'em. If it was women-folks that wrote,
they may have set me forth more 'n ordinary. I had every widder and
single woman in town here while Ann lay dead, and my natural feelin's
were all worked up. I see 'em dressed up and smirkin' and settin'
their nets to ketch me when I was in an extremity. I wouldn't give a
kentle o' sp'iled fish for the whole on 'em. I ain't a marryin' man,
there's once for all for ye," and the old sailor stepped toward the
door with some temper.

"Ef you'll write to the young woman, sir, just to put off comin' for a
couple or three weeks," suggested Mrs. French.

"_This afternoon, ma'am_," said the captain, as if it were the ay, ay,
sir, of an able seaman who sprang to his duty of reefing the
main-topsail.

Captain Ball walked down to the fish shop with stately steps and
measured taps of his heavy cane. He stopped on the way, a little
belated, and assured two or three retired ship-masters that he had
manned the old brig complete at last; he even gave a handsome wink of
his left eye over the edge of a glass, and pronounced his morning grog
to be A No. 1, prime.

Mrs. French picked up her gown at each side with thumb and finger, and
swept the captain a low courtesy behind his back as he went away; then
she turned up the aforesaid gown and sought for one of the lamented
Miss Ann Ball's calico aprons, and if ever a New England woman did a
morning's work in an hour, it was this same Mrs. French.

"'T ain't every one knows how to make what I call a chowder," said the
captain, pleased and replete, as he leaned back in his chair after
dinner. "Mis' French, you shall have everything to do with, an' I
ain't no kitchen colonel myself to bother ye."

There was a new subject for gossip in that seaport town. More than one
woman had felt herself to be a fitting helpmate for the captain, and
was confident that if time had been allowed, she could have made sure
of even such wary game as he. When a stranger stepped in and occupied
the ground at once, it gave nobody a fair chance, and Mrs. French was
recognized as a presuming adventuress by all disappointed aspirants
for the captain's hand. The captain was afraid at times that
Mrs. French carried almost too many guns, but she made him so
comfortable that she kept the upper hand, and at last he was conscious
of little objection to whatever this able housekeeper proposed. Her
only intimate friends were the minister and his wife, and the captain
himself was so