homesickness, although not as acute as on the previous
night, was still in evidence. Albert felt lost, out of his element,
lonely. And, to add a touch of real miserableness, the housekeeper
served and ate like a near relative of the deceased at a funeral feast.
She moved slowly, she sighed heavily, and the bandage upon her forehead
loomed large and portentous. When spoken to she seldom replied before
the third attempt. Captain Zelotes lost patience.

"Have another egg?" he roared, brandishing the spoon containing it at
arm's length and almost under her nose. "Egg! Egg! EGG! If you can't
hear it, smell it. Only answer, for heaven sakes!"

The effect of this outburst was obviously not what he had hoped. Mrs.
Ellis stared first at the egg quivering before her face, then at the
captain. Then she rose and marched majestically to the kitchen. The door
closed, but a heartrending sniff drifted in through the crack. Olive
laid down her knife and fork.

"There!" she exclaimed, despairingly. "Now see what you've done. Oh,
Zelotes, how many times have I told you you've got to treat her tactful
when she's this way?"

Captain Lote put the egg back in the bowl.

"DAMN!" he observed, with intense enthusiasm.

His wife shook her head.

"Swearin' don't help it a mite, either," she declared. "Besides I
don't know what Albert here must think of you." Albert, who, between
astonishment and a wild desire to laugh, was in a critical condition,
appeared rather embarrassed. His grandfather looked at him and smiled
grimly.

"I cal'late one damn won't scare him to death," he observed. "Maybe he's
heard somethin' like it afore. Or do they say, 'Oh, sugar!' up at that
school you come from?" he added.

Albert, not knowing how to reply, looked more embarrassed than ever.
Olive seemed on the point of weeping.

"Oh, Zelotes, how CAN you!" she wailed. "And to-day, of all days! His
very first mornin'!"

Captain Lote relented.

"There, there, Mother!" he said. "I'm sorry. Forget it. Sorry if I
shocked you, Albert. There's times when salt-water language is the only
thing that seems to help me out . . . Well, Mother, what next? What'll
we do now?"

"You know just as well as I do, Zelotes. There's only one thing you can
do. That's go out and beg her pardon this minute. There's a dozen places
she could get right here in South Harniss without turnin' her hand over.
And if she should leave I don't know WHAT I'd do."

"Leave! She ain't goin' to