al somewheres, lately," he explained,
"about pourin' kerosene on yer corns and then takin' a match to her and
lightin' of her off.

"Wal', I supposed she was a-dressin' my corns down in jest the old
usual way, last Sunday mornin', when--by clam! ye don't want to splice
onto too young a shipmate, major." (This last was a divinely Basin
thought, treating me as a subject of the wars.)

"I've married all states but widders," said Captain Pharo, with a
_blase_ air of conjugal experience; "but my advice above all things
is," he murmured, lifting his maimed foot, "don't splice onto too young
a shipmate. They're all'as a-tryin' some new ructions on ye. Now
Vesty, even as stiddy as she is, she 's all'as gittin' the women folks
crazy over some new patron for a apern, or some new resute for pudd'n'
and pie. So," he added, "ef you sh'd come to me, intendin' to splice,
all the advice 't I c'd give 'ud be, I _don't_ know widders; poo!
poo!--hohum! Wal, wal--

[Illustration: Music fragment: 'My days are as the grass, Or as--']

_try_ widders."

As I stood speechless with conflicting emotions, he lit his pipe and
continued, more hopefully:

"I've got to go up to the Point to git a nail put in the hoss's shu, so
I come down to ask you to go up to the house and jine us."

Now I already knew that the Basin way of proceeding to get a nail put
in the horse's shoe meant a day of widely excursive incident and
pleasure, in which the main or stated object was cast far from our
poetical vision. I accepted.

"My woman invited Miss Lester to go with us. The old double-decker
rides easier for havin' consid'rable ballast, ye know--and Miss Lester
tips her at nigh onto about two hunderd; she 's a widder too, ain't
she, by the way? but she 's clost onto sixty-seven; hain't no thoughts
o' splicin', in course. Miss Lester 's a vary sensible woman. But I
thought cruisin' 'round with her kind o' frien'ly on the back seat, ye
might git a sort of a token or a consute in general o' what widders is."

"True," said I gratefully, with flattered meditation.

"It 's a scand'lous windy kentry to keep anything on the clo's-line,"
said the captain, as we walked on together, sadly gathering up one of
his stockings and a still more inseparable companion of his earthly
pilgrimage from the path.

"What 's the time, major?" said he, as he led me into the kitchen, "or
do you take her by the sun? I had Leezur up here a couple o' days to
mend my cl