reply:

"Law, Tiny! You wouldn't begretch me my dreams, would you? They're
about all I've got. If it warn't fur the things I dream I wouldn't
have nothin'."

The wistfulness in the sensitive face would instantly transform
Celestina's irritation into sympathy and cause her to respond:

"Nonsense, Willie! What are you talkin' about? Ain't you got more
friends than anybody in this town? Nobody's poor so long as he has
good friends."

"Oh, 'taint bein' poor I mind," laughed Willie, now quite himself
again. "It's knowin' nothin' an' bein' nothin' that discourages me.
If I'd only had the chance to learn somethin' when I was a youngster I
wouldn't have to be goin' it blind now like I do. There's times,
Celestina," added the man solemnly, "when I really believe I've got
stuff inside me that's worth while if only I knew what to do with it."

"Pshaw! Ain't you usin' what's inside you all the time to help the
folks of this town out of their troubles? I'd like to know how they'd
get along if it warn't fur you. Ain't you doctorin' an' fixin' up
things for the whole of Cape Cod from one end to the other, day in and
day out? I call that amountin' to somethin' in the world if you don't."

Willie paused thoughtfully.

"I do do quite a batch of tinkerin', that's true," admitted he,
brightening, "an' I'm right down glad to do it, too. Don't think I
ain't. Still, I can't help knowin' there's better ways to go at it
than blunderin' along as I have to, an' sometimes I can't help wishin'
I knew what the right way is. There must be folks that know how to do
in half the time what I do by makeshift an' fussin'. Sometimes it
seems a pity there never was anybody to steer me into findin' out the
kind of things I've always wanted to know."

Celestina began to rock nervously.

Being of New England fiber, and classing as morbid all forms of
introspection, she always so dreaded to have the conversation drift
into a reflective channel that whenever she found Willie indulging in
reveries she was wont to rout him out of them, tartly reproaching
herself for having even indirectly been the cause of stirrin' him up.

"Next time I'll set the chowder back on the stove an' say nothin'," she
would vow inwardly. "I'd much better have waited 'til his dream was
over an' done with. S'pose I am put out a bit--'twon't hurt me. If I
don't care enough for Willie to do somethin' for him once in a while,
good as he's always been to me, I'd