l, where's the next port of call?"

"We'll go to the hotel first. Oh, dear, it's a shame things happened so
we had to come now. In another fortnight the Blacks would have been here
and we could have gone right to their house. Mrs. Black felt dreadfully
about it. She said so ever so many times."

The captain made no answer. If he had doubts concerning the depths of
the Blacks' sorrow he kept them to himself. Picking up the suitcase, he
stepped forward to the curb.

"Where are you going?" demanded his wife.

"Why, to the hotel. That's where you wanted to go, wasn't it?"

"Certainly; but how were you going? You don't know where it is."

"No, so I don't. But I can hail one of those electrics and ask the
conductor to stop when he got to it. He'd know where 'twas, most
likely."

"Electric" is the Down East term for trolley car, lines of which were
passing and repassing the station. Daniel waved his disengaged hand to
the conductor of the nearest. The car stopped.

"Wait a minute," said Serena quickly. "How do you know that car is going
the right way?"

"Hey? Well, of course I don't know, but--"

"Of course you don't. Besides, we don't want to go in an electric. We
must take a carriage."

"A carriage? A hack, you mean. What do we want to do that for?"

"Because it's what everyone does."

"No, they don't. Look at all the folks on that electric now. Besides,
we--"

"Hi there!" shouted the conductor of the car angrily. "Brace up! Get a
move on, will you?"

Mrs. Dott regarded him with dignity.

"We're not coming," she said. "You can go right along."

The car proceeded, the conductor commenting freely and loudly, and the
passengers on the broad grin.

"Now, Daniel," said Serena, "you get one of those carriages and we'll go
as we ought to. I know we've always gone in the electrics when we were
in Boston, but then we didn't feel as if we could afford anything else.
Now we can. And don't stop to bargain about the fare. What is fifty
cents more or less to US?"

The captain shook his head, but he obeyed orders. A few minutes later
they were seated in a cab, drawn by a venerable horse and driven by a
man with a hooked nose, and were moving toward the Palatine House, the
hostelry recommended by Mrs. Black as the finest in Scarford.

"There!" said Serena, leaning back against the shabby cushions, "this is
better than an electric, isn't it? And when we get to the hotel you'll
see the difference it will make in the