d in the beam,
I cal'late. Humph! and your top-riggin's as wet as your hull. Been on
your beam ends, have you?"

"I don't know, sir. I fell down in the bushes coming across. There were
vines and they tripped me up. And the umbrella was so heavy that--"

"Yes, I could see right off you was carryin' too much canvas. Now take
off your bunnit and I'll get a coat of mine to wrap you up in."

He went into his bedroom and returned with a heavy "reefer" jacket.
Ordering his caller to stand up he slipped her arms into the sleeves
and turned the collar up about her neck. Her braided "pigtail" of yellow
hair stuck out over the collar and hung down her back in a funny
way. The coat sleeves reached almost to her knees and the coat itself
enveloped her like a bed quilt.

"There!" said Captain Cy approvingly. "Now you look more as if you was
under a storm rig. Set down and toast your toes. Where's that letter you
said you had?"

"It's inside here. I don't know's I can get at it; these sleeves are so
long."

"Reef 'em. Turn 'em up. Let me show you. That's better! Hum! So you come
from the depot, hey? Live up that way?"

"No, sir! I used to live in Concord, but--"

"Concord? CONCORD? Concord where?"

"Concord, New Hampshire. I came on the cars. Auntie knew a man who was
going to Boston, and he said he'd take care of me as far as that and
then put me on the train to come down here. I stopped at his folks'
house in Charlestown last night, and this morning we got up early and he
bought me a ticket and started me for here. I had a box with my things
in it, but it was so heavy I couldn't carry it, so I left it up at the
depot. The man there said it would be all right and you could send for
it when--"

"I could SEND for it? _I_ could? What in the world--Say, child, you've
made a mistake in your bearin's. 'Taint me you want to see, it's some of
your folks, relations, most likely. Tell me who they are; maybe I know
'em."

The girl sat upright in the big chair. Her dark eyes opened wide and her
chin quivered.

"Ain't you Captain Cyrus Whittaker?" she demanded. "You said you was."

"Yes, yes, I am. I'm Cy Whittaker, but what--"

"Well, auntie told me--"

"Auntie! Auntie who?"

"Auntie Oliver. She isn't really my auntie, but mamma and me lived in
her house for ever so long and so--"

"Wait! wait! wait! I'm hull down in the fog. This is gettin' too thick
for ME. Your auntie's name's Oliver and you lived in Concord, New
Hamps