. You see, John and
+me's been brothers almost. But I didn't s'pose anybody else would see it
+the same way."
+
+"Cap'n Eri, do you s'pose I blame you for tryin' to keep your best
+friend out of trouble that he got into by bein'--well--out of his head.
+Why, land of mercy! He ain't no more to be held responsible than a baby.
+You did what I'd have done if I'd been in your place, and I respect you
+for it."
+
+The Captain's voice shook as he answered:
+
+"Marthy Snow," he said, "you're the kind of woman that I'd like to have
+had for a sister."
+
+It was perhaps a half-hour later when Captain Eri started for the
+schoolhouse to bring Elsie home. John Baxter had not wakened, and Mrs.
+Snow said she was not afraid to remain alone with him. The thaw had
+turned to a light rain and the Captain carried an umbrella. It was dark
+by this time, and when he came in sight of the schoolhouse he saw a
+light in the window.
+
+One of the scholars--a by no means brilliant one--whose principal
+educational achievement was the frequency with which he succeeded in
+being "kept after school," was seated on the fence, doing his best to
+whittle it to pieces with a new jackknife.
+
+"Hello, sonny!" said the Captain. "Miss Preston gone yit?"
+
+"No, she ain't," replied the boy, continuing to whittle. "She's up
+there. Mr. Saunders is there, too."
+
+"Saunders? WEB SAUNDERS?"
+
+"Yup. I see him go in there a little while ago." Captain Eri started
+toward the schoolhouse at a rapid pace; then he suddenly stopped; and
+then, as suddenly, walked on again. All at once he dropped his umbrella
+and struck one hand into the palm of the other with a smack.
+
+When he reached the door, he leaned the umbrella in the corner and
+walked up the stairs very softly, indeed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A BUSINESS CALL
+
+
+That enterprising business man, Mr. "Web" Saunders, opened the door of
+his renovated billiard room a little later than usual the next morning.
+It was common report about the village that Mr. Saunders occasionally
+sampled the contents of some of the "original packages" which, bearing
+the name and address of a Boston wholesale liquor dealer, came to him
+by express at irregular intervals. It was also reported, probably by
+unreliable total abstainers, that during these "sampling" seasons
+his temper was not of the best. Perhaps Mrs. Saunders might have said
+something concerning this report if she had been so disposed, but unless
+a discolored eye might be taken as evidence, she never offered any. The
+injury to her eye she explained by saying that something "flew up and
+hit her." This was no doubt true.
+
+But, gossip aside, Mr. Saunders did not seem in good humor on this
+particular morning. A yellow cur, of nondescript breed, taken since the
+fire, in payment of a debt from "Squealer" Wixon, who had described it
+as a "fust-class watchdog," rose from its bed behind the cigar counter,
+yawned, stretched, and came slinking over to greet its master. "Web"
+forcibly hoisted it out of the door on the toe of his boot. Its yelp of
+pained surprise seemed to afford the business man considerable relief,
+for he moved more briskly afterward, and proceeded to sweep the floor
+with some degree of speed.
+
+The forenoon trade at the billiard room was never very lively, and this
+forenoon was no exception. "Bluey" Batcheldor drifted in, stepped into
+the little room the door of which was lettered "Ice Cream Parlor," and
+busied himself with a glass and bottle for a few moments. Then he helped
+himself to a cigar from the showcase, and told his friend to "chalk it
+up." This Mr. Saunders didn't seem to care to do, and there was a lively
+argument. At length "Bluey's" promise to "square up in a day or so" was
+accepted, under protest, and the customer departed.
+
+At half-past eleven the man of business was dozing in a chair by the
+stove, and the "watchdog," having found it chilly outside and venturing
+in, was dozing near him. The bell attached to the door rang vigorously,
+and both dog and man awoke with a start. The visitor was Captain Eri.
+
+Now, the Captain was perhaps the last person whom the proprietor of the
+billiard room expected to see, but a stranger never would have guessed
+it. In fact, the stranger might reasonably have supposed that the
+visitor was Mr. Saunders' dearest friend, and that his call was a
+pleasure long looked forward to.
+
+"Why, Cap'n!" exclaimed "Web," "how are you? Put her there! I'm glad
+to see you lookin' so well. I said to 'Squealer' the other day, s'I,
+'Squealer, I never see a man hold his age like Cap'n Hedge. I'll be
+blessed if he looks a day over forty,' I says. Take off your coat, won't
+you?"
+
+Somehow or other, the Captain must have lost sight of "Web's" extended
+hand. Certainly, the hand was large enough to be seen, but he did not
+take it. He did, however, accept the invitation to remove his coat, and,
+slipping out of the faded brown pea jacket, threw it on a settee at the
+side of the room. His face was stern and his manner quiet, and in spite
+Of Mr. Saunders' flattering reference to his youthful appearance, this
+morning he looked at least more than a day past forty.
+
+But, if Captain Eri was more than usually quiet and reserved, "Web"
+was unchanged, and, if he noticed that the handshake was declined, said
+nothing about it. His smile was sweetness itself, as he observed, "Well,
+Cap'n, mighty mod'rate weather we're having for this time of year, ain't
+it? What's new down your way? That's right, have a chair."
+
+The Captain had no doubt anticipated this cordial invitation, for he
+seated himself before it was given, and, crossing his legs, extended his
+dripping rubber boots toward the fire. The rain was still falling, and
+it beat against the windows of the saloon in gusts.
+
+"Web," said Captain Eri, "set down a minute. I want to talk to you."
+
+"Why, sure!" exclaimed the genial man of business, pulling up another
+chair. "Have a cigar, won't you? You don't come to see me very often,
+and I feel's though we ought to celebrate. Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"No, I guess not, thank you," was the answer. "I'll smoke my pipe, if
+it's all the same to you."
+
+Mr. Saunders didn't mind in the least, but thought he would have a cigar
+himself. So he lit one and smoked in silence as the Captain filled his
+pipe. "Web" knew that this was something more than an ordinary social
+visit. Captain Eri's calls at the billiard room were few and far
+between. The Captain, for his part, knew what his companion was
+thinking, and the pair watched each other through the smoke.
+
+The pipe drew well, and the Captain sent a blue cloud whirling toward
+the ceiling. Then he asked suddenly, "Web, how much money has Elsie
+Preston paid you altogether?"
+
+Mr. Saunders started the least bit, and his small eyes narrowed a
+trifle. But the innocent surprise in his reply was a treat to hear.
+
+"Elsie? Paid ME?" he asked.
+
+"Yes. How much has she paid you?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean."
+
+"Yes, you do. She's been payin' you money reg'lar for more 'n a month. I
+want to know how much it is."
+
+"Now, Cap'n Hedge, I don't know what you're talkin' about. Nobody's paid
+me a cent except them that's owed me. Who did you say? Elsie Preston?
+That's the school-teacher, ain't it?"
+
+"Web, you're a liar, and always was, but you needn't lie to me this
+mornin', 'cause it won't be healthy; I don't feel like hearin' it. You
+understand that, do you?"
+
+Mr. Saunders thought it time to bluster a little. He rose to his feet
+threateningly.
+
+"Cap'n Hedge," he said, "no man 'll call me a liar."
+
+"There's a precious few that calls you anything else."
+
+"You're an old man, or I'd--"
+
+"Never you mind how old I am. A minute ago you said I didn't look more
+'n forty; maybe I don't feel any older, either."
+
+"If that Preston girl has told you any--"
+
+"She hasn't told me anything. She doesn't know that I know anything. But
+I do know. I was in the entry upstairs at the schoolhouse for about ten
+minutes last night."
+
+Mr. Saunders' start was perceptible this time. He stood for a moment
+without speaking. Then he jerked the chair around, threw himself into
+it, and said cautiously, "Well, what of it?"
+
+"I come up from the house to git Elsie home 'cause 'twas rainin'. I was
+told you was with her, and I thought there was somethin' crooked goin'
+on; fact is, I had a suspicion what 'twas. So when I got up to the door
+I didn't go in right away; I jest stood outside."
+
+"Listenin', hey! Spyin'!"
+
+"Yup. I don't think much of folks that listens, gin'rally speakin', but
+there's times when I b'lieve in it. When I'm foolin' with a snake I'd
+jest as soon hit him from behind as in front. I didn't hear much, but I
+heard enough to let me know that you'd been takin' money from that girl
+right along. And I think I know why."
+
+"You do, hey?"
+
+"Yup."
+
+Then Mr. Saunders asked the question that a bigger rascal than he had
+asked some years before. He leaned back in his chair, took a pull at his
+cigar, and said sneeringly, "Well, what are you goin' to do 'bout it?"
+
+"I'm goin' to stop it, and I'm goin' to make you give the money back.
+How much has she paid you?"
+
+"None of your d--n bus'ness."
+
+The Captain rose to his feet. Mr. Saunders sprang up, also, and reached
+for the coal shovel, evidently expecting trouble. But if he feared a
+physical assault, his fear was groundless. Captain Eri merely took up
+his coat.
+
+"Maybe it ain't none of my bus'ness," he said. "I ain't a s'lectman
+nor sheriff. But there's such things in town, and p'raps they'll be
+int'rested. Seems to me that I've heard that blackmailin' has got folks
+into State's prison afore now."
+
+"Is that so? Never heard that folks that set fire to other people's
+prop'ty got there, did you? Yes, and folks that helps 'em gits there,
+too, sometimes. Who was it hid a coat a spell ago?"
+
+It was Captain Eri's turn to start. He hesitated a moment, tossed the
+pea jacket back on the settee and sat down once more. Mr. Saunders
+watched him, grinning triumphantly.
+
+"Well?" he said with a sneer.
+
+"A coat, you say?"
+
+"Yes, a coat. Maybe you know who hid it; I can guess, myself. That coat
+was burned some. How do you s'pose it got burned? And say! who used to
+wear a big white hat round these diggin's? Ah, ha! Who did?"
+
+There was no doubt about the Captain's start this time. He wheeled
+sharply in his chair, and looked at the speaker.
+
+"Humph!" he exclaimed. "You found that hat, did you?"
+
+"That's what I done! And where do you think I found it? Why, right at
+the back of my shed where the fire started. And there'd been a pile of
+shavin's there, too, and there'd been kerosene on 'em. Who smashed the
+bottle over in the field, hey?"
+
+Captain Eri seemed to be thinking. "Web" evidently set his own
+interpretation on this silence, for he went on, raising his voice as he
+did so.
+
+"Did you think I was fool enough not to know who set that fire? I knew
+the night she burned, and when I met Dr. Palmer jest comin' from
+your house, and he told me how old Baxter was took sick goin' to the
+fire--oh, yes, GOIN'--I went up on that hill right off, and I hunted and
+I found things, and what I found I kept. And what I found when I pulled
+that burned shed to pieces I kept, too. And I've got 'em yit!"
+
+"You have, hey? Dear! dear!"
+
+"You bet I have! And somebody's goin' to pay for 'em. Goin' to pay, pay,
+PAY! Is that plain?"
+
+The Captain made no answer. He thrust his hands into his pockets and
+looked at the stove dolefully, so it seemed to the man of business.
+
+"Fust off I thought I'd have the old cuss jailed," continued Mr.
+Saunders. "Then, thinks I, 'No, that won't pay me for my buildin' and my
+bus'ness hurt and all that.' So I waited for Baxter to git well, meanin'
+to make him pay or go to the jug. But he stayed sick a-purpose, I
+b'lieve, the mean, white-headed, psalm-singin'--"
+
+Captain Eri moved uneasily and broke in, "You got your insurance money,
+didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, I did, but whose fault is that? 'Twa'n't his, nor any other darned
+'Come-Outer's.' It don't pay me for my trouble, nor it don't make me
+square with the gang. I gen'rally git even sometime or 'nother, and I'll
+git square now. When that girl come here, swellin' 'round and puttin' on
+airs, I see my chance, and told her to pay up or her granddad would be
+shoved into Ostable jail. That give her the jumps, I tell you!"
+
+"You wrote her a letter, didn't you?"
+
+"You bet I did! She come 'round to see me in a hurry. Said she didn't
+have no money. I told her her granddad did, an she could git that or go
+to work and earn some. I guess she thought she'd ruther work. Oh, I've
+got her and her prayin', house-burnin' granddad where I want 'em, and
+I've got you, too, Eri Hedge, stickin' your oar in. Talk to me 'bout
+blackmail! For two cents I'd jail the old man and you, too!"
+
+This was the real Mr. Saunders. He usually kept this side of his nature
+for home use; his wife was well acquainted with it.
+
+Captain Eri was evidently frightened. His manner had become almost
+apologetic.
+
+"Well," he said, "I wouldn't do that if I was you, Web. I heard you tell
+Elsie last night she wa'n't payin' you enough, and I thought--"
+
+"I know what you thought. You thought you could scare me. You didn't
+know I had the coat and hat, did you? Well, what I said I stand by. The
+girl AIN'T payin' me enough. Fourteen dollars a week she gits, and she's
+only been givin' up ten. I want more. I want--"
+
+But here Captain Eri interrupted him.
+
+"I guess that 'll do," he said calmly. "You've told me what I wanted
+to know. Ten dollars a week sence the middle of November. 'Bout seventy
+dollars, rough figgerin'. Now, then, hand it over."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Hand over that seventy dollars."
+
+"Hand over hell! What are you talkin' 'bout?"
+
+The Captain rose and, leaning over, shook his forefinger in Mr.
+Saunders' flabby red face.
+
+"You low-lived, thievin' rascal," he said, "I'm givin' you a chance you
+don't deserve. Either you'll pay me that money you've stole from that
+girl or I'll walk out of that door, and when I come in again the sheriff
+'ll be with me. Now, which 'll it be? Think quick."
+
+Web's triumphant expression was gone, and rage and malice had taken its
+place. He saw, now, that the Captain had tricked him into telling
+more than he ought. But he burst out again, tripping over words in his
+excitement.
+
+"Think!" he yelled. "I don't need to think. Bring in your sheriff. I'll
+march down to your house and I'll show him the man that set fire to my
+buildin'. What 'll you and that snivelin' granddaughter of his do then?
+You make off to think a turrible lot of the old prayer-machine 'cause
+he's your chum. How'd you like to see him took up for a firebug, hey?"
+
+"I ain't afraid of that."
+
+"You ain't? You AIN'T! Why not?"
+
+"'Cause he's gone where you can't git at him. He died jest afore I left
+the house."
+
+Mr. Saunders' brandished fist fell heavily on the arm of his chair. His
+face turned white in patches, and then flamed red again.
+
+"Died!" he gasped.
+
+"Died."
+
+"You--you're a liar!"
+
+"No, I ain't. John Baxter's dead. He was a chum of mine--you're right
+there--and if I'd known a sneak like you was after him I'd have been
+here long afore this. Why, you--"
+
+The Captain's voice shook, but he restrained himself and went on.
+
+"Now, you see where you stand, don't you? Long's John lived you had
+the proof to convict him; I'll own up to that much. I hid the coat; I
+smashed the bottle. The hat I didn't know 'bout. I might have told you
+at fust that all that didn't amount to anything, but I thought I'd wait
+and let you tell me what more I wanted to know. John Baxter's gone,
+poor feller, and all your proof ain't worth a cent. Not one red cent.
+Understand?"
+
+It was quite evident that Mr. Saunders did understand, for his
+countenance showed it. But the bluster was not out of him yet.
+
+"All right," he said. "Anyhow, the girl's left, and if she don't pay
+I'll show her granddad up for what he was. And I'll show you up, too.
+Yes, I will!" he shouted, as this possibility began to dawn on him.
+"I'll let folks know how you hid that coat and--and all the rest of it."
+
+"No, you won't."
+
+"Why won't I?"
+
+"'Cause you won't dare to. You've been hittin' at a sick man through a
+girl; neither of 'em could hit back. But now you're doin' bus'ness with
+me, and I ain't sick. If you open your mouth to anybody,--if you let
+a soul know who set that fire,--I'll walk straight to Jedge Baker, and
+I'll tell him the whole story. I'll tell him what I did and why I did
+it. And THEN I'll tell him what you did--how you bullied money out of
+that girl that hadn't no more to do with the fire than a baby. If it
+comes to facin' a jury I'll take my chances, but how 'bout you? You,
+runnin' a town nuisance that the s'lectmen are talkin' of stoppin'
+already; sellin' rum by the drink when your license says it shan't be
+sold 'cept by the bottle. Where'll YOUR character land you on a charge
+of blackmail?
