are one of the first baits they
heave out."

"Don't be foolish, now! I couldn't chuck it back at her, could I? That
would be pretty manners. You needn't talk about widders--not after
Debby! Ho! ho!"

Captain Cy chuckled. Then he suddenly became serious.

"Ase," he said, "you remember the time when the Howes folks had this
house? Course you do. Yes; well, was there any of their relations here
with 'em? A--a cousin, or somethin'?"

"No, not as I recollect. Yes, there was, too, come to think. A third
cousin, Mary Thayer her name was. I THINK she was a third cousin of
Betsy Howes, Seth Howes's second wife. Betsy's name was Ginn afore
she married, and the Ginns was related on their ma's side to a
Richards--Emily Richards, I think 'twas--and Emily married a Thayer.
Would that make this Mary a third cousin? Now let's see; Sarah Jane
Ginn, she had an aunt who kept a boardin' house in Harniss. I remember
that, 'count of her sellin' my Uncle Bije a pig. Seems to me 'twas a
pig, but I ain't sure that it mightn't have been a settin' of Plymouth
Rock hens' eggs. Anyhow, Uncle Bije KEPT hens, because I remember one
time--"

"There! there! we'll be out of sight of land in a minute. This Mary
Thayer--old, was she?"

"No, no! Just a young girl, eighteen or twenty or so. Pretty and nice
and quiet as ever I see. By Godfrey, she WAS pretty! I wan't as old as I
be now, and--"

"Ase, don't tell your heart secrets, even to me. I might get
absent-minded and mention 'em to Matildy. And then--whew!"

"If you don't stop tryin' to play smarty I'll go home. What's Matildy
Tripp to me, I'd like to know? And even when Mary Thayer was here I was
old enough to be her dad. But I remember what a nice girl she was and
how the boarders liked her. They used to say she done more than all the
Howes tribe put together to make the Sea Sight House a good hotel. Young
as she was she done most of the housekeepin' and done it well. If the
rest of 'em had been like her you mightn't have had the place yet, Whit.
But what set you to thinkin' about her?"

"Oh, I don't know! Nothin' much; that is--well, I'll tell you some other
time. What became of her?"

"She went up to New Hampshire along with the Howes folks and I ain't
seen her since. Seems to me I did hear she was married. See here, Whit,
what is it about her? Tell a feller; come!"

But Captain Cy refused to gratify his chum's lively curiosity. Also he
refused to go to Simmons's that evening, saying