s--I said
that before--and my father was Captain Philander Kent Knowles. He was
lost in the wreck of the steamer "Monarch of the Sea," off Hatteras. The
steamer caught fire in the middle of the night, a howling gale blowing
and the thermometer a few degrees above zero. The passengers and crew
took to the boats and were saved. My father stuck by his ship and went
down with her, as did also her first mate, another Cape-Codder. I was
a baby at the time, and was at Bayport with my mother, Emily Knowles,
formerly Emily Cahoon, Captain Barnabas Cahoon's niece. Mother had a
little money of her own and Father's life was insured for a moderate
sum. Her small fortune was invested for her by her uncle, Captain
Barnabas, who was the Bayport magnate and man of affairs in those days.
Mother and I continued to live in the old house in Bayport and I went
to school in the village until I was fourteen, when I went away to a
preparatory school near Boston. Mother died a year later. I was an only
child, but Hephzibah, who had always seemed like an older sister to me,
now began to "mother" me, the process which she has kept up ever since.

Hephzibah was the daughter of Captain Barnabas by his first wife. Hephzy
was born in 1859, so she is well over fifty now, although no one would
guess it. Her mother died when she was a little girl and ten years later
Captain Barnabas married again. His second wife was Susan Hammond, of
Ostable, and by her he had one daughter, Ardelia. Hephzy has always
declared "Ardelia" to be a pretty name. I have my own opinion on that
subject, but I keep it to myself.

At any rate, Ardelia herself was pretty enough. She was pretty when a
baby and prettier still as a schoolgirl. Her mother--while she lived,
which was not long--spoiled her, and her half-sister, Hephzy, assisted
in the petting and spoiling. Ardelia grew up with the idea that most
things in this world were hers for the asking. Whatever took her fancy
she asked for and, if Captain Barnabas did not give it to her, she
considered herself ill-used. She was the young lady of the family and
Hephzibah was the housekeeper and drudge, an uncomplaining one, be
it understood. For her, as for the Captain, the business of life was
keeping Ardelia contented and happy, and they gloried in the task.
Hephzy might have married well at least twice, but she wouldn't think
of such a thing. "Pa and Ardelia need me," she said; that was reason
sufficient.

In 1888 Captain Barn