+
+"And another thing. The folks in this town knew John Baxter afore he was
+like what he's been lately. A good many of 'em swore by him--yes,
+sir, by mighty, some of 'em loved him! This is a law-abidin' town, but
+s'pose--jest s'pose I should go to some of the fellers that used to sail
+with him, and tell 'em what you've been up to. Think you'd stay here
+long? _I_ think you'd move out--on a rail."
+
+Captain Eri paused and sat on the arm of his chair, grimly watching his
+opponent, whose turn for thinking had come. The face of the billiard
+magnate was an interesting study in expression during the Captain's
+speech. From excited triumph it had fallen to fear and dejection; and
+now, out of the wreck, was appearing once more the oily smile, the
+sugared sweetness of the every-day Mr. Saunders.
+
+"Now, Cap'n Hedge," purred the reconstructed one, "you and me has always
+been good friends. We hadn't ought to fight like this. I don't think
+either of us wants to go to court. Let's see if we can't fix the thing
+up some way."
+
+"We'll fix it up when you pay me the seventy dollars."
+
+"Now, Cap'n Hedge, 'tain't likely I've got seventy dollars in my pocket.
+Seems to me you're pretty hard on a poor feller that's jest been burnt
+out. I think we'd ought to--"
+
+"How much HAVE you got?"
+
+After a good deal of talk and protestation Mr. Saunders acknowledged
+being the possessor of twenty-six dollars, divided between the cash
+drawer and his pocket. This he reluctantly handed to the Captain.
+
+Then the Captain demanded pen, ink, and paper; and when they were
+brought he laboriously wrote out a screed to the effect that Webster
+Saunders had received of Elsie Preston forty-four dollars, which sum he
+promised to pay on demand.
+
+"There," he said, pushing the writing materials across the table. "Sign
+that."
+
+At first Mr. Saunders positively refused to sign. Then he intimated that
+he had rather wait and think it over a little while. Finally he affixed
+his signature and spitefully threw the pen across the room.
+
+Captain Eri folded up the paper and put it in his pocket. Then he rose
+and put on his pea jacket.
+
+"Now, there's jest one thing more," he said. "Trot out that coat and
+hat."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Trot out that coat and hat of John's. I want 'em."
+
+"I shan't do it."
+
+"All right, then. It's all off. I'll step over and see the Jedge. You'll
+hear from him and me later."
+
+"Hold on a minute, Cap'n. You're in such a everlastin' hurry. I don't
+care anything 'bout the old duds, but I don't know's I know where they
+are. Seems to me they're up to the house somewheres. I'll give 'em to
+you to-morrer."
+
+"You'll give 'em to me right now. I'll tend shop while you go after
+'em."
+
+For a moment it looked as though the man of business would rebel
+outright. But the Captain was so calm, and evidently so determined to do
+exactly what he promised, that "Web" gave up in despair. Muttering that
+maybe they were "'round the place, after all," he went into the back
+room and reappeared with the burned coat and the scorched white felt
+hat. Slamming them down on the counter, he said sulkily, "There they be.
+Any more of my prop'ty you'd like to have?"
+
+Captain Eri didn't answer. Coolly tearing off several sheets of wrapping
+paper from the roll at the back of the counter, he made a bundle of the
+hat and coat, and tucked it under his arm. Then he put on his own hat
+and started for the door.
+
+"Good-mornin'," he said.
+
+The temper of the exasperated Mr. Saunders flared up in a final
+outburst.
+
+"You think you're almighty smart, don't you?" he growled between his
+teeth. "I'll square up with you by and by."
+
+The Captain turned sharply, his hand on the latch.
+
+"I wish you'd try," he said. "I jest wish to God you'd try. I've held in
+more 'n I thought I could when I come up here, but if you want to start
+a reel fust-class rumpus, one that 'll land you where you b'long and rid
+this town of you for keeps, jest try some of your tricks on me. And if
+I hear of one word that you've said 'bout this whole bus'ness, I'll know
+it's time to start in. Now, you can keep still or fight, jest as you
+please. I tell you honest, I 'most wish you'd fight."
+
+The door slammed. Mr. Saunders opened it again and gazed vindictively
+after the bulky figure splashing through the slush. The dog came
+sneaking up and rubbed his nose against his master's hand; it was an
+impolitic move on his part.
+
+"Git out!" roared Web, delighted at the opportunity. "You
+good-for-nothin' pup! How's that set?"
+
+"That" was a kick that doubled the cur up against the settee. As it
+scrambled to its feet, Mr. Saunders kicked it again. And then the
+"watchdog" exhibited the first evidence of spirit that it had ever been
+known to show. With a snarl, as the man turned away, it settled its
+teeth into the calf of his leg, and then shot out of the door and, with
+its tail between its legs, went down the road like a yellow cannon ball.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THROUGH FIRE AND WATER
+
+
+It was true--John Baxter was dead. His violent outbreak of the previous
+afternoon had hastened the end that the doctor had prophesied. There was
+no harrowing death scene. The weather-beaten old face grew calmer, and,
+the sleep sounder, until the tide went out--that was all. It was like a
+peaceful coming into port after a rough voyage. No one of the watchers
+about the bed could wish him back, not even Elsie, who was calm and
+brave through it all. When it was over, she went to her room and Mrs.
+Snow went with her. Captain Eri went out to make his call upon Mr.
+Saunders.
+
+The funeral was one of the largest ever held in Orham. The little house
+was crowded. Old friends, who had drifted away from the fanatic in his
+latter days, came back to pay tribute to the strong man whom they had
+known and loved. There was some discussion among the captains as to
+who should preach the funeral sermon. Elsie had left this question
+to Captain Eri for settlement, and the trio and Mrs. Snow went into
+executive session immediately.
+
+"If John had had the settlin' of it himself," observed Eri, "he'd have
+picked Perley, there ain't no doubt 'bout that."
+
+"I know it," said Captain Perez, "but you must remember that John wa'n't
+himself for years, and what he'd have done now ain't what he'd have done
+'fore he broke down. I hate to think of Perley's doin' it, somehow."
+
+"Isn't Mr. Perley a good man?" asked the housekeeper.
+
+"He's good enough, fur's I know," replied Captain Jerry, "but I know
+what Perez means. A funeral, seems to me, ought to be a quiet, soothin'
+sort of a thing, and there ain't nothin' soothin' 'bout Come-Outer'
+preachin'. He'll beller and rave 'round, I'm 'fraid, and stir up poor
+Elsie so she won't never git over it."
+
+"I know it," agreed Captain Eri. "That's what I've been afraid of. And
+yit," he added, "I should feel we was doin' somethin' jest opposite from
+what John would like, if we had anybody else."
+
+"Couldn't you see Mr. Perley beforehand," suggested Mrs. Snow, "and tell
+him jest the kind of sermon he must preach. Tell him it must be quiet
+and comfortin' and--"
+
+"And short." Captain Eri finished the sentence for her. "I guess that's
+the way we'll have to settle it. I'll make him understand one thing,
+though--he mustn't drag in rum sellin' and all the rest of it by the
+heels. If he does I'll--I don't know what I'll do to him."
+
+The interview with the Reverend Perley that followed this conversation
+must have been effective, for the sermon was surprisingly brief and as
+surprisingly calm. In fact, so rational was it that a few of the more
+extreme among the preacher's following were a bit disappointed and
+inquired anxiously as to their leader's health, after the ceremony was
+over.
+
+The procession of carryalls and buggies followed the hearse to the
+cemetery among the pines, and, as the mourners stood about the grave,
+the winter wind sang through the evergreen branches a song so like the
+roar of the surf that it seemed like a dirge of the sea for the mariner
+who would sail no more. As they were clearing away the supper dishes
+that night Captain Eri said to Mrs. Snow, "Well, John's gone. I wonder
+if he's happier now than he has been for the last ten years or so."
+
+"I think he is," was the answer.
+
+"Well, so do I, but if he hadn't been a 'Come Outer' I don't s'pose
+Brother Perley and his crowd would have figgered that he had much show.
+Seems sometimes as if folks like that--reel good-hearted folks, too,
+that wouldn't hurt a fly--git solid comfort out of the feelin' that
+everybody that don't agree with 'em is bound to everlastin' torment. I
+don't know but it's wicked to say it, but honest, it seems as if them
+kind would 'bout as soon give up the hopes of Heaven for themselves as
+they would the satisfaction of knowin' 'twas t'other place for the other
+feller."
+
+To which remark the somewhat shocked housekeeper made no reply.
+
+The following day Elsie went back to her school. Captain Eri walked up
+with her, and, on the way, told her of his discovery of her secret, and
+of his interview with "Web" Saunders. It was exactly as the Captain had
+surmised. The note she had received on the evening of the return from
+the life-saving station was from the proprietor of the billiard
+saloon, and in it he hinted at some dire calamity that overshadowed her
+grandfather, and demanded an immediate interview. She had seen him that
+night and, under threat of instant exposure, had promised to pay the sum
+required for silence. She had not wished to use her grandfather's money
+for this purpose, and so had taken the position as teacher.
+
+"Well," said the Captain, "I wish you'd have come to me right away, and
+told me the whole bus'ness. 'Twould have saved a pile of trouble."
+
+The young lady stopped short and faced him.
+
+"Captain Eri," she said, "how could I? I was sure grandfather had set
+the fire. I knew how ill he was, and I knew that any shock might kill
+him. Besides, how could I drag you into it, when you had done so much
+already? It would have been dreadful. No, I thought it all out, and
+decided I must face it alone."
+
+"Well, I tell you this, Elsie; pretty gin'rally a mean dog 'll bite if
+he sees you're afraid of him. The only way to handle that kind is to run
+straight at him and kick the meanness out of him. The more he barks
+the harder you ought to kick. If you run away once it 'll be mighty
+uncomf'table every time you go past that house. But never mind; I
+cal'late this p'tic'lar pup won't bite; I've pulled his teeth, I guess.
+What's your plans, now? Goin' to keep on with the school, or go back to
+Boston?"
+
+Miss Preston didn't know; she said she had not yet decided, and, as the
+schoolhouse was reached by this time, the Captain said no more.
+
+There was, however, another question that troubled him, and that seemed
+to call for almost immediate settlement. It was: What should be done
+with Mrs. Snow? The housekeeper had been hired to act as such while
+John Baxter was in the house. Now he was gone, and there remained the
+original marriage agreement between Captain Jerry and the widow, and
+honor called for a decision one way or the other. Mrs. Snow, of course,
+said nothing about it, neither did Captain Jerry, and Captain Eri felt
+that he must take the initiative as usual. But, somehow, he was not as
+prompt as was his wont, and sat evening after evening, whittling at the
+clipper and smoking thoughtfully. And another week went by.
+
+Captain Perez might, and probably would, have suggested action upon this
+important matter, had not his mind been taken up with what, to him, was
+the most important of all. He had made up his mind to ask Patience Davis
+to marry him.
+
+Love is like the measles; it goes hard with a man past fifty, and
+Captain Perez was severely smitten. The decision just mentioned was not
+exactly a brand-new one, his mind had been made up for some time, but he
+lacked the courage to ask the momentous question. Something the lady
+had said during the first stages of their acquaintance made a great
+impression on the Captain. She gave it as her opinion that a man who
+loved a woman should be willing to go through fire and water to win her.
+Captain Perez went home that night pondering deeply.
+
+"Fire and water!" he mused. "That's a turrible test. But she's a
+wonderful woman, and would expect it of a feller. I wonder if I could do
+it; seems 's if I would now, but flesh is weak, and I might flunk, and
+that would settle it. Fire and water! My! my! that's awful!"
+
+So the Captain delayed and Miss Patience, who had cherished hopes, found
+need of a good share of the virtue for which she was named.
+
+But one afternoon at the end of the week following that of the funeral,
+Perez set out for a call upon his intended which he meant should be a
+decisive one. He had screwed his courage up to the top notch, and as he
+told Captain Eri afterwards, he meant to "hail her and git his bearin's,
+if he foundered the next minute."
+
+He found the lady alone, for old Mrs. Mayo had gone with her son, whose
+name was Abner, to visit a cousin in Harniss, and would not be back
+until late in the evening. Miss Patience was very glad to have company,
+and it required no great amount of urging to persuade the infatuated
+swain to stay to tea. When the meal was over--they washed the dishes
+together, and the Captain was so nervous that it is a wonder there was a
+whole plate left--the pair were seated in the parlor. Then said Captain
+Perez, turning red and hesitating, "Pashy, do you know what a feller
+told me 'bout you?"
+
+Now, this remark was purely a pleasant fiction, for the Captain was
+about to undertake a compliment, and was rather afraid to shoulder the
+entire responsibility.
+
+"No; I'm sure I don't, Perez," replied Miss Davis, smiling sweetly.
+
+"Well, a feller told me you was the best housekeeper in Orham. He said
+that the man that got you would be lucky."
+
+This was encouraging. Miss Patience colored and simpered a little.
+
+"Land sake!" she exclaimed. "Whoever told you such rubbish as that?
+Besides," with downcast eyes, "I guess no man would ever want me."
+
+"Oh, I don't know." The Captain moved uneasily in his chair, as if he
+contemplated hitching it nearer to that occupied by his companion.
+"I guess there's plenty would be mighty glad to git you. Anyhow,
+there's--there's one that--that--I cal'late the fog's thick as ever,
+don't you?"
+
+But Miss Patience didn't mean to give up in this way.
+
+"What was it you was goin' to say?" she asked, by way of giving the
+bashful one another chance.
+
+"I was goin' to say, Pashy, that--that--I asked if you thought the fog
+was as thick as ever."
+
+"Oh, dear me! Yes, I s'pose likely 'tis," was the discouraged answer.
+
+"Seems to me I never see such weather for this time of year. The ice
+is all out of the bay, and there ain't a bit of wind, and it's warm as
+summer, pretty nigh. Kind of a storm-breeder, I'm afraid."
+
+"Well, I'm glad you're here to keep me comp'ny. I've never been sole
+alone in this house afore, and I should be dreadful lonesome if you
+hadn't come." This was offered as a fresh bait.
+
+"Pashy, I've got somethin' I wanted to ask you. Do you think you
+could--er--er--"
+
+"What, Perez?"
+
+"I wanted to ask you"--the Captain swallowed several times--"to ask
+you--What in the nation is that?"
+
+"Oh, that's nothin' only the hens squawkin'. Go on!"
+
+"Yes, but hens don't squawk this time of night 'thout they have some
+reason to. It's that fox come back; that's what 'tis."
+
+Miss Patience, earlier in the evening, had related a harrowing tale of
+the loss of two of Mrs. Mayo's best Leghorns that had gone to furnish a
+Sunday meal for a marauding fox. As the said Leghorns were the pride of
+the old lady's heart, even the impending proposal was driven from Miss
+Davis' mind.
+
+"Oh, Perez! you don't s'pose 'tis the fox, do you?"
+
+"Yes, MA'AM, I do! Where's the gun?"
+
+"There 'tis, behind the door, but there ain't a mite of shot in the
+house. Abner's been goin' to fetch some from the store for I don't know
+how long, but he's always forgot it."
+
+"Never mind. I'll pound the critter with the butt. Come quick, and bring
+a lamp."
+
+The noise in the henyard continued, and when they opened the door it was
+louder than ever.
+
+"He's in the henhouse," whispered Miss Patience. "He must have gone in
+that hole at the side that had the loose board over it."
+
+"All right," murmured the Captain. "You go 'round with the lamp and open
+the door. That 'll scare him, and I'll stand at the hole and thump him
+when he comes out."
+
+So, shielding the lamp with her apron, the guardian of Mrs. Mayo's
+outraged Leghorns tiptoed around to the henhouse door, while Captain
+Perez, brandishing the gun like a club, took up his stand by the hole at
+the side.
+
+Without the lamp the darkness was pitchy. The Captain, stooping down to
+watch, saw something coming out of the hole--something that was alive
+and moved. He swung the gun above his head, and, bringing it down with
+all his might, knocked into eternal oblivion the little life remaining
+in the finest Leghorn rooster.
+
+"Consarn it!" yelled the executioner, stooping and laying his hand on
+the victim, "I've killed a hen!"
