looking at him, thoughtfully wiped down the counter.

"Mrs. Church quite well?" she enquired, with studied artlessness.

"Quite well," replied the captain, scenting danger.

The landlady, smiling amiably, subsided into a comfortable
Windsor-chair, and shook her head at him so severely that, against his
better sense, he felt compelled to demand an explanation.

"There, there," replied the landlady, "get along with you, do!
Innocence!"

"It's no good, Cap'n Barber," said one of the customers, with the best
intentions in the world.

"It struck me all of a heap," said the landlady.

"So it did me," said the other man.

"My missus knew it all along," said the first man; "she said she knew it
by the way they looked at one another."

"Might I ask who you're talking of?" demanded the incensed Barber,
who had given up the effort to appear unconscious as being beyond his
powers.

"A young engaged couple," said the landlady.

The captain hesitated. "What have you been shaking your head at me and
telling me it's no good for, then?" he demanded.

"At your pretending not to have heard of it," said the landlady.

"I have not 'eard of it," said Captain Barber, fiercely, as he took up
his glass and walked towards the parlour. "I've got something better to
do than talk about my neighbours' affairs."

"Yes, of course you have," said the landlady. "We know that."

The indignant Barber closed the door behind him with a bang, and,
excited with the controversy, returned with a short and suspicious
nod the greeting of a small man of shrunken and forlorn aspect who was
sitting at the other side of the room.

"Mornin', Cap'n Nibletts," he growled.

"Mornin, sir," said Nibletts; "how's things?"

Captain Barber shook his head. "Bad as bad can be," he replied, slowly;
"there's no hope at all. I'm looking for a new master for my vessel."

Nibletts looked up at him eagerly, and then looked away again. His
last command had hoisted the green flag at the mouth of the river in
a position which claimed attention, respect, and profanity from
every craft which passed, its master having been only saved from the
traditional death of the devoted shipmaster by the unpardonable conduct
of the mate, who tore him from his craft by the scruff of his neck and
the seat of his trousers.

"What about Harris?" he suggested.

"I don't like Harris's ways," said Barber, slowly.

"Well, what about Fletcher?" said Nibletts.

"Fletcher's ways are