Praise be to God!
we're off the rocks at last. All that's left is to tow you into port,
and, by the everlastin', that's what I'm here for!"

When Upham came up the stairs after his long interview with "the boss,"
he found the door at the top closed. When he rattled the latch that door
was opened by a stranger.

"Are you Mr. Hallett?" asked Captain Nat briskly.

"No, I'm not. Mr. Hallett is in his office on the first floor. But
what--"

"On the main deck, hey? Well, all right; we won't trouble him. You'll
do just as well; I judge you're one of the mates of this craft. You tell
Mr. Hallett that this lady here has decided not to cruise with him any
longer. No fault to find, you understand, but she's got a better berth.
She's goin' to ship along with me. Ain't that so, Keziah?"

Keziah, pale, trembling, scarcely realizing the situation even yet,
did not speak. But Captain Nat Hammond seemed to find his answer in her
silence. A few minutes later, her arm in his, they descended the gloomy,
dusty stairs, and emerged into the sunshine together.

That afternoon Mr. Abner Stone again "washed his hands" of his poor
relation--this time, as he indignantly declared, "for good and all."

CHAPTER XXII

IN WHICH KEZIAH'S PARSON PREACHES ONCE MORE

Time has wrought many changes in Trumet. The packet long since ceased to
ply between the village and Boston, the stage has been superseded by
the locomotive, the old "square-riggers," commanded by Cape Cod men, no
longer sail the seas. Along the main road the houses have changed hands.
Didama Rogers peers no more from her parlor window; that parlor is now
profaned by the frivolous and irreverent summer boarder. But the old
residents love to talk of the days that are gone and if you happen to
catch Mr. Isaac Higgins, now postmaster and a dignified member of the
board of selectmen, in a reminiscent mood he will very likely tell you
of the meeting of the parish committee called by its chairman, Elkanah
Daniels, to oust the Rev. John Ellery from the pulpit of the Regular
church.

"I'll never forget," says Mr. Higgins, "that parish committee meetin' if
I live a thousand year. I, and two or three other young shavers, was hid
in the little room off the vestry--the room where they kept the dishes
they used for church suppers--and we heard the whole business. Of course
nobody knew that Nat was goin' to marry Keziah then, but they did know
that he wa'n't goin' to marry Grace Van Horne