"She didn't talk as though she was when she was here--not by a
jugful," declared Cap'n Ira bitterly.

"That was because she was angry," explained Elder Minnett
patiently. "You must not judge her by her appearance when she came
here the other day and found--as she declares--another girl in her
rightful place."

"I swan!" exclaimed the old shipmaster, bursting out again. "I won't
stand for that. Her rightful place, indeed! Why, if she was forty
times Prudence's niece and we didn't want her here, what's to make
us take her, I want to know?"

"Do you think we ought to, Elder?" questioned Prudence faintly.

"I think, under all the circumstances, that it is your Christian
duty. Know the girl better. See if there is not something in her
that reminds you--"

"Avast there!" shouted Cap'n Ira, pounding with his cane on the
floor. "That's going a deal too far. 'Christian duty,' indeed! How
about our duty to Ida May setting there, and to ourselves? Prudence
is afraid of that crazy gal in the first place."

"I give you my word she is not insane."

"That's your opinion," said the captain grimly. "I wouldn't back it
with my word, Elder, unless I was prepared to go the whole v'y'ge.
Do you mean to say that you accept that gal's story as true--in all
partic'lars?"

"I don't say that."

"Then I shall stick to my opinion. She's as loony as she can be. And
I am plumb against insulting our Ida May by letting the girl come
up here. What do you say, Prudence?"

The old woman was much perturbed. Elder Minnett was a minister of
the gospel. To be told by him that it was her Christian duty to take
a certain course bore much weight with Prudence Ball.

But when she looked at Sheila, sitting there so pale and silent, and
realized that on her head all this was falling, the old woman rose
up, burst into tears, and threw herself into the girl's arms.

"No, no!" she sobbed. "Don't let her come here, Ira. We don't want
her. We don't want anybody but Ida May whom we love so dear, and who
we know loves us. We can't do it, Elder Minnett! Why, if they should
come and tell me--and prove it--that Ida May wasn't our niece and
that other girl was, I couldn't bear the creature 'round. No, I
couldn't. I couldn't forgive anybody that would separate us from
this dear, dear girl!"

Cap'n Ira had got upon his feet and was leaning forward on his cane.
With a shaking finger he drew the elder's attention to the two
women, rocking in each other's arms.