+
+Just then there came a scream from the other side of the henhouse,
+followed by a crash and the sound of a fall. Running around the corner
+the alarmed Perez saw his lady-love stretched upon the ground, groaning
+dismally.
+
+"Great land of Goshen!" he cried. "Pashy, are you hurt?"
+
+"Oh, Perez!" gasped the fallen one. "Oh, Perez!"
+
+This pitiful appeal had such an effect upon the Captain that he dropped
+upon his knees and, raising Miss Davis' head in his hands, begged her to
+say she wasn't killed. After some little time she obligingly complied,
+and then, having regained her breath, explained the situation.
+
+What had happened was this: The fox, having selected his victim the
+rooster, had rendered it helpless, and was pushing it out of the hole
+ahead of him. The Captain had struck the rooster just as Miss Patience
+opened the door, and the fox, seizing this chance of escape, had dodged
+by the lady, upsetting her as he went.
+
+"Well," she said, laughing, "there's no great harm done. I'm sorry for
+the rooster, but I guess the fox had fixed him anyway. Oh, my soul and
+body! look there!"
+
+Perez turned, looked as directed, and saw the henhouse in flames.
+
+The lighted lamp, which Miss Patience had dropped as she fell, lay
+broken on the floor, and the blazing oil had run in every direction. The
+flames were making such headway that they both saw there was practically
+no chance of saving the building. The frightened hens were huddled in
+the furthest corner, gazing stupidly at the fire.
+
+"Oh, those poor Leghorns!" wailed Miss Patience. "Those hens Mrs. Mayo
+thought the world of, and left me to look out for. Last thing she asked
+me was to be sure they was fed. And now they'll be all burned up! What
+SHALL I do?"
+
+Here the lady began to cry.
+
+"Pashy!" roared the Captain, whom the sight of his charmer's tears had
+driven almost wild, "don't say another word. I'll save them hens or git
+cooked along with 'em!"
+
+And turning up his coat collar, as though he was going into a
+refrigerator instead of a burning building, Captain Perez sprang through
+the door.
+
+Miss Davis screamed wildly to him to come back, and danced about,
+wringing her hands. The interior of the henhouse was now a mass of black
+smoke, from which the voices of the Captain and the Leghorns floated in
+a discordant medley, something like this:
+
+"Hold still, you lunatics! ('Squawk! squawk!') Druther be roasted than
+have me catch you, hadn't you? ('Squawk! squawk!') A--kershew! Land!
+I'm smothered! NOW I've got you! Thunderation! Hold STILL! HOLD STILL, I
+tell you!"
+
+Just as the agonized Miss Patience was on the point of fainting, the
+little window at the back of the shanty was thrown open and two hens,
+like feathered comets, shot through it. Then the red face of the Captain
+appeared for an instant as he caught his breath with a "Woosh!" and
+dived back again. This performance was repeated six times, the Captain's
+language and the compliments he paid the hens becoming more picturesque
+every moment.
+
+At length he announced, "That's all, thank goodness!" and began to climb
+through the window. This was a difficult task; for the window was narrow
+and, in spite of what Captain Eri had called his "ingy-rubber" make up,
+Captain Perez stuck fast.
+
+"Catch hold of my hands and haul, will you, Pashy?" he pleaded. "That's
+it; pull hard! It's gittin' sort of muggy in behind here. I'll never
+complain at havin' cold feet ag'in if I git out of this. Now, then! Ugh!
+Here we be!"
+
+He came out with a jerk, like a cork out of a bottle, and rolled on the
+ground at his lady's feet.
+
+"Oh, Perez!" she exclaimed, "are you hurt?"
+
+"Nothin' but my feelin's," growled the rescuer, scrambling upright. "I
+read a book once by a feller named Joshua Billin's, or somethin' like
+it. He was a ignorant chap--couldn't spell two words right--but he had
+consider'ble sense. He said a hen was a darn fool, and he was right;
+she's all that."
+
+The Captain's face was blackened, and his clothes were scorched, but his
+spirit was undaunted.
+
+"Pashy," he said, "do you realize that if we don't git help, this whole
+shebang, house and all, will burn down?"
+
+"Perez, you don't mean it!"
+
+"I wouldn't swear that I didn't. Look how that thing's blazin'! There's
+the barn t'other side of it, and the house t'other side of that."
+
+"But can't you and me put it out?"
+
+"I don't dare resk it. No, sir! We've got to git help, and git it in a
+hurry, too!"
+
+"Won't somebody from the station see the light and come over?"
+
+"Not in this fog. You can't see a hundred foot. No, I've got to go right
+off. Good land! I never thought! Is the horse gone?"
+
+"No; the horse is here. Abner took one of the store horses to go to
+Harniss with. But he did take the buggy, and there's no other carriage
+but the old carryall, and that's almost tumblin' to pieces."
+
+"I was cal'latin' to go horseback."
+
+"What! and leave me here alone with the house afire? No, indeed! If you
+go, I'm goin', too."
+
+"Well, then, the carryll's got to do, whether or no. Git on a shawl or
+somethin', while I harness up."
+
+It was a frantic harnessing, but it was done in a hurry, and the
+ramshackle old carryall, dusty and cobwebbed, was dragged out of the
+barn, and Horace Greeley, the horse, was backed into the shafts. As they
+drove out of the yard the flames were roaring through the roof of the
+henhouse, and the lath fence surrounding it was beginning to blaze.
+
+"Everything's so wet from the fog and the melted snow," observed the
+Captain, "that it 'll take some time for the fire to git to the barn.
+If we can git a gang here we can save the house easy, and maybe more. By
+mighty!" he ejaculated, "I tell you what we'll do. I'll drive across the
+ford and git Luther and some of the station men to come right across.
+Then I'll go on to the village to fetch more. It was seven when I looked
+at the clock as we come in from washin' dishes, so the tide must be
+still goin' out, and the ford jest right. Git dap!"
+
+"Hurry all you can, for goodness' sake! Is this as fast as we can go?"
+
+"Fast as we can go with this everlastin' Noah's Ark. Heavens! how them
+wheels squeal!"
+
+"The axles ain't been greased for I don't know when. Abner was going to
+have the old carriage chopped up for kindlin' wood."
+
+"Lucky for him and us 'tain't chopped up now. Git dap, slow-poke! Better
+chop the horse up, too, while he's 'bout it."
+
+The last remark the Captain made under his breath.
+
+"My gracious, how dark it is! Think you can find the crossin'?"
+
+"GOT to find it; that's all. 'Tis dark, that's a fact."
+
+It was. They had gone but a few hundred yards; yet the fire was already
+merely a shapeless, red smudge on the foggy blackness behind them.
+Horace Greeley pounded along at a jog, and when the Captain slapped him
+with the end of the reins, broke into a jerky gallop that was slower
+than the trot.
+
+"Stop your hoppin' up and down!" commanded Perez, whose temper was
+becoming somewhat frayed. "You make me think of the walkin' beam on a
+steamboat. If you'd stop tryin' to fly and go straight ahead we'd do
+better."
+
+They progressed in this fashion for some distance. Then Miss Davis, from
+the curtained depths of the back seat, spoke again.
+
+"Oh, dear me!" she exclaimed. "Are you sure you're on the right track?
+Seems 's if we MUST be abreast the station, and this road's awful
+rough."
+
+Captain Perez had remarked the roughness of the road. The carryall was
+pitching from one hummock to another, and Horace Greeley stumbled once
+or twice.
+
+"Whoa!" commanded the Captain. Then he got down, lit a match, and,
+shielding it with his hands, scrutinized the ground. "I'm kind of
+'fraid," he said presently, "that we've got off the road somehow. But we
+must be 'bout opposite the crossin'. I'm goin' to drive down and see if
+I can find it."
+
+He turned the horse's head at right angles from the way they were going,
+and they pitched onward for another hundred yards. Then they came out
+upon the hard, smooth sand, and heard the water lapping on the shore.
+Captain Perez got out once more and walked along the strand, bending
+forward as he walked. Soon Miss Patience heard him calling.
+
+"I've found it, I guess," he said, coming back to the vehicle. "Anyhow,
+it looks like it. We'll be over in a few minutes now. Git dap, you!"
+
+Horace Greeley shivered as the cold water splashed his legs, but waded
+bravely in. They moved further from the shore and the water seemed to
+grow no deeper.
+
+"Guess this is the crossin' all right," said the Captain, who had
+cherished some secret doubts. "Here's the deep part comin'. We'll be
+across in a jiffy."
+
+The water mounted to the hubs, then to the bottom of the carryall. Miss
+Davis' feet grew damp and she drew them up.
+
+"Oh, Perez!" she faltered, "are you sure this is the ford?"
+
+"Don't git scared, Pashy! I guess maybe we've got a little to one side
+of the track. I'll turn 'round and try again."
+
+But Horace Greeley was of a different mind. From long experience he knew
+that the way to cross a ford was to go straight ahead. The bottom of the
+carryall was awash.
+
+"Port your hellum, you lubber!" shouted the driver, pulling with all his
+might on one rein. "Heave to! Come 'bout! Gybe! consarn you! gybe!"
+
+Then Horace Greeley tried to obey orders, but it was too late. He
+endeavored to touch bottom with his forelegs, but could not; tried to
+swim with his hind ones, but found that impossible; then wallowed wildly
+to one side and snapped a shaft and the rotten whiffletree short off.
+The carryall tipped alarmingly and Miss Patience screamed.
+
+"Whoa!" yelled the agitated Perez. "'Vast heavin'! belay!"
+
+The animal, as much frightened by his driver's shouts as by the water,
+shot ahead and tried to tear himself loose. The other sun-warped and
+rotten shaft broke. The carryall was now floating, with the water
+covering the floor.
+
+"No use; I'll have to cut away the wreck, or we'll be on our beam ends!"
+shouted the Captain.
+
+He took out his jackknife, and reaching over, severed the traces. Horace
+Greeley gave another wallow, and finding himself free, disappeared in
+the darkness amid a lather of foam. The carriage, now well out in the
+channel, drifted with the current.
+
+"Don't cry, Pashy!" said the Captain, endeavoring to cheer his sobbing
+companion, "we ain't shark bait yit. As the song used to say:
+
+     "'We're afloat, we're afloat,
+     And the rover is free.'
+
+"I've shipped aboard of 'most every kind of craft," he added, "but
+blessed if I ever expected to be skipper of a carryall!"
+
+But Miss Patience, shut up in the back part of the carriage like a water
+nymph in her cave, still wept hysterically. So Captain Perez continued
+his dismal attempt at facetiousness.
+
+"The main thing," he said, "is to keep her on an even keel. If
+she teeters to one side, you teeter to t'other. Drat that fox!" he
+ejaculated. "I thought when Web's place burned we'd had fire enough to
+last for one spell, but it never rains but it pours."
+
+"Oh, dear!" sobbed the lady. "Now everything 'll burn up, and they'll
+blame me for it. Well, I'll be drownded anyway, so I shan't be there to
+hear 'em. Oh, dear! dear!"
+
+"Oh, don't talk that way. We're driftin' somewheres, but we're spinnin'
+'round so I can't tell which way. Judas!" he exclaimed, more soberly, "I
+remember, now; it ain't but a little past seven o'clock, and the tide's
+goin' out."
+
+"Of course it is," resignedly, "and we'll drift into the breakers in the
+bay, and that 'll be the end."
+
+"No, no, I guess not. We ain't dead yit. If I had an oar or somethin' to
+steer this clipper with, maybe we could git into shoal water. As 'tis,
+we'll have to manage her the way Ote Wixon used to manage his wife, by
+lettin' her have her own way."
+
+They floated in silence for a few moments. Then Miss Patience, who had
+bravely tried to stifle her sobs, said with chattering teeth, "Perez,
+I'm pretty nigh froze to death."
+
+It will be remembered that the Captain had spoken of the weather as
+being almost as warm as summer. This was a slight exaggeration. It
+happened, fortunately for the castaways, that this particular night,
+coming as it did just at the end of the long thaw, was the mildest of
+the winter and there was no wind, but the air was chill, and the damp
+fog raw and biting.
+
+"Well, now you mention it," said Captain Perez, "it IS cold, ain't it?
+I've a good mind to jump overboard, and try to swim ashore and tow the
+carryall."
+
+"Don't you DO it! My land! if YOU should drown what would become of ME?"
+
+It was the tone of this speech, as much as the words, that hit the
+Captain hard. He himself almost sobbed as he said:
+
+"Pashy, I want you to try to git over on this front seat with me. Then
+I can put my coat 'round you, and you won't be so cold. Take hold of my
+hand."
+
+Miss Patience at first protested that she never could do it in the
+world, the carriage would upset, and that would be the end. But her
+companion urged her to try, and at last she did so. It was a risky
+proceeding, but she reached the front seat somehow, and the carryall
+still remained right-side-up. Luckily, in the channel between the
+beaches there was not the slightest semblance of a wave.
+
+Captain Perez pulled off his coat, and wrapped it about his protesting
+companion. He was obliged to hold it in place, and he found the task
+rather pleasing.
+
+"Oh, you're SO good!" murmured Miss Patience. "What should I have done
+without you?"
+
+"Hush! Guess you'd have been better off. You'd never gone after that
+fox if it hadn't been for me, and there wouldn't have been none of this
+fuss."
+
+"Oh, don't say that! You've been so brave. Anyhow, we'll die together,
+that's a comfort."
+
+"Pashy," said Captain Perez solemnly, "it's mighty good to hear you say
+that."
+
+It is, perhaps, needless to explain that the "dying" portion of
+the lady's speech was not that referred to by the Captain; the
+word "together" was what appealed to him. Miss Patience apparently
+understood.
+
+"Is it?" she said softly.
+
+"Yes--yes, 'tis." The arm holding the coat about the lady's shoulder
+tightened just a little. The Captain had often dreamed of something like
+this, but never with quite these surroundings. However, he was rapidly
+becoming oblivious to such trivial details as surroundings.
+
+"Pashy," he said huskily, "I've been thinkin' of you consider'ble
+lately. Fact is, I--I--well, I come down to-day a-purpose to ask you
+somethin'. I know it's a queer place to ask it, and--and I s'pose it's
+kind of sudden, but--will--will you--Breakers! by mighty!"
+
+The carryall had suddenly begun to rock, and there were streaks of foam
+about it. Now, it gave a most alarming heave, grounded, swung clear, and
+tipped yet more.
+
+"We're capsizin'," yelled Perez. "Hang on to me, Pashy!"
+
+But Miss Patience didn't intend to let this, perhaps the final
+opportunity, slip. As she told her brother afterward, she would have
+made him say it then if they had been "two fathom under water."
+
+"Will I what, Perez?" she demanded.
+
+The carryall rose on two wheels and begun to turn over, but the Captain
+did not notice it. The arms of his heart's desire were about his neck,
+and he was looking into her eyes.
+
+"Will you marry me?" he gasped.
+
+"Yes," answered Miss Patience, and they went under together.
+
+The Captain staggered to his feet, and dragged his chosen bride to hers.
+The ice-cold water reached their shoulders. And, like a flash, as they
+stood there, came a torrent of rain and a wind that drove the fog before
+it like smoke. Captain Perez saw the shore, with its silhouetted bushes,
+only a few yards away. Beyond that, in the blackness, was a light, a
+flickering blaze, that rose and fell and rose and fell again.
+
+The Captain dragged Miss Patience to the beach.
+
+"Run!" he chattered, "run, or we'll turn into icicles. Come on!"
+
+With his arm about her waist Perez guided his dripping companion, as
+fast as they could run, toward the light. And as they came nearer to it
+they saw that it flickered about the blackened ruins of a hen-house and
+a lath fence.
+
+It was Mrs. Mayo's henhouse, and Mrs. Mayo's fence. Their adventurous
+journey had ended where it began.
+
+"You see, Eri," said Captain Perez, as he told his friend the story that
+night, "that clock in the dining room that I looked at hadn't been goin'
+for a week; the mainspring was broke. 'Twa'n't seven o'clock, 'twas
+nearer nine when the fire started, and the tide wa'n't goin' out, 'twas
+comin' in. I drove into the water too soon, missed the crossin', and we
+jest drifted back home ag'in. The horse had more sense than I did. We
+found him in the barn waiting for us."
+
+Abner Mayo had piled against the back of his barn a great heap of damp
+seaweed that he intended using in the spring as a fertilizer. The fire
+had burned until it reached this seaweed and then had gone no further.
