ne plumb
crazy? The very notion of your lightin' into that innocent young
feller! What are you thinkin' of?"

"Mebbe he ain't so innocent as he seems," the accuser sneered.

The little old man faced him sharply.

"Come," he persisted, "let's have this thing out. What do you know
about him?"

"What do you?" retorted Janoah, evading the question.

The inventor paused, chagrined.

"You don't know nothin' an' I don't know nothin'," continued Janoah,
seizing the advantage he had gained. "Each of us is welcome to his
opinion, ain't he? It's a free country. You're all fur believin' the
chap's an angel out of heaven. You've swallered down every word he's
uttered like as if it was gospel truth, an' took him into your own
house same's if he was a relation. There's fish that gobble down bait
just that way. I ain't that kind. Young men don't bury themselves up
in a quiet spot like Wilton without they've got somethin' up their
sleeve."

Staring intently at his friend, he noted with satisfaction that
Willie's brow had clouded into a frown.

"Is it to be expected, I ask you now, is it to be expected that a
spirited young sprig of a college feller such as him relishes spendin'
his time workin' away in this shop day in an' day out? What's he doin'
it fur, tell me that? This world ain't a benevolent institution, an'
the folks in it don't go throwin' their elbow-grease away unless they
look to get somethin' out of it. This Morton boy has boned down here
like a slave. What's in it fur him?"

"Why, it's his vacation an'--"

"Vacation!" interrupted Janoah scornfully. "You call it a vacation, do
you, for him to be workin' away here with you? You honestly think he
hankers after doin' it?"

"He said he did."

"An' you believed it, I s'pose, same's you credited the rest of his
talk," jeered Mr. Eldridge. "Look out the winder, Willie Spence, an'
tell me, if you was twenty instead of 'most seventy, if you'd be
stayin' indoors a-carpenterin' these summer days when you could be
outside?"

He swept a hand dramatically toward the casement and in spite of
himself the old man obeyed his injunction and looked.

A dome blue as larkspur arched the sky and to its farthest bound the
sea, reflecting its azure tints, flashed and sparkled as if set with
stars of gold. Along the shore where glittered reaches of hard white
sand and a gentle breeze tossed into billows the salt grass edging the
margin of the little creeks, fish