lar
cemetery beside other waifs thrown up by the sea in other years. It was
a sad experience for him, but it was an experience and tended to make
him forget his own sorrow just a little. Or, if not to forget, at least
to think of and sympathize more keenly with the sorrows of others.
Somewhere, in England or Ireland or scattered over the wide world, there
were women and children waiting for these men, waiting anxiously for
news of their safe arrival in port, praying for them. When he mentioned
this thought to the townspeople they nodded philosophically and said
yes, they "presumed likely." As Captain Zeb put it, "Most sailors are
fools enough to get married, prob'ly this lot wa'n't any exception." It
was no new thought to him or to any other dweller in that region. It was
almost a fixed certainty that, if you went to sea long enough, you
were bound to be wrecked sometime or other. The chances were that, with
ordinary luck and good management, you would escape with your life.
Luck, good or bad, was the risk of the trade; good management was
expected, as a matter of course.

Mr. Pepper made no more calls at the parsonage, and when the minister
met him, at church or elsewhere, seemed anxious to avoid an interview.

"Well, Abishai," asked Ellery, on one of these occasions, "how are you
getting on at home? Has your sister locked you up again?"

"No, sir, she ain't," replied Kyan. "Laviny, she's sort of diff'rent
lately. She ain't nigh so--so down on a feller as she used to be. I can
get out once in a while by myself nowadays, when she wants to write a
letter or somethin'."

"Oh, she's writing letters, is she?"

"Um--hm. Writes one about every once in a week. I don't know who they're
to, nuther, but I have my suspicions. You see, we've got a cousin out
West--out Pennsylvany way--and he ain't very well and has got a turrible
lot of money. I'm sort of surmisin' that Laviny's writin' to him. We're
about his only relations that's left alive and--and so--"

"I see." The minister smiled.

"Yup. Laviny's a pretty good navigator, fur's keepin' an eye to wind'ard
is concerned. She was awful down on Phineas--that's his name--'cause he
married a Philadelphy woman, but he's a widower man now, so I s'pose she
feels better toward him. She's talkin' of goin' up to Sandwich pretty
soon."

"She IS? Alone?"

"So she says."

"To leave you here? Why! well, I'm surprised."

"Godfreys mighty! so be I. But she says she b'lieves she ne