+The rain extinguished the last spark.
+
+"Well, by mighty!" exclaimed Captain Perez for at least the tenth time,
+as he sat in the kitchen, wrapped in an old ulster of Mr. Mayo's, and
+toasting his feet in the oven, "if I don't feel like a fool. All that
+scare and wet for nothin'."
+
+"Oh, not for nothin', Perez," said Miss Patience, looking tenderly down
+into his face.
+
+"Well, no, not for nothin' by a good deal! I've got you by it, and
+that's everything. But say, Pashy!" and the Captain looked awed by the
+coincidence, "I went through fire and water to git you!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE SINS OF CAPTAIN JERRY
+
+
+Captain Perez made a clean breast of it to Captain Eri when he reached
+home that night. It was after twelve o'clock, but he routed his friend
+out of bed to tell him the news and the story. Captain Eri was not as
+surprised to hear of the engagement as he pretended to be, for he had
+long ago made up his mind that Perez meant business this time. But the
+tale of the fire and the voyage in the carryall tickled him immensely,
+and he rolled back and forth in the rocker and laughed until his side
+ached.
+
+"I s'pose it does sound kind of ridic'lous," said the accepted suitor in
+a rather aggrieved tone, "but it wa'n't ha'f so funny when 'twas goin'
+on. Fust I thought I'd roast to death, then I thought I'd freeze, and
+then I thought I'd drown."
+
+"Perez," said the panting Eri, "you're a wonder. I'm goin' to tell Sol
+Bangs 'bout you next time I see him. He'll want you to enter in the
+races next Fourth of July. We've had tub races and the like of that, but
+a carryall sailin' match 'll be somethin' new. I'll back you against the
+town, though. You can count on me."
+
+"Now, look here, Eri Hedge, if you tell a livin' soul 'bout it, I'll--"
+
+"All right, shipmate, all right; but it's too good to keep. You ought
+to write a book, one of them kind like Josiah used to read. Call it
+'The Carryall Pirate, or The Terror of the Channel,' hey? Gee! you'd be
+famous! But, say, old man," he added more seriously, "I'll shake hands
+with you. I b'lieve you've got a good woman, one that 'll make it smooth
+sailin' for you the rest of your life. I wish you both luck."
+
+Captain Perez shook hands very gravely. He was still a little suspicious
+of his chum's propensity to tease. It did not tend to make him less
+uneasy when, a little later, Captain Eri opened the parlor door and
+whispered, "Say, Perez, I've jest thought of some-thin'. What are you
+goin' to say to M'lissy Busteed? Her heart 'll be broke."
+
+"Aw, git out!" was the disgusted answer.
+
+"Well, I only mentioned it. Folks have had to pay heavy for breach of
+promise 'fore now. Good-night."
+
+Perez manfully told of his engagement at the breakfast table next
+morning, although he said nothing concerning the rest of his adventures.
+He was rather taken aback to find that no one seemed greatly surprised.
+Everyone congratulated him, of course, and it was gratifying to discern
+the high opinion of the future Mrs. Ryder held by Mrs. Snow and the
+rest. Captain Jerry solemnly shook hands with him after the meal was
+over and said, "Perez, you done the right thing. There's nothin' like
+married life, after all."
+
+"Then why don't you try it yourself?" was the unexpected question.
+"Seems to me we'll have to settle that matter of yours pretty soon. I
+meant to speak to Eri 'bout it 'fore this, but I've had so much on my
+mind. I will to-night when he comes back from fishin'."
+
+Captain Jerry made no further remarks, but walked thoughtfully away.
+
+So that evening, when they were together in Captain Jerry's room after
+supper, Perez, true to his promise, said:
+
+"Eri, it seems to me we've got to do somethin' 'bout Mrs. Snow. She was
+hired to be housekeeper while John was sick. Now he's dead, and she'll
+think it's queer if we don't settle that marryin' bus'ness. Ain't that
+so?"
+
+"Humph!" grunted Captain Jerry. "Perez is in a mighty sweat to git other
+folks married jest 'cause he's goin' to be. I don't see why she can't
+keep on bein' housekeeper jest the same as she's always been."
+
+"Well, I do, and so do you, and you know it. We agreed to the
+housekeepin' bus'ness jest as a sort of put off. Now we can't put off
+no longer. Mrs. Snow come down here 'cause we advertised for a wife, and
+she's been so everlastin' good that I feel 'most ashamed every time I
+think of it. No use, you've got to ask her to marry you. He has, hasn't
+he, Eri?"
+
+"Yes," answered Captain Eri laconically.
+
+The sacrifice squirmed. "I hate to ask," he said. "Why don't we wait a
+spell, and let her say somethin' fust?"
+
+"That WOULD be nice, wouldn't it? She's that kind of a woman, ain't
+she?" sputtered Perez. "No, you bet she ain't! What she'd say would be
+to give her opinion of us and our manners, and walk out of the house bag
+and baggage, and I wouldn't blame her for doin' it."
+
+"P'raps she wouldn't have me. She never said she would."
+
+"Never said she would! Have you ever asked her? She's had all this time
+to l'arn to know you in, and I cal'late if she was willin' to think
+'bout it 'fore she ever see you, she'd be more willin' now. Ain't that
+so, Eri?"
+
+And again Captain Eri said shortly, "Yes."
+
+"I wish you'd mind your own consarns, and give me time," protested
+Captain Jerry.
+
+"Time! How much time do you want? Land of Goshen! I should think you'd
+had time enough. Why--"
+
+"Oh, let up!" snorted the persecuted. "Why don't you git married
+yourself, and bring Pashy over to keep house? What we started to git
+in the fust place was jest a wife for one of us that would keep things
+shipshape, and now--"
+
+The withering look of scorn that Perez bent upon him caused him to
+hesitate and stop. Captain Perez haughtily marched to the door.
+
+"Eri," he said, "I ain't goin' to waste my time talkin' to a--a dogfish
+like him. He ain't wuth it."
+
+"Hold on, now, Perez!" pleaded the discomfited sacrifice, alarmed at his
+comrade's threatened desertion. "I was only foolin'. Can't you take a
+joke? I haven't said I wouldn't do it. I think a heap of Mrs. Snow; it's
+only that I ain't got the spunk to ask her, that's all."
+
+"Humph! it don't take much spunk," replied the successful wooer,
+forgetful of his own past trepidation.
+
+"Well," Captain Jerry wriggled and twisted, but saw no loophole. "Well,
+give me a month to git up my courage in and--"
+
+"A month! A month's ridic'lous; ain't it, Eri"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, three weeks, then."
+
+This offer, too, was rejected. Then Captain Jerry held out for a
+fortnight--for ten days. Finally, it was settled that within one week
+from that very night he was to offer his heart and hand to the lady from
+Nantucket. He pledged his solemn word to do it.
+
+"There!" exclaimed the gratified Captain Perez. "That's a good job done.
+He won't never be sorry for it, will he, Eri?"
+
+And Captain Eri made his fourth contribution to the conversation.
+
+"No," he said.
+
+
+Josiah went up to the post-office late in the afternoon of the next day.
+The "able seaman" was behaving himself remarkably well. He had become a
+real help to Captain Eri, and the latter said that sailing alone would
+be doubly hard when his foremast hand went back to school again, which
+he was to do very shortly, for Josiah meant to accept the Captain's
+offer, and to try for the Annapolis appointment when the time came.
+
+The boy came back with the mail and an item of news. The mail, a paper
+only, he handed to Mrs. Snow, and the news he announced at the supper
+table as follows:
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine's goin' to leave the cable station," he said.
+
+"Goin' to leave!" repeated the housekeeper, "what for?"
+
+"I don't know, ma'am. All I know is what I heard Mr. Wingate say. He
+said Mr. Hazeltine was goin' to get through over at the station pretty
+soon. He said one of the operators told him so."
+
+"Well, for the land's sake! Did you know anything 'bout it, Eri?"
+
+"Why, yes, a little. I met Hazeltine yesterday, and he told me that
+some folks out West had made him a pretty good offer, and he didn't know
+whether to take it or not. Said the salary was good, and the whole thing
+looked sort of temptin'. He hadn't decided what to do yit. That's all
+there is to it."
+
+There was little else talked about during the meal. Captain Perez,
+Captain Jerry, and Mrs. Snow argued, surmised, and questioned Captain
+Eri, who said little. Elsie said almost nothing, and went to her room
+shortly after the dishes were washed.
+
+"Humph!" exclaimed Captain Perez, when they were alone, "I guess your
+match-makin' scheme's up spout, Jerry."
+
+And, for a wonder, Captain Jerry did not contradict him.
+
+The weather changed that night, and it grew cold rapidly. In the morning
+the pump was frozen, and Captain Jerry and Mrs. Snow spent some time and
+much energy in thawing it out. It was later than usual when the former
+set out for the schoolhouse. As he was putting on his cap, Elsie
+suggested that he wait for her, as she had some lessons to prepare, and
+wanted an hour or so to herself at her desk. So they walked on together
+under a cloudy sky. The mud in the road was frozen into all sorts of
+fantastic shapes, and the little puddles had turned to ice.
+
+"That thaw was a weather-breeder, sure enough," observed Captain Jerry.
+"We'll git a storm out of this, 'fore we're done."
+
+"It seems to me," said Elsie, "that the winter has been a very mild one.
+From what I had heard I supposed you must have some dreadful gales here,
+but there has been none so far."
+
+"We'll git 'em yit. February's jist the time. Git a good no'theaster
+goin', and you'll think the whole house is comin' down. Nothin' to what
+they used to have, though, 'cordin' to tell. Cap'n Jonadab Wixon used to
+swear that his grandfather told him 'bout a gale that blew the hair all
+off a dog, and then the wind changed of a sudden, and blew it all on
+again."
+
+Elsie laughed. "That must have been a blow," she said.
+
+"Yes. Cap'n Jonadab's somethin' of a blow himself, so he ought to be a
+good jedge. The outer beach is the place that catches it when there's
+a gale on. Oh, say! that reminds me. I s'pose you was glad to hear the
+news last night?"
+
+"What news?"
+
+"Why, that 'bout Mr. Hazeltine's goin' away. You're glad he's goin', of
+course."
+
+Miss Preston did not answer immediately. Instead, she turned and looked
+wonderingly at her companion.
+
+"Why should I be glad, pray?" she asked.
+
+"Why, I don't know. I jest took it for granted you would be. You didn't
+want him to come and see you, and if he was gone he couldn't come, so--"
+
+"Just a minute, please. What makes you think I didn't want Mr. Hazeltine
+to call?"
+
+And now it was the Captain's turn to stare and hesitate.
+
+"What makes me think--" he gasped. "Why--you told me so, yourself."
+
+"_I_ told you so? I'm certain that I never told you anything of the
+kind."
+
+Captain Jerry stood stock-still, and if ever a face expressed complete
+amazement, it was his.
+
+"Elsie Preston!" he ejaculated, "are you losin' your mem'ry or what?
+Didn't you pitch into me hot-foot for lettin' him be alone with you?
+Didn't you give me 'hark from the tomb' for gittin' up and goin' away?
+Didn't you say his calls was perfect torture to you, and that you had to
+be decent to him jest out of common politeness? Now, didn't you?"
+
+"Oh, that was it! No, of course I didn't say any such thing."
+
+"You DIDN'T! Why, I heard you! Land of love! my ears smarted for a week
+afterward. I ain't had sech a goin' over sence mother used to git at me
+for goin' in swimmin' on Sunday. And now you say you didn't say it."
+
+"I didn't. You misunderstood me. I did object to your leaving the room
+every time he called, and making me appear so ridiculous; and I did
+say that his visits might be a torture for all that you knew to the
+contrary, but I certainly didn't say that they WERE."
+
+"SUFFERIN'! And you ain't glad he stopped comin'?"
+
+The air of complete indifference assumed by the young lady was a
+triumph.
+
+"Why, of course," she said, "Mr. Hazeltine is a free agent, and I don't
+know of any reason why he should be compelled to go where he doesn't
+wish to go. I enjoyed his society, and I'm sure Captain Eri and Mrs.
+Snow enjoyed it, too; but it is quite evident that he did not enjoy
+ours, so I don't see that there need be any more said on the subject."
+
+Captain Jerry was completely crushed. If the gale described by the
+redoubtable grandsire of Jonadab Wixon had struck him, he could not have
+been more upset.
+
+"My! my! my!" he murmured. "And after my beggin' his pardon and all!"
+
+"Begging his pardon? For what?"
+
+"Why, for leavin' you two alone. Of course, after you pitched into me
+so I see how foolish I'd been actin', and I--honest, I didn't sleep
+scursely a bit that night thinkin' 'bout it. Thinks I, 'If Elsie feels
+that way, why, there ain't no doubt that Mr. Hazeltine feels the same.'
+There wa'n't but one thing to be done. When a man makes a mistake, if he
+is any kind of a man, he owns up, and does his best to straighten things
+out. 'Twa'n't easy to do, but duty's duty, and the next time I see Mr.
+Hazeltine I told him the whole thing, and--"
+
+"You DID!"
+
+"Sartin I did."
+
+"What did you tell him?"
+
+They had stopped on the sidewalk nearly opposite the post-office. Each
+was too much engrossed in the conversation to pay any heed to anything
+else. If the few passersby thought it strange that the schoolmistress
+should care to loiter out of doors on that cold and disagreeable
+morning, they said nothing about it. One young man in particular, who,
+standing just inside the post-office door, was buttoning his overcoat
+and putting on his gloves, looked earnestly at the pair, but he, too,
+said nothing.
+
+"Why, I told him," said Captain Jerry, in reply to the question, "how
+you didn't like to have me go out of the room when he was there. Course,
+I told him I didn't mean to do nothin' out of the way. Then he asked me
+some more questions, and I answered 'em best I could, and--well, I guess
+that's 'bout all."
+
+"Did you tell him that I said his visits were a torture?"
+
+"Why--" the Captain shuffled his feet uneasily--"seems to me I said
+somethin' 'bout it--not jest that, you know, but somethin'. Fact is, I
+was so muddle-headed and upset that I don't know exactly what I did say.
+Anyhow, he said 'twas all right, so there ain't nothin' to worry 'bout."
+
+"Captain Jeremiah Burgess!" exclaimed Elsie. Then she added, "What MUST
+he think of me?"
+
+"Oh, I'll fix that!" exclaimed the Captain. "I'll see him some time
+to-day, and I'll tell him you didn't mean it. Why, I declare! Yes, 'tis!
+There he is, now! Hi! Mr. Hazeltine! Come here a minute."
+
+A mischievous imp was certainly directing Captain Jerry's movements.
+Ralph had, almost for the first time since he came to Orham, paid an
+early morning visit to the office in order to send an important letter
+in the first mail. The slamming of the door had attracted the Captain's
+attention and, in response to the hail, Mr. Hazeltine crossed the road.
+
+And then Captain Jerry felt his arm clutched with a grip that meant
+business, as Miss Preston whispered, "Don't you dare say one word to him
+about it. Don't you DARE!"
+
+If Ralph had been surprised by the request to join the couple, he was
+more surprised by the reception he received. Elsie's face was crimson,
+and as for the Captain, he looked like a man who had suddenly been left
+standing alone in the middle of a pond covered with very thin ice.
+
+The electrician bowed and shook hands gravely. As no remark seemed to be
+forthcoming from those who had summoned him, he observed that it was
+an unpleasant morning. This commonplace reminded him of one somewhat
+similar that he had made to a supposed Miss "Gusty" Black, and he, too,
+colored.
+
+"Did you want to speak with me, Captain?" he asked, to cover his
+confusion.
+
+"Why--why, I did," stammered poor Captain Jerry, "but--but I
+don't know's I do now." Then he realized that this was not exactly
+complimentary, and added, "That is, I don't know--I don't know's
+I--Elsie, what was it I was goin' to say to Mr. Hazeltine?"
+
+At another time it is likely that the young lady's quick wit would have
+helped her out of the difficulty, but now she was too much disturbed.
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," she said coldly.
+
+"You don't know! Why, yes you do? 'Twas--'twas--" The Captain was
+frantically grasping at straws. "Why, we was wonderin' why you didn't
+come to see us nowadays."
