and Captain Edward Saltonstall, who had won promotions by brave conduct
under General Harrison, but was now a private citizen and a fine-looking
man, with a new bevy of girls as eager for his attentions as the others
were seven or eight years before.

There was another guest who claimed, or at least received, a good share
of attention. This was the naval Captain Marsh, who had been in the
encounter between the _Macedonia_ and the frigate _United States_,
Captain Decatur, which was considered one of the greatest of the naval
battles. For his bravery then and afterward, he had been promoted and
was now a captain in command of a fine vessel.

Cynthia was delighted to see him; but she said he must visit them to
talk over matters and the wonders that had happened to him. She would
not dance any, although she was in the grand march with her husband. Mr.
Saltonstall she saw quite frequently. His parents were quite old people
and he was devoted to them.

She wondered at times if any old fancy kept him single. If so, she was
sincerely sorry. For she had been very, very happy with the husband of
her love. And in the household there were two merry, frolicking boys,
and a sweet little girl, with her mother's eyes.

Captain Marsh did come and he was delighted with his visit. The little
boys climbed over him as if they had known him always. He told the story
of the terrific battle at the Canaries, and many another battle that had
left him unscathed.

"And I used to think if I came back to old Salem and found you
unmarried, it would go hard with me if I could not win you," he said to
Cynthia in his cordial, manly fashion. "And I confess to you now if Dame
Wilby had struck you that day at school, I should have rushed at her
like a tiger. I like that remembrance of you standing there so brave and
defying."

They both laughed over it.

She had changed very little. Chilian said she grew younger with the
birth of every baby. She was happy and merry, truly the light of the
house, and Cousin Eunice was the happiest grandmother in all of Salem.
Miss Winn shared their joys--so far there had been no sorrows.

Chilian grew a little stouter with advancing years, which really
improved him. He took a warm interest in the new projects. There was the
Essex Historical Society, gathering portraits and relics of the older
Salem, and the East India Marine Society was enlarging its scope. The
new Salem was to be curiously intellectual, historic