cruised
in from Newport to put his affairs in your hands? Sho'! He's pretty
short-sighted, ain't he?"

"Very. He's losing valuable time."

"Well, I expected better things of him, I must say. Ain't gettin'
discouraged, are you, John?"

"No, indeed. If there was much discouragement in my make-up I should
have stopped before I began. How is the fish business, Captain?"

"Well, 'tain't what it ought to be this season of the year. Say, John,
couldn't you subpoena a school of mackerel for me? Serve an order of
the court on them to come into my weirs and answer for their sins, or
somethin' like that? I'd be willin' to pay you a fairly good fee."

On one occasion the visitor asked his friend what he found to do all the
long days. "Don't study law ALL the time, do you, John?" he queried.

Kendrick shook his head. "No," he answered, gravely. "Between studies I
enjoy the view. Magnificent view from this window, don't you think?"

Captain Obed inspected the "view." The principal feature in the
landscape was Dr. Jameson's cow, pastured in the vacant lot between the
doctor's home and the postoffice.

"Very fine cow, that," commented the lawyer. "An inspiring creature.
I spend hours looking at that cow. She is a comfort to my philosophic
soul."

The captain observed that he wanted to know.

"Yes," continued Kendrick. "She is happy; you can see that she is happy.
Now why?"

"'Cause she's eatin' grass," declared Captain Obed, promptly.

"That's it. Good for you! You have a philosophic soul yourself, Captain.
She is happy because she has nothing to do but eat, and there is plenty
to eat. That's my case exactly. I have nothing to do except eat, and
at Mrs. Barnes' boarding-house there is always enough, and more than
enough, to eat. The cow is happy and I ought to be, I suppose. If MY
food was furnished free of cost I should be, I presume."

Kenelm Parker heard a conversation like the foregoing on one occasion
and left the office rubbing his forehead.

"There's two lunatics in that place," he told the postmaster. "And if
I'd stayed there much longer and listened to their ravin's there'd have
been another one."

Kenelm seemed unusually contented and happy in his capacity as
man-of-all-work at the High Cliff House. Possibly the fact that there
was so very little real work to do may have helped to keep him in this
frame of mind. He had always the appearance of being very busy; a rake
or a hoe or the kindling hatchet were se