+
+If the Captain had seen the look that Elsie shot at him, as he delivered
+this brilliant observation, he might have been more, instead of less,
+uncomfortable. As it was, he felt rather proud of having discovered
+a way out of the difficulty. But Ralph's embarrassment increased. He
+hurriedly said something about having been very busy.
+
+"Well," went on the Captain, intent on making the explanation as
+plausible as possible, "we've missed you consider'ble. We was sayin' we
+hoped you wouldn't give us up altogether. Ain't that so, Elsie?"
+
+Miss Preston's foot tapped the sidewalk several times, but she answered,
+though not effusively:
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine is always welcome, of course." Then, she added, turning
+away, "Really, Captain Jerry, I must hurry to school. I have a great
+deal of work to do before nine o'clock. Good-morning, Mr. Hazeltine."
+
+The Captain paused long enough to say, "We'll expect you now, so come,"
+and then hurried after her. He was feeling very well satisfied with
+himself.
+
+"By mighty! Elsie," he chuckled, "I got out of that nice, didn't I?"
+
+He received no answer, even when he repeated the remark, and, although
+he endeavored, as he swept out the schoolroom, to engage the teacher in
+conversation, her replies were as cold as they were short. The Captain
+went home in the last stages of dismalness.
+
+That afternoon, when Captain Eri returned from the fishing grounds,
+he found Captain Jerry waiting for him at the shanty. The humiliated
+matchmaker sent Josiah up to the grocery store on an errand, and then
+dragged his friend inside and shut the door.
+
+Captain Eri looked at the woe-begone face with some concern.
+
+"What ails you, Jerry?" he demanded. "Have you--have you spoken to Mrs.
+Snow 'bout that--that marriage?"
+
+"No, I ain't, Eri, but I'm in a turrible mess, and I don't know why,
+neither. Seems to me the more I try to do for other folks the wuss off I
+am; and, instead of gittin' thanks, all I git is blame."
+
+"Why, what's the matter?"
+
+"Well, now I know you'll think I'm a fool, and 'll jest pester the life
+out of me. See here, Eri Hedge! If I tell you what I want to, will you
+promise not to pitch into me, and not to nag and poke fun? If you don't
+promise I won't tell one single word, no matter what happens."
+
+So Captain Eri promised, and then Captain Jerry, stammering and
+hesitating, unburdened his mind of the whole affair, telling of his
+first reproof by Elsie, his "explanation" to Ralph, and the subsequent
+developments. Long before he finished, Captain Eri rose and, walking
+over to the door, stood looking out through the dim pane at the top,
+while his shoulders shook as if there was a smothered earthquake inside.
+
+"There!" exclaimed the injured matrimonial agent, in conclusion.
+"There's the whole fool thing, and I 'most wish I'd never seen either of
+'em. I thought I did fust-rate this mornin' when I was tryin' to think
+up somethin' to show why I hailed Hazeltine, but no, Elsie won't hardly
+speak to me. I wish to goodness you'd tell me what to do."
+
+Captain Eri turned away from the door. His eyes were watery, and his
+face was red, but he managed to say:
+
+"Oh, Jerry, Jerry! Your heart's big as a bucket, but fishin' 's more in
+your line than gittin' folks married to order is, I'm 'fraid. You stay
+here, and unload them fish in the dory. There ain't many of 'em, and
+Josiah 'll help when he gits back. I'm goin' out for a few minutes."
+
+He went down to the beach, climbed into a dory belonging to a neighbor,
+and Captain Jerry saw him row away in the direction of the cable
+station.
+
+That evening, after the dishes were washed and the table cleared, there
+came a knock at the door. Mrs. Snow opened it.
+
+"Why, for goodness sake! Mr. Hazeltine!" she exclaimed. "Come right in.
+What a stranger you are!"
+
+Ralph entered, shook the snow, which had just begun to fall, from
+his hat and coat, took off these articles, in response to the hearty
+invitation of Captain Eri, and shook hands with all present. Elsie's
+face was an interesting study. Captain Jerry looked scared.
+
+After a few minutes' talk, Captain Eri rose.
+
+"Mrs. Snow," he said, "come upstairs a little while. I want to talk to
+you 'bout somethin'. You come, too, Jerry."
+
+Captain Jerry looked from Elsie to the speaker, and then to Elsie again.
+But Captain Eri's hand was on his arm, and he rose and went.
+
+Elsie watched this wholesale desertion with amazement. Then the door
+opened again, and Captain Eri put in his head.
+
+"Elsie," he said, "I jest want to tell you that this is my doin's, not
+Jerry's. That's all." And the door shut.
+
+Elsie faced the caller with astonishment written on her face.
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine," she said icily, "you may know what this means, but I
+don't."
+
+Ralph looked at her and answered solemnly, but with a twinkle in his
+eye:
+
+"I'm afraid I can guess, Miss Preston. You see Captain Jerry paid
+Captain Eri a call this afternoon and, as a result, Captain Eri called
+upon me. Then, as a result of THAT, I--well, I came here."
+
+The young lady blushed furiously. "What did Captain Eri tell you?" she
+demanded.
+
+"Just what Captain Jerry told him."
+
+"And that was?"
+
+"What you told Captain Jerry this morning concerning something that you
+told him before, I believe."
+
+There was no answer to this. Miss Preston looked as if she had a mind
+to run out of the room, then as if she might cry, and finally as if she
+wanted to laugh.
+
+"I humbly apologize," said the electrician contritely.
+
+"YOU apologize? For what?"
+
+"For my stupidity in believing that Captain Jerry was to be accepted
+seriously."
+
+"You were excusable, certainly. And now I must apologize; also for
+taking the Captain too seriously."
+
+"Suppose we pair the apologies as they do the votes in the Senate. Then
+one will offset the other."
+
+"I'm afraid that isn't fair, for the blunder was all on my part."
+
+"Well, if we can't pair apologies, suppose we pair blunders. I don't
+accept your statement of guilt, mind, but since you are determined to
+shoulder it, we might put it on one side and on the other we'll put--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"'Gusty' Black."
+
+And then they both laughed.
+
+A little later Captain Eri knocked at the door.
+
+"Is it safe for a feller to come in?" he asked.
+
+"Well," said Elsie severely, "I don't know whether talebearers should
+be admitted or not, but if they do come they must beg pardon for
+interfering in other people's affairs."
+
+"Ma'am," and the Captain made a profound bow, "I hope you'll be so 'kind
+and condescendin', and stoop so low, and be so bendin'' as to forgive
+me. And, while I'm 'bout it, I'll apologize for Jerry, too."
+
+"No, sir," said the young lady decidedly. "Captain Jerry must apologize
+for himself. Captain Jeremiah Burgess," she called up the stairway,
+"come into court, and answer for your sins."
+
+And Captain Jerry tremblingly came.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A "NO'THEASTER" BLOWS
+
+
+It had begun to snow early in the evening, a light fall at first,
+but growing heavier every minute, and, as the flakes fell thicker and
+faster, the wind began to blow, and its force increased steadily. Ralph,
+hearing the gusts as they swooped about the corners of the house, and
+the "swish" of the snow as it was thrown against the window panes,
+several times rose to go, but Captain Eri in each instance urged him to
+stay a little longer. Finally, the electrician rebelled.
+
+"I should like to stay, Captain," he said, "but how do you think I am
+going to get over to the station if this storm grows worse, as it seems
+to be doing?"
+
+"I don't think," was the calm reply. "You're goin' to stay here."
+
+"Well, I guess not."
+
+"I guess yes. S'pose we're goin' to let you try to row over to the beach
+a night like this? It's darker 'n a nigger's pocket, and blowin' and
+snowin' great guns besides. Jest you look out here."
+
+He rose, beckoned to Ralph, and then opened the outer door. He had to
+use considerable strength to do this, and a gust of wind and a small
+avalanche of snow roared in, and sent the lighter articles flying from
+the table. Elsie gave a little scream, and Mrs. Snow exclaimed, "For the
+land's sake, shut that door this minute! Everything 'll be soppin' wet."
+
+The Captain pulled the door shut again, and dropped the hook into the
+staple.
+
+"Nice night for a pull, ain't it?" he observed, smiling. "No, sir, I've
+heard it comin' on, and I made up my mind you'd have to stay on dry land
+for a spell, no matter if all creation wanted you on t'other side."
+
+Ralph looked troubled. "I ought to be at the station," he said.
+
+"Maybe so, but you ain't, and you'll have to put up at this boardin'
+house till mornin'. When it's daylight one of us 'll set you across. Mr.
+Langley ain't foolish. He won't expect you to-night."
+
+"Now, Mr. Hazeltine," said the housekeeper, "you might jest as well give
+it up fust as last. You KNOW you can't go over to that station jest as
+well as I do."
+
+So Ralph did give it up, although rather against his will. There was
+nothing of importance to be done, but he felt a little like a deserter,
+nevertheless.
+
+"Perez won't git home neither," observed Captain Eri. "He's snowed in,
+too."
+
+Captain Perez had that afternoon gone down to the Mayo homestead to take
+tea with Miss Davis.
+
+"Git home! I should think not!" said Mrs. Snow decidedly. "Pashy's got
+too much sense to let him try it."
+
+"Well, Elsie," commented Captain Jerry, "I told you we'd have a
+no'theaster 'fore the winter was over. I guess there'll be gale enough
+to satisfy you, now. No school to-morrer."
+
+"Well, that's settled! Let's be comf'table. Ain't there some of that
+cider down cellar? Where's the pitcher?" And Captain Eri hurried off to
+find it.
+
+When bedtime came there was some argument as to where the guest should
+sleep. Ralph insisted that the haircloth sofa in the parlor was just the
+thing, but Captain Eri wouldn't hear of it.
+
+"Haircloth's all right to look at," he said, "but it's the slipperiest
+stuff that ever was, I cal'late. Every time I set on a haircloth chair I
+feel's if I was draggin' anchor."
+
+The cot was declared ineligible, also, and the question was finally
+settled by Josiah and Captain Eri going upstairs to the room once
+occupied by John Baxter, while Ralph took that which they vacated.
+
+It was some time before he fell asleep. The gale seemed to be tearing
+loose the eternal foundations. The house shook and the bed trembled
+as if a great hand was moving them, and the snow slapped against the
+windows till it seemed that they must break.
+
+In the morning there was little change in the weather. The snow had
+turned to a sleet, half rain, that stuck to everything and coated it
+with ice. The wind was blowing as hard as ever. Captain Eri and Ralph,
+standing just outside the kitchen door, and in the lee of the barn,
+paused to watch the storm for a minute before they went down to the
+beach. At intervals they caught glimpses of the snow-covered roofs of
+the fish shanties, and the water of the inner bay, black and threatening
+and scarred with whitecaps; then another gust would come, and they could
+scarcely see the posts at the yard gate.
+
+"Think you want to go over, do you?" asked the Captain.
+
+"I certainly do, if I can get there."
+
+"Oh, we can git there all right. I've rowed a dory a good many times
+when 'twas as bad as this. This ain't no picnic day, though, that's a
+fact," he added, as they crossed the yard, and caught the full force of
+the wind. "Lucky you put on them ileskins."
+
+Ralph was arrayed in Captain Jerry's "dirty-weather rig," and although,
+as Captain Eri said, the garments fitted him "like a shirt on a
+handspike," they were very acceptable.
+
+They found the dory covered with snow and half-full of slush, and
+it took some few minutes to get her into condition. When this was
+accomplished they hauled her down to the shore, and Captain Eri,
+standing knee-deep in water, steadied her while Ralph climbed in. Then
+the Captain tumbled in himself, picked up the oars, and settled down for
+the pull to the outer beach.
+
+A dory, as everyone acquainted alongshore knows, is the safest of all
+small craft for use in heavy weather. It is unsinkable for one thing,
+and, being flat-bottomed, slips over the waves instead of plowing
+through them. But the high freeboard is a mark for the wind, and to keep
+a straight course on such a morning as this requires skill, and no small
+amount of muscle. Ralph, seated in the stern, found himself wondering
+how on earth his companion managed to row as he did, and steer at the
+same time. The strokes were short, but there was power in them, and the
+dory, although moving rather slowly, went doggedly on.
+
+"Let me take her," shouted Ralph after a while, "you must be tired."
+
+"Who, me?" Captain Eri laughed. "I could keep this up for a week. There
+ain't any sea in here. If we was outside now, 'twould be diff'rent,
+maybe."
+
+They hit the beach almost exactly at the right spot, a feat which the
+passenger considered a miracle, but which the Captain seemed to take
+as a matter of course. They beached and anchored the dory, and, bending
+almost double as they faced the wind, plowed through the sand to the
+back door of the station. There was comparatively little snow here on
+the outer beach--the gale had swept it nearly all away.
+
+Mr. Langley met them as they tramped into the hall. The old gentleman
+was glad to see his assistant, for he had begun to fear that the latter
+might have tried to row over during the evening, and met with disaster.
+As they sat round the stove in his room he said, "We don't need any
+wrecks inside the beach. We shall have enough outside, I'm afraid. I
+hear there is one schooner in trouble now."
+
+"That so?" asked Captain Eri. "Where is she?"
+
+"On the Hog's Back shoal, they think. One of the life-saving crew told
+McLaughlin that they saw her last night, when the gale first began,
+trying to make an offing, and that wreckage was coming ashore this
+morning. Captain Davis was going to try to reach her with the boat, I
+believe."
+
+"I should like to be at the life-saving station when they land," said
+Ralph. "It would be a new experience for me. I've seen the crew drill
+often enough, but I have never seen them actually at work."
+
+"What d'you say if we go down to the station?" asked the Captain. "That
+is, if Mr. Langley here can spare you."
+
+"Oh, I can spare him," said the superintendent. "There is nothing of
+importance to be done here just now. But it will be a terrible walk down
+the beach this morning."
+
+"Wind 'll be at our backs, and we're rigged for it, too. What d'you say,
+Mr. Hazeltine?"
+
+Ralph was only too glad of the opportunity to see, at least, the finish
+of a rescuing expedition, and he said so. So they got into the oilskins
+again, pulled their "sou'westers" down over their ears, and started on
+the tramp to the life-saving station.
+
+The electrician is not likely to forget that walk. The wind was, as
+the Captain said, at their backs, but it whistled in from the sea with
+terrific strength, and carried the sleet with it. It deluged them with
+water, and plastered them with flying seaweed and ice. The wet sand came
+in showers like hail, and beat against their shoulders until they felt
+the sting, even through their clothes. Toward the bay was nothing but
+gray mist, streaked with rain and sleet; toward the sea was the same
+mist, flying with the wind over such a huddle of tossing green and white
+as Ralph had never seen. The surf poured in in rollers that leaped over
+each other's humped backs in their savage energy to get at the shore,
+which trembled as they beat upon it. The ripples from one wave had not
+time to flow back before those of the next came threshing in. Great
+blobs of foam shot down the strand like wild birds, and the gurgle and
+splash and roar were terrific.
+
+They walked as near the water line as they dared, because the sand was
+harder there. Captain Eri went ahead, hands in his pockets and head
+down. Ralph followed, sometimes watching his companion, but oftener
+gazing at the sea. At intervals there would be a lull, as if the storm
+giant had paused for breath, and they could see for half a mile over the
+crazy water; then the next gust would pull the curtain down again, and
+a whirl of rain and sleet would shut them in. Conversation meant only a
+series of shrieks and they gave it up.
+
+At length the Captain turned, grinned pleasantly, while the rain drops
+splashed on his nose, and waved one arm. Ralph looked and saw ahead of
+them the clustered buildings of the life-saving station. And he was glad
+to see them.
+
+"Whew!" puffed Captain Eri as they opened the door. "Nice mornin' for
+ducks. Hey, Luther!" he shouted, "wake up here; you've got callers."
+
+They heard footsteps in the next room, the door opened, and in came--not
+Luther Davis, but Captain Perez.
+
+"Why, Eri!" he exclaimed amazedly.
+
+"For the land's sake, Perez! What are you doin' here?"
+
+"What are YOU doin' here, I should say. How d'you do, Mr. Hazeltine?"
+
+Captain Eri pushed back his "sou'wester," and strolled over to the
+stove. Ralph followed suit.
+
+"Well, Perez," said the former, extending his hands over the fire, "it's
+easy enough to tell you why we're here. We heard there was a wreck."
+
+"There is. She's a schooner, and she's off there on the Hog's Back.
