nd out. I know if I was keepin'
comp'ny--or you was, La-viny--"

His sister started.

"What makes you say that?" she demanded, looking quickly up from her
rubbing.

"Why, nothin'. Only if I was--or you was, somebody'd see somethin'
suspicious and kind of drop a hint, and--"

"Better for them if they 'tended to their own affairs," was the sharp
answer. "I ain't got any patience with folks that's always talkin' about
their neighbor's doin's. There! now you go out and stand alongside the
cook stove till that wet place dries. Don't you move till 'TIS dry,
neither."

So to the kitchen went Kyan, to stand, a sort of living clotheshorse,
beside the hot range. But during the drying process he rubbed his
forehead many times. Remembering what he had seen in the grove he could
not understand; but he also remembered, even more vividly, what Keziah
Coffin had promised to do if he ever breathed a word. And he vowed again
that that word should not be breathed.

The death and funeral of Captain Eben furnished Trumet with a subject of
conversation for a week or more. Then, at the sewing circle and at the
store and after prayer meeting, both at the Regular meeting house and
the Come-Outer chapel, speculation centered on the marriage of Nat and
Grace. When was it to take place? Would the couple live at the old house
and "keep packet tavern" or would the captain go to sea again, taking
his bride with him? Various opinions, pro and con, were expressed by the
speculators, but no one could answer authoritatively, because none knew
except those most interested, and the latter would not tell.

John Ellery heard the discussions at the sewing circle when, in company
with some of the men of his congregation, he dropped in at these
gatherings for tea after the sewing was over. He heard them at church,
before and after the morning service, and when he made pastoral calls.
People even asked his opinion, and when he changed the subject inferred,
some of them, that he did not care about the doings of Come-Outers. Then
they switched to inquiries concerning his health.

"You look awful peaked lately, Mr. Ellery," said Didama Rogers. "Ain't
you feelin' well?"

The minister answered that he was as well as usual, or thought he was.

"No, no, you ain't nuther," declared Didama. "You look's if you was
comin' down with a spell of somethin'. I ain't the only one that's
noticed it. Why, Thankful Payne says to me only yesterday, 'Didama,'
says she, '