it later. Sit down by the door and think
over your arguments till I come back."

"What good is arguments to me? In Miquelon champagne's eighteen dollars
a case and--" The skipper lurched into his seat as an organ-prelude
silenced him.

"Our new organ," said the official proudly to Cheyne. "Cost us four
thousand dollars, too. We'll have to get back to high-license next year
to pay for it. I wasn't going to let the ministers have all the
religion at their convention. Those are some of our orphans standing up
to sing. My wife taught 'em. See you again later, Mr. Cheyne. I'm
wanted on the platform."

High, clear, and true, children's voices bore down the last noise of
those settling into their places.

"O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise him and magnify
him for ever!"

The women throughout the hall leaned forward to look as the reiterated
cadences filled the air. Mrs. Cheyne, with some others, began to
breathe short; she had hardly imagined there were so many widows in the
world; and instinctively searched for Harvey. He had found the _We're
Heres_ at the back of the audience, and was standing, as by right,
between Dan and Disko. Uncle Salters, returned the night before with
Penn, from Pamlico Sound, received him suspiciously.

"Hain't your folk gone yet?" he grunted. "What are you doin' here,
young feller?"

"O ye Seas and Floods, bless ye the Lord: praise him, and magnify him
for ever!"

"Hain't he good right?" said Dan. "He's bin there, same as the rest of
us."

"Not in them clothes," Salters snarled.

"Shut your head, Salters," said Disko. "Your bile's gone back on you.
Stay right where ye are, Harve."

Then up and spoke the orator of the occasion, another pillar of the
municipality, bidding the world welcome to Gloucester, and incidentally
pointing out wherein Gloucester excelled the rest of the world. Then he
turned to the sea-wealth of the city, and spoke of the price that must
be paid for the yearly harvest. They would hear later the names of
their lost dead one hundred and seventeen of them. (The widows stared a
little, and looked at one another here.) Gloucester could not boast any
overwhelming mills or factories. Her sons worked for such wage as the
sea gave; and they all knew that neither Georges nor the Banks were
cow-pastures. The utmost that folk ashore could accomplish was to help
the widows and the orphans, and after a few general remarks he took
this opportunity of thank