+Luther and the crew put off to her more 'n two hours ago, and I'm
+gittin' worried."
+
+Then Perez went on to explain that, because of the storm, he had been
+persuaded to stay at Mrs. Mayo's all night; that Captain Davis had
+been over for a moment that evening on an errand, and had said that the
+schooner had been sighted and that, as the northeaster was coming on,
+she was almost certain to get into trouble; that he, Perez, had rowed
+over the first thing in the morning to get the news, and had been just
+in time to see the launching of the lifeboat, as the crew put off to the
+schooner.
+
+"There ain't nothin' to worry 'bout," observed Captain Eri. "It's no
+slouch of a pull off to the Hog's Back this weather, and besides, I'd
+trust Lute Davis anywhere on salt water."
+
+"Yes, I know," replied the unconvinced Captain Perez, "but he ought to
+have been back afore this. There was a kind of let-up in the storm jest
+afore I got here, and they see her fast on the shoal with the crew
+in the riggin'. Luther took the small boat 'cause he thought he could
+handle her better, and that's what's worryin' me; I'm 'fraid she's
+overloaded. I was jest thinkin' of goin' out on the p'int to see if I
+could see anything of 'em when you folks come."
+
+"Well, go ahead. We'll go with you, if Mr. Hazeltine's got any of the
+chill out of him."
+
+Ralph was feeling warm by this time and, after Perez had put on his coat
+and hat, they went out once more into the gale. The point of which Perez
+had spoken was a wedge-shaped sand ridge that, thrown up by the waves
+and tide, thrust itself out from the beach some few hundred yards below
+the station. They reached its tip, and stood there in the very midst of
+the storm, waiting for the lulls, now more frequent, and scanning the
+tumbling water for the returning lifeboat.
+
+"Schooner's layin' right over there," shouted Captain Perez in Ralph's
+ear, pointing off into the mist. "'Bout a mile off shore, I cal'late.
+Wicked place, the Hog's Back is, too."
+
+"Wind's lettin' up a little mite," bellowed Captain Eri. "We've had the
+wust of it, I guess. There ain't so much--"
+
+He did not finish the sentence. The curtain of sleet parted, leaving a
+quarter-mile-long lane, through which they could see the frothing ridges
+racing one after the other, endlessly. And across this lane, silent and
+swift, like a moving picture on a screen, drifted a white turtleback
+with black dots clinging to it. It was in sight not more than a half
+minute, then the lane closed again, as the rain lashed their faces.
+
+Captain Perez gasped, and clutched the electrician by the arm.
+
+"Godfrey mighty!" he exclaimed.
+
+"What was it?" shouted Ralph. "What was it, Captain Eri?"
+
+But Captain Eri did not answer. He had turned, and was running at full
+speed back to the beach. When they came up they found him straining at
+the side of the dory that Luther Davis used in tending his lobster pots.
+The boat, turned bottom up, lay high above tide mark in the little cove
+behind the point.
+
+"Quick, now!" shouted the Captain, in a tone Ralph had never heard him
+use before. "Over with her! Lively!"
+
+They obeyed him without question. As the dory settled right side up two
+heavy oars, that had been secured by being thrust under the seats, fell
+back with a clatter.
+
+"What was it, Captain?" shouted Ralph.
+
+"The lifeboat upset. How many did you make out hangin' onto her, Perez?
+Five, seemed to me."
+
+"Four, I thought. Eri, you ain't goin' to try to reach her with this
+dory? You couldn't do it. You'll only be drownded yourself. My Lord!" he
+moaned, wringing his hands, "what 'll Pashy do?"
+
+"Catch a-holt now," commanded Captain Eri. "Down to the shore with her!
+Now!"
+
+They dragged the dory to the water's edge with one rush. Then Eri
+hurriedly thrust in the tholepins. Perez protested again.
+
+"Eri," he said, "it ain't no use. She won't live to git through the
+breakers."
+
+His friend answered without looking up. "Do you s'pose," he said, "that
+I'm goin' to let Lute Davis and them other fellers drown without makin'
+a try for 'em? Push off when I tell you to."
+
+"Then you let me go instead of you."
+
+"Don't talk foolish. You've got Pashy to look after. Ready now!"
+
+But Ralph Hazeltine intervened.
+
+"I'm going myself," he said firmly, putting one foot over the gunwale.
+"I'm a younger man than either of you, and I'm used to a boat. I mean
+it. I'm, going."
+
+Captain Eri looked at the electrician's face; he saw nothing but
+determination there.
+
+"We'll all go," he said suddenly. "Mr. Hazeltine, run as fast as the
+Lord 'll let you back to the station and git another set of oars.
+Hurry!"
+
+Without answering, the young man sprang up the beach and ran toward the
+buildings. The moment that he was inside Captain Eri leaped into the
+dory.
+
+"Push off, Perez!" he commanded. "That young feller's got a life to
+live."
+
+"You don't go without me," asserted Perez stoutly.
+
+"All right! Push off, and then jump in."
+
+Captain Perez attempted to obey. He waded into the water and gave the
+dory a push, but, just as he was about to scramble in, he received a
+shove that sent him backwards.
+
+"Your job's takin' care of Pashy!" roared Captain Eri.
+
+Perez scrambled to his feet, but the dory was already half-way across
+the little patch of comparatively smooth water in the cove. As he looked
+he saw it enter the first line of breakers, rise amid a shower of foam,
+poise on the crest, and slip over. The second line of roaring waves
+came surging on, higher and more threatening than the first. Captain Eri
+glanced over his shoulder, turned the dory's bow toward them and
+waited. They broke, and, as they did so, the boat shot forward into the
+whirlpool of froth. Then the sleet came pouring down and shut everything
+from sight.
+
+When Ralph came hurrying to the beach, bearing the oars, he found
+Captain Perez alone.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ERI GOES BACK ON A FRIEND
+
+
+Captain Eri knew that the hardest and most dangerous portion of his
+perilous trip was just at its beginning. If the dory got through
+the surf without capsizing, it was an even bet that she would stay
+right-side-up for a while longer, at any rate. So he pulled out of the
+little cove, and pointed the boat's bow toward the thundering smother
+of white, his shoulders squared, his hands tightened on the oar handles,
+and his under-jaw pushed out beyond the upper. Old foremast hands, those
+who had sailed with the Captain on his coasting voyages, would, had they
+seen these signs, have prophesied trouble for someone. They were Captain
+Eri's battle-flags, and just now his opponent was the gray Atlantic. If
+the latter won, it would only be after a fight.
+
+The first wave tripped over the bar and whirled beneath him, sending
+the dory high into the air and splashing its occupant with spray. The
+Captain held the boat stationary, waiting for the second to break, and
+then, half rising, put all his weight and strength on the oars. The
+struggle had begun.
+
+They used to say on board the Hannah M. that the skipper never got
+rattled. The same cool head and steady nerve that Josiah had admired
+when the catboat threaded the breakers at the entrance of the bay, now
+served the same purpose in this more tangled and infinitely more wicked
+maze. The dory climbed and ducked, rolled and slid, but gained, inch by
+inch, foot by foot. The advancing waves struck savage blows at the
+bow, the wind did its best to swing her broadside on, but there was one
+hundred and eighty pounds of clear grit and muscle tugging at the oars,
+and, though the muscles were not as young as they had been, there were
+years of experience to make every pound count. At last the preliminary
+round was over. The boat sprang clear of the breakers and crept out
+farther and farther, with six inches of water slopping in her bottom,
+but afloat and seaworthy.
+
+It was not until she was far into deep water that the Captain turned
+her bow down the shore. When this was done, it was on the instant, and,
+although a little more water came inboard, there was not enough to be
+dangerous. Then, with the gale astern and the tide to help, Captain
+Eri made the dory go as she, or any other on that coast, had never gone
+before.
+
+The Captain knew that the wind and the tide that were now aiding him
+were also sweeping the overturned lifeboat along at a rapid rate. He
+must come up with it before it reached the next shoal. He must reach
+it before the waves, and, worse than all, the cold had caused the poor
+fellows clinging to it for life to loose their grip.
+
+The dory jumped from crest to crest like a hurdler. The sleet now beat
+directly into the Captain's face and froze on his eyebrows and lashes,
+but he dared not draw in an oar to free a hand. The wind caught up the
+spindrift and poured it over him in icy baths, but he was too warm from
+the furious exercise to mind.
+
+In the lulls he turned his head and gazed over the sea, looking for the
+boat. Once he saw it, before the storm shut down again, and he groaned
+aloud to count but two black dots on its white surface. He pulled harder
+than ever, and grunted with every stroke, while the perspiration poured
+down his forehead and froze when it reached the ice dams over his eyes.
+
+At last it was in plain sight, and the two dots, now clearly human
+beings, were still there. He pointed the bow straight at it and rowed
+on. When he looked again there was but one, a figure sprawled along the
+keel, clinging to the centerboard.
+
+The flying dory bore down upon the lifeboat, and the Captain risked what
+little breath he had in a hail. The clinging figure raised its head, and
+Captain Eri felt an almost selfish sense of relief to see that it was
+Luther Davis. If it had to be but one, he would rather it was that one.
+
+The bottom of the lifeboat rose like a dome from the sea that beat and
+roared over and around it. The centerboard had floated up and projected
+at the top, and it was about this that Captain Davis' arms were clasped.
+Captain Eri shot the dory alongside, pulled in one oar, and the two
+boats fitted closely together. Then Eri reached out, and, seizing his
+friend by the belt round his waist, pulled him from his hold. Davis fell
+into the bottom of the dory, only half conscious and entirely helpless.
+
+Captain Eri lifted him so that his head and shoulders rested on a
+thwart, and then, setting his oar against the lifeboat's side, pushed
+the dory clear. Then he began rowing again.
+
+So far he had been more successful than he had reason to expect, but the
+task that he must now accomplish was not less difficult. He must reach
+the shore safely, and with another life beside his own to guard.
+
+It was out of the question to attempt to get back to the cove; the
+landing must be made on the open beach, and, although Captain Eri had
+more than once brought a dory safely through a high surf, he had never
+attempted it when his boat had nearly a foot of water in her and carried
+a helpless passenger.
+
+Little by little, still running before the wind, the Captain edged in
+toward the shore. Luther Davis moved once or twice, but said nothing.
+His oilskins were frozen stiff and his beard was a lump of ice. Captain
+Eri began to fear that he might die from cold and exhaustion before the
+attempt at landing was made. The Captain resolved to wait no longer, but
+to take the risk of running directly for the beach.
+
+He was near enough now to see the leaping spray of the breakers, and
+their bellow sounded louder than the howl of the wind or the noises
+of the sea about him. He bent forward and shouted in the ear of the
+prostrate life-saver.
+
+"Luther!" he yelled, "Lute!"
+
+Captain Davis' head rolled back, his eyes opened, and, in a dazed way,
+he looked at the figure swinging back and forth with the oars.
+
+"Lute!" shouted Captain Eri, "listen to me! I'm goin' to try to land.
+D'you hear me?"
+
+Davis' thoughts seemed to be gathering slowly. He was, ordinarily, a man
+of strong physique, courageous, and a fighter every inch of him, but his
+strength had been beaten out by the waves and chilled by the cold,
+and the sight of the men with whom he had lived and worked for years
+drowning one by one, had broken his nerve. He looked at his friend, and
+then at the waves.
+
+"What's the use?" he said feebly. "They're all gone. I might as well go,
+too."
+
+Captain Eri's eyes snapped. "Lute Davis," he exclaimed, "I never thought
+I'd see you playin' crybaby. Brace up! What are you, anyway?"
+
+The half-frozen man made a plucky effort.
+
+"All right, Eri," he said. "I'm with you, but I ain't much good."
+
+"Can you stand up?"
+
+"I don't know. I'll try."
+
+Little by little he raised himself to his knees.
+
+"'Bout as fur's I can go, Eri," he said, between his teeth. "You look
+out for yourself. I'll do my durndest."
+
+The dory was caught by the first of the great waves, and, on its crest,
+went flying toward the beach. Captain Eri steered it with the oars as
+well as he could. The wave broke, and the half-filled boat paused,
+was caught up by the succeeding breaker, and thrown forward again. The
+Captain, still trying to steer with one oar, let go of the other, and
+seizing his companion by the belt, pulled him to his feet.
+
+"Now then," he shouted, "stand by!"
+
+The boat poised on the curling wave, went down like a hammer, struck the
+sand, and was buried in water. Just as it struck, Captain Eri jumped as
+far shoreward as he could. Davis sprang with him, but it was really the
+Captain's strength that carried them clear of the rail.
+
+They kept their feet for an instant, but, in that instant, Captain Eri
+dragged his friend a yard or so up the shelving beach. Then they were
+knocked flat by the next wave. The Captain dug his toes into the sand
+and braced himself as the undertow sucked back. Once more he rose and
+they staggered on again, only to go down when the next rush of water
+came. Three times this performance was repeated, and, as they rose for
+the fourth time, the Captain roared, "Now!"
+
+Another plunge, a splashing run, and they were on the hard sand of
+the beach. Then they both tumbled on their faces and breathed in great
+gasps.
+
+But the Captain realized that this would not do, for, in their soaked
+condition, freezing to death was a matter of but a short time. He seized
+Davis by the shoulder and shook him again and again.
+
+"Come on, Lute! Come on!" he insisted. "Git up! You've GOT to git up!"
+
+And, after a while, the life-saver did get up, although he could
+scarcely stand. Then, with the Captain's arm around his waist, they
+started slowly up the beach toward the station.
+
+They had gone but a little way when they were met by Ralph Hazeltine and
+Captain Perez.
+
+
+Mrs. Snow had been, for her, rather nervous all that forenoon. She
+performed her household duties as thoroughly as usual, but Elsie, to
+whom the storm had brought a holiday, noticed that she looked out of the
+window and at the clock frequently. Once she even went so far as to tell
+the young lady that she felt "kind of queer; jest as if somethin' was
+goin' to happen." As the housekeeper was not the kind to be troubled
+with presentiments, Elsie was surprised.
+
+Dinner was on the table at twelve o'clock, but Captain Eri was not there
+to help eat it, and they sat down without him. And here again Mrs. Snow
+departed from her regular habit, for she ate little and was very quiet.
+She was the first to hear an unusual sound outside, and, jumping up, ran
+to the window.
+
+"Somebody's drivin' into the yard," she said. "Who on airth would be
+comin' here such a day as this?"
+
+Captain Jerry joined her at the window.
+
+"It's Abner Mayo's horse," he said. "Maybe it's Perez comin' home."
+
+It was not Captain Perez, but Mr. Mayo himself, as they saw when the
+rubber blanket fastened across the front of the buggy was dropped and
+the driver sprang out. Mrs. Snow opened the door for him.
+
+"Hello, Abner!" exclaimed Captain Jerry, as the newcomer stopped to
+knock the snow from his boots before coming in, "what have you done to
+Perez? Goin' to keep him for a steady boarder?"
+
+But Mr. Mayo had important news to communicate, and he did not intend
+to lose the effect of his sensation by springing it without due
+preparation. He took off his hat and mittens and solemnly declined a
+proffered chair.
+
+"Cap'n Burgess," he said, "I've got somethin' to tell you--somethin'
+awful. The whole life-savin' crew but one is drownded, and Cap'n Eri
+Hedge--"
+
+An exclamation from Mrs. Snow interrupted him. The housekeeper clasped
+her hands together tightly and sank into a chair. She was very white.
+Elsie ran to her.
+
+"What is it, Mrs. Snow?" she asked.
+
+"Nothin', nothin'! Go on, Mr. Mayo. Go on!"
+
+The bearer of ill-tidings, gratified at the result of his first attempt,
+proceeded deliberately:
+
+"And Cap'n Hedge and Luther Davis are over at the station pretty nigh
+dead. If it wa'n't for the Cap'n, Luther'd have gone, too. Eri took a
+dory and went off and picked him up. Perez come over to my house and
+told us about it, and Pashy's gone back with him to see to her brother.
+I didn't go down to the store this mornin', 'twas stormin' so, but as
+soon as I heard I harnessed up to come and tell you."
+
+Then, in answer to the hurried questions of Captain Jerry and Elsie, Mr.
+Mayo told the whole story as far as he knew it. Mrs. Snow said nothing,
+but sat with her hands still clasped in her lap.
