e, I like to 'wrastle' with things
and fight off the worst. Though I hadn't much hope of 'Lisbeth when the
doctor said her spine was hurt. That's a kind of queer hidden thing that
even doctors can't see into. And the poor creature suffered a good deal.
My, but she was spunky and was bound not to die, and I fought for her
all I could. But the last few weeks there was a change. She liked Cynthy
to come in with the posies and say something bright. And now it's all
done and over, and she was a good upright woman in the old-fashioned
way. So I'll stay a spell till Miss Eunice gets used to the change, and
when I see another good fight somewhere, you mustn't have hard feelings
if I go."

They went out the next morning and found a boat going up to Plum Island.
It was like going to sea to go around Rockport Point. Captain Green
declared "he wan't much on passengers, but he had a nice cabin and an
awning on the for'ard deck, and there was a woman and some children
whose husband living up there had bespoke passage."

It was a fine day with the right sort of wind. Oh, how splendid it was
as they went out oceanward. She had been on the water such a very little
since her long voyage.

Mrs. Halcom had three children and a baby. She was a plain, commonplace
body, who had been living up to North Salem, but her folks were
Newburyport people and she should be glad to get in sight and sound of
them once again. Chilian had brought a book along, Ben Johnson's Plays,
and now and then he met with such a charming line or two he must read it
to her. There were some new poets coming to the fore as well, but he
knew most of the older ones. Oh, he must get back his youth for her
sake. Cousin Giles was ever so much older.

She was interested in the ship as well and talked to Captain Green. He
had so many funny nautical terms, provincialisms, that she had to
inquire what some of the words meant. For most of the early people of
New England had not dropped into the careless modes of speech that were
to come later on and be adopted as a sort of patois. They read their
Bibles a good deal and the older divines, and if their speech was a
little stilted it had a certain correctness. Then Chilian Leverett was
rather fastidious in this respect.

The wind filled the sails and they skimmed along merrily. Now the sea
was green and so clear you could see the fish disporting themselves.
Then the sun tinted it with gold and threw up diamond, amethyst, and
eme