py" as those he wore on his arrival. Horatio was
invariably arrayed like a lily of the field--if by that term is meant
a tiger lily. Raish generally finished his appraisal by adding,
patronizingly:

"He's all right, though, old Galushy is. Nothin' harmful about him. See
how easy I get along with him. I shake hands with him and hit him a clip
on the back, and, gosh t'mighty, he thinks I'm his best friend on earth.
He'd do anything for me, that old owl would."

And, perhaps, because it was given forth with such authority from the
Pulcifer Mount Sinai, the fact that Bangs was very poor and was living
at Gould's Bluffs because of that poverty came to be accepted in East
Wellmouth as a settled fact. So quickly and firmly was it settled that,
a month later, Erastus Beebe, leaning over his counter in conversation
with a Boston traveling salesman, said, as Galusha passed the store:

"Queer-lookin' customer, ain't he? One of our town characters, as you
might say. Pretends he's been all over creation, but the truth is he
lives down here by the lighthouse and is poorer than the last pullet
in Job's coop. Kind of an inventor, or book writer, or some such crazy
thing. Queer how that kind get that way, ain't it?"

"Is that all he does for a living?" asked the salesman.

"Don't do much of that, seems so, nowadays. Spends most of his time
copyin' off tombstone-writin' over in the old Baptist graveyard. Seems
to LIKE to be there, he does. Thunder sakes! a graveyard is the last
place I'd spend MY time in."

The Bostonian made the obvious retort that it was probably the last
place Mr. Beebe WOULD spend his time in.

Galusha, of course, was not in the least aware of the East Wellmouth
estimate of himself, his fortune and his activities. He would not
have been interested had he known. He was enjoying himself hugely,
was gaining daily in health, strength, and appetite, and was becoming
thoroughly acquainted with Gould's Bluffs, its surroundings, and its
people.

He made many calls at the lighthouse nowadays. These calls were not
especially for the purpose of cultivating Captain Jethro's acquaintance,
although the rugged, bigoted old light keeper afforded an interesting
study in character. The captain's moods varied. Sometimes he talked
freely and interestingly of his experiences at sea and as keeper of the
light. His stories of wrecks and life-saving were well told and Galusha
enjoyed them. He cared less for Jethro's dissertations o