+
+"Luther is ha'f drownded and froze," concluded Abner, "and the Cap'n
+got a bang with an oar when they jumped out of the dory that, Perez
+is afraid, broke his arm. I'm goin' right back to git Dr. Palmer. They
+tried to telephone him, but the wire's down."
+
+"Dear! dear! dear!" exclaimed Captain Jerry, completely demoralized by
+the news. "That's dreadful! I must go right down there, mustn't I? The
+poor fellers!"
+
+Mrs. Snow rose to her feet quietly, but with a determined air.
+
+"Are you goin' right back soon's you've got the Doctor, Mr. Mayo?" she
+asked.
+
+"Why, no, I wa'n't. I ain't been to my store this mornin', and I'm
+'fraid I ought to be there."
+
+To be frank, Abner was too great a sensation lover to forfeit the
+opportunity of springing his startling news on the community.
+
+"Then, Josiah, you'll have to harness Dan'l and take me down. I mustn't
+wait another minute."
+
+"Why, Mrs. Snow!" expostulated Captain Jerry, "you mustn't go down
+there. The Doctor's goin', and I'll go, and Pashy's there already."
+
+But the housekeeper merely waved him aside.
+
+"I want you to stay here with Elsie," she said. "There's no tellin' how
+long I may be gone. Josiah 'll drive me down, won't you, Josiah?"
+
+There was no lack of enthusiasm in the "able seaman's" answer. The boy
+was only too glad of the chance.
+
+"But it ain't fit weather for you to be out in. You'll git soakin' wet."
+
+"I guess if Pashy Davis can stand it, I can. Elsie, will you come and
+help me git ready, while Josiah's harnessin'?"
+
+As they entered the chamber above, Elsie was thunderstruck to see her
+companion seat herself in the rocker and cover her face with her hands.
+If it had been anyone else it would not have been so astonishing, but
+the cool, self-possessed housekeeper--she could scarcely believe it.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Snow!" she exclaimed, "what IS it?"
+
+The lady from Nantucket hastily rose and wiped her eyes with her apron.
+
+"Oh, nothin'," she answered, with an attempt at a smile. "I'm kind of
+fidgety this mornin', and the way that man started off to tell his yarn
+upset me; that's all. I mustn't be such a fool."
+
+She set about getting ready with a vim and attention to detail that
+proved that her "fidgets" had not affected her common-sense. She was
+pale and her hands trembled a little, but she took a covered basket and
+packed in it cloth for bandages, a hot-water bottle, mustard, a bottle
+of liniment, and numerous other things likely to be of use. Last of all,
+she added a bottle of whisky that had been prescribed as a stimulant for
+John Baxter.
+
+"I s'pose some folks would think 'twas terrible carryin' this with me,"
+she observed. "A woman pitched into me once for givin' it to her husband
+when he was sick. I told her I didn't favor RHUBARB as a steady drink,
+but I hoped I knew enough to give it when 'twas necessary."
+
+Ralph and Captain Perez were surprised men when the housekeeper,
+dripping, but cheerful, appeared on the scene. She and Josiah had had a
+stormy passage on the way down, for the easy-going Daniel had objected
+to being asked to trot through drifts, and Mrs. Snow had insisted that
+he should be made to do it. The ford was out of the question, so they
+stalled the old horse in the Mayo barn and borrowed Abner's dory to make
+the crossing.
+
+Mrs. Snow took charge at once of the tired men, and the overtaxed Miss
+Patience was glad enough to have her do it. Luther Davis was in bed,
+and Captain Eri, after an hour's sojourn in the same snug harbor,
+had utterly refused to stay there longer, and now, dressed in a suit
+belonging to the commandant, was stretched upon a sofa in the front
+room.
+
+The Captain was the most surprised of all when Mrs. Snow appeared. He
+fairly gasped when she first entered the room, and seemed to be struck
+speechless, for he said scarcely a word while she dosed him with hot
+drinks, rubbed his shoulder--the bone was not broken, but there was
+a bruise there as big as a saucer--with the liniment, and made him
+generally comfortable. He watched her every movement with a sort of
+worshipful wonder, and seemed to be thinking hard.
+
+Captain Davis, although feeling a little better, was still very weak,
+and his sister and Captain Perez were with him. Josiah soon returned
+to the Mayo homestead to act as ferryman for Dr. Palmer when the latter
+should arrive, and Ralph, finding that there was nothing more that he
+could do, went back to the cable station. The storm had abated somewhat
+and the wind had gone down. Captain Eri and Mrs. Snow were alone in the
+front room, and, for the first time since she entered the house, the
+lady from Nantucket sat down to rest. Then the Captain spoke.
+
+"Mrs. Snow," he said gravely, "I don't believe you've changed your
+clothes sence you got here. You must have been soaked through, too. I
+wish you wouldn't take such risks. You hadn't ought to have come over
+here a day like this, anyway. Not but what the Lord knows it's good to
+have you here," he added hastily.
+
+The housekeeper seemed surprised.
+
+"Cap'n Eri," she said, "I b'lieve if you was dyin' you'd worry for fear
+somebody else wouldn't be comf'table while you was doing it. 'Twould
+be pretty hard for me to change my clothes," she added, with a laugh,
+"seein' that there probably ain't anything but men's clothes in the
+place." Then, with a sigh, "Poor fellers, they won't need 'em any more."
+
+"That's so. And they were all alive and hearty this mornin'. It's an
+awful thing for Luther. Has he told anything yit 'bout how it come to
+happen?"
+
+"Yes, a little. The schooner was from Maine, bound to New York. Besides
+her own crew she had some Italians aboard, coal-handlers, they was,
+goin' over on a job for the owner. Cap'n Davis says he saw right away
+that the lifeboat would be overloaded, but he had to take 'em all,
+there wa'n't time for a second trip. He made the schooner's crew and the
+others lay down in the boat where they wouldn't hinder the men at the
+oars, but when they got jest at the tail of the shoal, where the sea was
+heaviest, them Italians lost their heads and commenced to stand up and
+yell, and fust thing you know, she swung broadside on and capsized.
+Pashy says Luther don't say much more, but she jedges, from what he does
+say, that some of the men hung on with him for a while, but was washed
+off and drownded."
+
+"That's right; there was four or five there when we saw her fust.
+'Twas Lute's grip on the centerboard that saved him. It's an awful
+thing--awful!"
+
+"Yes, and he would have gone, too, if it hadn't been for you. And you
+talk about MY takin' risks!"
+
+"Well, Jerry hadn't ought to have let you come."
+
+"LET me come! I should like to have seen him try to stop me. The idea!
+Where would I be if 'twa'n't helpin' you, after all you've done for me?"
+
+"I'VE done? I haven't done anything!"
+
+"You've made me happier 'n I've been for years. You've been so kind
+that--that--"
+
+She stopped and looked out of the window.
+
+"It's you that's been kind," said the Captain. "You've made a home for
+me; somethin' I ain't had afore sence I was a boy."
+
+Mrs. Snow went on as if he had not spoken.
+
+"And to think that you might have been drownded the same as the rest,"
+she said. "I knew somethin' was happenin'. I jest felt it, somehow. I
+told Elsie I was sure of it. I couldn't think of anything but you all
+the forenoon."
+
+The Captain sat up on the couch.
+
+"Marthy," he said in an awed tone, "do you know what I was thinkin' of
+when I was pullin' through the wust of it this mornin'? I was thinkin'
+of you. I thought of Luther and the rest of them poor souls, of course,
+but I thought of you most of the time. It kept comin' back to me that if
+I went under I shouldn't see you ag'in. And you was thinkin' of me!"
+
+"Yes, when that Mayo man said he had awful news, I felt sure 'twas you
+he was goin' to tell about. I never fainted away in my life that I know
+of, but I think I 'most fainted then."
+
+"And you cared as much as that?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Somehow both were speaking quietly, but as if it was useless longer to
+keep back anything. To speak the exact truth without reserve seemed the
+most natural thing in the world.
+
+"Well, well, well!" said the Captain reverently, and still in the same
+low tone. "I said once afore that I b'lieved you was sent here, and now
+I'm sure of it. It seems almost as if you was sent to ME, don't it?"
+
+The housekeeper still looked out of the window, but she answered simply,
+"I don't know."
+
+"It does, it does so. Marthy, we've been happy together while you've
+been here. Do you b'lieve you could be happy with me always--if you
+married me, I mean?"
+
+Mrs. Snow turned and looked at him. There were tears in her eyes, but
+she did not wipe them away.
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+"Think now, Marthy. I ain't very young, and I ain't very rich."
+
+"What am I?" with a little smile.
+
+"And you really think you could be happy if you was the wife of an old
+codger like me?"
+
+"Yes." The answer was short, but it was convincing.
+
+Captain Eri rose to his feet.
+
+"Gosh!" he said in a sort of unbelieving whisper. "Marthy, are you
+willin' to try?"
+
+And again Mrs. Snow said "Yes."
+
+
+When Dr. Palmer came he found Luther Davis still in bed, but Captain Eri
+was up and dressed, and there was such a quiet air of happiness about
+him that the man of medicine was amazed.
+
+"Good Lord, man!" he exclaimed, "I expected to find you flat on your
+back, and you look better than I've seen you for years. Taking a
+salt-water bath in mid-winter must agree with you."
+
+"It ain't so much that," replied the Captain serenely. "It's the pay I
+got for takin' it."
+
+When the Doctor saw Perez alone, he asked the latter to keep a close
+watch on Captain Eri's behavior. He said he was afraid that the exertion
+and exposure might have affected the Captain's brain.
+
+Perez, alarmed by this caution, did watch his friend very closely, but
+he saw nothing to frighten him until, as they were about to start for
+home, Captain Eri suddenly struck his thigh a resounding slap
+
+"Jerry!" he groaned distressfully. "I clean forgot. I've gone back on
+Jerry!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+"DIME-SHOW BUS'NESS"
+
+
+Elsie and Captain Jerry were kept busy that afternoon. Abner Mayo's news
+spread quickly, and people gathered at the post-office, the stores, and
+the billiard room to discuss it. Some of the men, notably "Cy" Warner
+and "Rufe" Smith, local representatives of the big Boston dailies,
+hurried off to the life-saving station to get the facts at first hand.
+Others came down to talk with Captain Jerry and Elsie. Melissa Busteed's
+shawl was on her shoulders and her "cloud" was tied about her head in
+less than two minutes after her next-door neighbor shouted the story
+across the back yards. She had just left the house, and Captain Jerry
+was delivering a sarcastic speech concerning "talkin' machines," when
+Daniel plodded through the gate, drawing the buggy containing Josiah,
+Mrs. Snow, and Captain Eri.
+
+For a man who had been described as "half-dead," Captain Eri looked very
+well, indeed. Jerry ran to help him from the carriage, but he jumped out
+himself and then assisted the housekeeper to alight with an air of proud
+proprietorship. He was welcomed to the house like a returned prodigal,
+and Captain Jerry shook his well hand until the arm belonging to it
+seemed likely to become as stiff and sore as the other. While this
+handshaking was going on Captain Eri was embarrassed. He did not look
+his friend in the face, and most of his conversation was addressed to
+Elsie.
+
+As soon as he had warmed his hands and told the story of the wreck and
+rescue, he said, "Jerry, come up to my room a minute, won't you? I've
+got somethin' I want to say."
+
+Vaguely wondering what the private conversation might be, Jerry followed
+his friend upstairs. When they were in the room, Captain Eri closed the
+door and faced his companion. He was confused, and stammered a little,
+as he said, "Jerry, I've--I've got somethin' to say to you 'bout Mrs.
+Snow."
+
+Then it was Captain Jerry's turn to be confused.
+
+"Now, Eri," he protested, "'tain't fair to keep pesterin' me like this.
+I know I ain't said nothin' to her yit, but I'm goin' to. I had a week,
+anyhow, and it ain't ha'f over. Land sake!" he burst forth, "d'you
+s'pose I ain't been thinkin' 'bout it? I ain't thought of nothin' else,
+hardly. I bet you I've been over the whole thing every night sence we
+had that talk. I go over it and GO over it. I've thought of more 'n a
+million ways to ask her, but there ain't one of 'em that suits me. If I
+was goin' to be hung 'twouldn't be no worse, and now you've got to keep
+a-naggin'. Let me alone till my time is up, can't you?"
+
+"I wa'n't naggin'. I was jest goin' to tell you that you won't have to
+ask. I've been talkin' to her myself, and--"
+
+The sacrifice sprang out of his chair.
+
+"Eri Hedge!" he exclaimed indignantly. "I thought you was a friend of
+mine! I give you my word I'd do it in a week, and the least you could
+have done, seems to me, would have been to wait and give me the chance.
+But no! all you think 'bout's yourself. So 'fraid she'd say no and you'd
+lose your old housekeeper, wa'n't you? The idea! She must think I'm a
+good one--can't do my own courtin', and have to git somebody to do it
+for me! What did she say?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"She said yes to what I asked her," was the reply with a half smile.
+
+Upon Captain Jerry's face settled the look of one who accepts the
+melancholy inevitable. He sat down again.
+
+"I s'posed she would," he said with a sigh. "She's known me for quite a
+spell now, and she's had a chance to see what kind of a man I be. Well,
+what else did you do? Ain't settled the weddin' day, have you?" This
+with marked sarcasm.
+
+"Not yit. Jerry, you've made a mistake. I didn't ask her for you."
+
+"Didn't ask her--didn't--What are you talkin' 'bout, then?"
+
+"I asked her for myself. She's goin' to marry me."
+
+Captain Jerry was too much astonished even to get up. Instead, he simply
+sat still with open mouth while his friend continued.
+
+"I've come to think a lot of Mrs. Snow sence she's been here," Captain
+Eri said slowly, "and I've found out that she's felt the same way 'bout
+me. I've kept still and said nothin' 'cause I thought you ought to have
+the fust chance and, besides, I didn't know how she felt. But to-day,
+while we was talkin', it all come out of itself, seems so, and--well,
+we're goin' to be married."
+
+The sacrifice--a sacrifice no longer--still sat silent, but curious
+changes of expression were passing over his face. Surprise, amazement,
+relief, and now a sort of grieved resignation.
+
+"I feel small enough 'bout the way I've treated you, Jerry," continued
+Captain Eri. "I didn't mean to--but there! it's done, and all I can
+do is say I'm sorry and that I meant to give you your chance. I shan't
+blame you if you git mad, not a bit; but I hope you won't."
+
+Captain Jerry sighed. When he spoke it was in a tone of sublime
+forgiveness.
+
+"Eri," he said, "I ain't mad. I won't say my feelin's ain't hurt,
+'cause--'cause--well, never mind. If a wife and a home ain't for me, why
+I ought to be glad that you're goin' to have 'em. I wish you both luck
+and a good v'yage. Now, don't talk to me for a few minutes. Let me git
+sort of used to it."
+
+So they shook hands and Captain Eri, with a troubled look at his friend,
+went out. After he had gone, Captain Jerry got up and danced three steps
+of an improvised jig, his face one broad grin. Then, with an effort, he
+sobered down, assumed an air of due solemnity, and tramped downstairs.
+
+If the announcement of Captain Perez' engagement caused no surprise,
+that of Captain Eri's certainly did--surprise and congratulation on the
+part of those let into the secret, for it was decided to say nothing to
+outsiders as yet. Ralph came over that evening and they told him about
+it, and he was as pleased as the rest. As for the Captain, he was only
+too willing to shake hands with any and everybody, although he insisted
+that the housekeeper had nothing to be congratulated upon, and that she
+was "takin' big chances." The lady herself merely smiled at this, and
+quietly said that she was willing to take them.
+
+The storm had wrecked every wire and stalled every train, and Orham was
+isolated for two days. Then communication was established once more, and
+the Boston dailies received the news of the loss of the life-savers
+and the crew of the schooner. And they made the most of it; sensational
+items were scarce just then, and the editors welcomed this one. The
+big black headlines spread halfway across the front pages. There were
+pictures of the wreck, "drawn by our artist from description," and
+there were "descriptions" of all kinds. Special reporters arrived in
+the village and interviewed everyone they could lay hands on. Abner Mayo
+felt that for once he was receiving the attention he deserved.
+
+The life-saving station and the house by the shore were besieged by
+photographers and newspaper men. Captain Eri indignantly refused to pose
+for his photograph, so he was "snapped" as he went out to the barn, and
+had the pleasure of seeing a likeness of himself, somewhat out of focus,
+and with one leg stiffly elevated, in the Sunday Blanket. The reporters
+waylaid him at the post-office, or at his fish shanty, and begged for
+interviews. They got them, brief and pointedly personal, and, though
+these were not printed, columns describing him as "a bluff, big-hearted
+hero," were.
+
+If ever a man was mad and disgusted, that man was the Captain. In the
+first place, as he said, what he had done was nothing more than any
+other man 'longshore would have done, and, secondly, it was nobody's
+business. Then again, he said, and with truth:
+
+"This whole fuss makes me sick. Here's them fellers in the crew been
+goin' out, season after season, takin' folks off wrecks, and the fool
+papers never say nothin' 'bout it; but they go out this time, and don't
+save nobody and git drownded themselves, and they're heroes of a sudden.
+I hear they're raisin' money up to Boston to give to the widders and
+orphans. Well, that's all right, but they'd better keep on and git the
+Gov'ment to raise the sal'ries of them that's left in the service."
+
+The climax came when a flashily dressed stranger called, and insisted
+upon seeing the Captain alone. The interview lasted just about three
+minutes. When Mrs. Snow, alarmed by the commotion, rushed into the room,
+she found Captain Eri in the act of throwing after the fleeing stranger
+the shiny silk hat that the latter had left behind.
+
+"Do you know what that--that swab wanted?" hotly demanded the indignant
+Captain. "He wanted me to rig up in ileskins and a sou'wester and show
+myself in dime museums. Said he'd buy that dory of Luther's that I went
+out in, and show that 'long with me. I told him that dory was spread up
+and down the beach from here to Setuckit, but he said that didn't
+make no diff'rence, he'd have a dory there and say 'twas the reel one.
+Offered me a hundred dollars a week, the skate! I'd give ten dollars
+right now to tell him the rest of what I had to say."
+
+After this the Captain went fishing every day, and when at home refused
+to see anybody not known personally. But the agitation went on, for the
+papers fed the flames, and in Boston they were raising a purse to buy
+gold watches and medals for him and for Captain Davis.
+
+Shortly after four o'clock one afternoon of the week following that of
+the wreck, Captain Eri ventured to walk up to the village, keeping a
+weather eye out for reporters and smoking his pipe. He made several
+stops, one of them being at the schoolhouse where Josiah, now back at
+his desk, was studying overtime to catch up with his class.
+
+As the Captain was strolling along, someone touched him from behind,
+and he turned to face Ralph Hazeltine. The electrician had been a pretty
+regular caller at the house of late, but Captain Eri had seen but little
+of him, for reasons unnecessary to state.
+
+"Hello, Captain!" said Ralph. "Taking a constitutional? You want to look
+out for Warner; I hear he's after you for another rescue 'special.'"
+
+"He'll need somebody to rescue him if he comes pesterin' 'round me," was
+the reply. "You ain't seen my dime show friend nowheres, have you?
+I'd sort of like to meet HIM again; our other talk broke off kind of
+sudden."
+
+Ralph laughed, and said he was afraid that the museum manager wouldn't
+come to Orham again very soon.
+
+"I s'pose likely not," chuckled Captain Eri. "I ought to have kept his
+hat; then, maybe, he'd have come back after it. Oh, say!" he added,
+"I've been meanin' to ask you somethin'. Made up your mind 'bout that
+western job yit?"
+
+Ralph shook his head. "Not yet," he said slowly. "I shall very soon,
+though, I think."
+
+"Kind of puzzlin' you, is it? Not that it's really any of my affairs,
+you understand. There's only a few of us good folks left, as the feller
+said, and I'd hate to see you leave, that's all."
+
+"I am not anxious to go, myself. My present position gives me a good
+deal of leisure time for experimental work--and--well, I'll tell you in
+confidence--there's a possibility of my becoming superintendent one of
+these days, if I wish to."
+
+"Sho! you don't say! Mr. Langley goin' to quit?"
+
+"He is thinking of it. The old gentleman has saved some money, and he
+has a sister in the West who is anxious to have him come out there and
+spend the remainder of his days with her. If he does, I can have his
+position, I guess. In fact, he has been good enough to say so."
+
+"Well, that's pretty fine, ain't it? Langley ain't the man to chuck his
+good opinions round like clam shells. You ought to feel proud."
+
+"I suppose I ought."
+
+They walked on silently for a few steps, the Captain waiting for his
+companion to speak, and the latter seeming disinclined to do so. At
+length the older man asked another question.
+
+"Is t'other job so much better?"
+
+"No."
+
+Silence again. Then Ralph said, "The other position, Captain, is very
+much like this one in some respects. It will place me in a country
+town, even smaller than Orham, where there are few young people, no
+amusements, and no society, in the fashionable sense of the word."
+
+"Humph! I thought you didn't care much for them things."
+
+"I don't."
+
+To this enigmatical answer the Captain made no immediate reply. After
+a moment, however, he said, slowly and with apparent irrelevance, "Mr.
+Hazeltine, I can remember my father tellin' 'bout a feller that lived
+down on the South Harniss shore when he was a boy. Queer old chap he
+was, named Elihu Bassett; everybody called him Uncle Elihu. In them days
+all hands drunk more or less rum, and Uncle Elihu drunk more. He had
+a way of stayin' sober for a spell, and then startin' off on a regular
+jamboree all by himself. He had an old flat-bottomed boat that he used
+to sail 'round in, but she broke her moorin's one time and got smashed
+up, so he wanted to buy another. Shadrach Wingate, Seth's granddad
+'twas, tried to fix up a dicker with him for a boat he had. They agreed
+on the price, and everything was all right 'cept that Uncle Elihu stuck
+out that he must try her 'fore he bought her.
+
+"So Shad fin'lly give in, and Uncle Elihu sailed over to Wellmouth in
+the boat. He put in his time 'round the tavern there, and when he come
+down to the boat ag'in, he had a jugful of Medford in his hand, and
+pretty nigh as much of the same stuff under his hatches. He got afloat
+somehow, h'isted the sail, lashed the tiller after a fashion, took a
+nip out of the jug and tumbled over and went fast asleep. 'Twas a still
+night or 'twould have been the finish. As 'twas he run aground on a flat
+and stuck there till mornin'.
+
+"Next day back he comes with the boat all scraped up, and says he, 'She
+won't do, Shad; she don't keep her course.'
+
+"'Don't keep her course, you old fool!' bellers Shad. 'And you tight as
+a drumhead and sound asleep! Think she can find her way home herself?'
+he says.
+
+"'Well,' says Uncle Elihu, 'if she can't she ain't the boat for me.'"
+
+Ralph laughed. "I see," he said. "Perhaps Uncle Elihu was wise. Still,
+if he wanted the boat very much, he must have hated to put her to the
+test."
+
+"That's so," assented the Captain, "but 'twas better to know it then
+than to be sorry for it afterwards."
+
+Both seemed to be thinking, and neither spoke again until they came to
+the grocery store, where Hazeltine stopped, saying that he must do an
+errand for Mr. Langley. They said good-night, and the Captain turned
+away, but came quickly back and said:
+
+"Mr. Hazeltine, if it ain't too much trouble, would you mind steppin'
+up to the schoolhouse when you've done your errand? I've left somethin'
+there with Josiah, and I'd like to have you git it. Will you?"
+
+"Certainly," was the reply, and it was not until the Captain had gone
+that Ralph remembered he did not know what he was to get.
+
+When he reached the school he climbed the stairs and opened the door,
+expecting to find Josiah alone. Instead, there was no one there but
+Elsie, who was sitting at the desk. She sprang up as he entered. Both
+were somewhat confused.
+
+"Pardon me, Miss Preston," he said. "Captain Eri sent me here. He said
+he left something with Josiah, and wished me to call for it."
+
+"Why, I'm sure I don't know what it can be," replied Elsie. "Josiah has
+been gone for some time, and he said nothing to me about it."
+
+"Perhaps it is in his desk," suggested Ralph. "Suppose we look."
+
+So they looked, but found nothing more than the usual assortment
+contained in the desk of a healthy schoolboy. The raised lid shut off
+the light from the window, and the desk's interior was rather dark. They
+had to grope in the corners, and occasionally their hands touched. Every
+time this happened Ralph thought of the decision that he must make so
+soon.
+
+He thought of it still more when, after the search was abandoned, Elsie
+suggested that he help her with some problems that she was preparing for
+the next day's labors of the first class in arithmetic. In fact, as he
+sat beside her, pretending to figure, but really watching her dainty
+profile as it moved back and forth before his eyes, his own particular
+problem received far more attention than did those of the class.
+Suddenly he spoke:
+
+"Teacher," he said, "please, may I ask a question?"
+
+"You should hold up your hand if you wish permission to speak," was the
+stern reply.
+
+"Please consider it held up."
+
+"Is the question as important as 'How many bushels did C. sell?' which
+happens to be my particular trouble just now."
+
+"It is to me, certainly." Ralph was serious enough now. "It is a
+question that I have been wrestling with for some time. It is, shall I
+take the position that has been offered me in the West, or shall I stay
+here and become superintendent of the station? The superintendent's
+place may be mine, I think, if I want it."
+
+Elsie laid down her pencil and hesitated for a moment before she spoke.
+When she did reply her face was turned away from her companion.
+
+"I should think that question might best be decided by comparing the
+salaries and prospects of the two positions," she said quietly.
+
+"The two positions are much alike in one way. You know what the life at
+the station means the greater portion of the year--no companions of
+your own age and condition, no society, no amusements. The Western offer
+means all this and worse, for the situation is the same all the year. I
+say these things because I hope you may be willing to consider them, not
+from my point of view solely, but from yours."
+
+"From mine?"
+
+"Yes. You see I am recklessly daring to hope that, whichever lot is
+chosen, you may be willing to share it with me--as my wife. Elsie, do
+you think you could consider the question from that viewpoint?"
+
+And--well--Elsie thought she could.
+
+The consideration--we suppose it was the consideration--took so long
+that it was nearly dark when Elsie announced that she simply MUST go. It
+was Ralph's duty as a gentleman to help her in putting on her coat, and
+this took an astonishingly long time. Finally it was done, however, and
+they came downstairs.
+
+"Dearest," said Ralph, after the door was locked, "I forgot to have
+another hunt for whatever it was that Captain Eri wanted me to get."
+
+Elsie smiled rather oddly.
+
+"Are you sure you haven't got it?" she asked demurely.
+
+"Got it! Why--why, by George, what a numbskull I am! The old rascal! I
+thought there was a twinkle in his eye."
+
+"He said he should come back after me."
+
+"Well, well! Bless his heart, it's sound and sweet all the way through.
+Yes, I HAVE got it, and, what's more, I shall tell him that I mean to
+keep it."
+
+
+The gold watches from the people to the heroes of the Orham wreck having
+been duly bought and inscribed and the medals struck, there came up the
+question of presentation, and it was decided to perform the ceremony in
+the Orham town hall, and to make the occasion notable. The Congressman
+from the district agreed to make the necessary speech. The Harniss
+Cornet Band was to furnish music. All preparations were made, and it
+remained only to secure the consent of the parties most interested,
+namely, Captain Eri and Luther Davis.
+
+And this was the hardest task of all. Both men at first flatly refused
+to be present. The Captain said he might as well go to the dime museum
+and be done with it; he was much obliged to the Boston folks, but his
+own watch was keeping good time, and he didn't need a new one badly
+enough to make a show of himself to get it. Captain Davis said very much
+the same.
+
+But Miss Patience was proud of her brother's rise to fame, and didn't
+intend to let him forfeit the crowning glory. She enlisted Captain Perez
+as a supporter, and together they finally got Luther's unwilling consent
+to sit on the platform and be stared at for one evening. Meanwhile,
+Captain Jerry, Elsie, Ralph, and Mrs. Snow were doing their best to win
+Captain Eri over. When Luther surrendered, the forces joined, and the
+Captain threw up his hands.
+
+"All right," he said. "Only I ought to beg that dime museum feller's
+pardon. 'Tain't right to be partial this way."
+
+
+The hall was jammed to the doors. Captain Eri, seated on the platform
+at one end of the half-circle of selectmen, local politicians, and minor
+celebrities, looked from the Congressman in the middle to Luther on the
+other end, and then out over the crowded settees. He saw Mrs. Snow's
+pleasant, wholesome face beaming proudly beside Captain Jerry's red one.
+He saw Captain Perez and Miss Patience sitting together close to the
+front, and Ralph and Elsie a little further back. The Reverend Mr.
+Perley was there; so were the Smalls and Miss Abigail Mullett. Melissa
+Busteed was on the very front bench with the boys, of whom Josiah was
+one. The "train committee" was there--not a member missing--and at the
+rear of the hall, smiling and unctuous as ever, was "Web" Saunders. In
+spite of his stage fright the Captain grinned when he saw "Web."
+
+Mr. Solomon Bangs, his shirt-bosom crackling with importance, introduced
+the Congressman. The latter's address was, so the Item said, "a triumph
+of oratorical effort." It really was a good speech, and when it touched
+upon the simple sacrifice of the men who had given up their lives in the
+course of what, to them, was everyday work, there were stifled sobs all
+through the hall. Luther Davis, during this portion of the address,
+sat with his big hand shading his eyes. Later on, when the speaker was
+sounding the praises of the man who "alone, forgetful of himself, braved
+the sea and the storm to save his friends," those who looked at Captain
+Eri saw his chair hitched back, inch by inch, until, as the final
+outburst came, little more than his Sunday shoes was in sight. He had
+retired, chair and all, to the wings.
+
+But they called him to the platform again and, amid--we quote from the
+Item once more--"a hurricane of applause," the two heroes were adorned
+with the watches and the medals.
+
+There was a sort of impromptu reception after the ceremony, when Captain
+Eri, with Mrs. Snow on his arm, struggled through the crowd toward the
+door.
+
+"'Twas great, shipmate, and you deserved it!" declared magnanimous
+Captain Jerry, wringing his hand.
+
+"'Tain't ha'f what you ought to have, Eri," said Captain Perez.
+
+"I haven't said much to thank you for savin' Luther," whispered Miss
+Patience, "but I hope you know that we both appreciate what you done and
+never 'll forgit it."
+
+Ralph and Elsie also shook hands with him, and said some pleasant
+things. So did many others, Dr. Palmer among the number. Altogether, the
+journey through the hall was a sort of triumphal progress.
+
+"Whew!" gasped the Captain, as they came out into the clear air and the
+moonlight, "let's hope that's the last of the dime-show bus'ness."
+
+"Eri," whispered Mrs. Snow, "I'm so proud of you, I don't know what to
+do."
+
+And that remark was sweeter to the Captain's ears than all those that
+had preceded it.
+
+They turned into the shore road and were alone. It was a clear winter
+night, fresh, white snow on the ground, not a breath of wind, and the
+full moon painting land and sea dark blue and silver white. The surf
+sounded faint and far off. Somewhere in the distance a dog was barking,
+and through the stillness came an occasional laugh or shout from the
+people going home from the hall.
+
+"Lots of things can happen in a few months, can't they?" said Mrs. Snow,
+glancing at the black shadow of the shuttered Baxter homestead.
+
+"They can so," replied the Captain. "Think what's happened sence last
+September. I didn't know you then, and now it seems 's if I'd always
+known you. John was alive then, and Elsie nor Ralph hadn't come. Perez
+hadn't met Pashy neither. My! my! Everybody's choosed partners but
+Jerry," he chuckled, "and Jerry looked the most likely candidate 'long
+at the beginnin'. I'm glad," he added, "that Ralph's made up his mind to
+stay here. We shan't lose him nor Elsie for a few years, anyhow."
+
+They paused at the knoll by the gate.
+
+"Fair day to-morrer," observed the Captain, looking up at the sky.
+
+"I hope it 'll be fair weather for us the rest of our days," said Mrs.
+Snow.
+
+"You've HAD it rough enough, that's sure. Well, I hope you'll have a
+smooth v'yage, now."
+
+The lady from Nantucket looked up into his face with a happy laugh.
+
+"I guess I shall," she said. "I know I've got a good pilot."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cap'n Eri, by Joseph Crosby Lincoln
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAP'N ERI ***
+
+***** This file should be named 3240.txt or 3240.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/3240/
+
+Produced by Donald Lainson
+
+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.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.