way and I'm sure Emily and I am. If we turn in now we may have a
chance to look over that precious property of mine afore we go back to
South Middleboro. I don't know, though, as we haven't seen enough of it
already. It don't look very promisin' to me."

The captain rose from the table and, walking to the window, pushed aside
the shade.

"It'll look better tomorrow--today, I should say," he observed. "The
storm's about over, and the wind's hauled to the west'ard. We'll have a
spell of fair weather now, I guess. That property of yours, Mrs. Barnes,
'll look a lot more promisin' in the sunshine. There's no better view
along shore than from the front windows of that house. 'Tain't half bad,
that old house ain't. All it needs is fixin' up."

Good nights--good mornings, for it was after two o'clock--were said and
the guests withdrew to their bedroom. Once inside, with the door shut,
Thankful and Emily looked at each other and both burst out laughing.

"Oh, dear me!" gasped the former, wiping her eyes. "Maybe it's mean to
laugh at folks that's been as kind to us as these Parkers have been, but
I never had such a job keepin' a straight face in my life. When she said
she was 'debilitated' at havin' to give us ham and toast that was funny
enough, but what come afterwards was funnier. The 'fraction' ain't
'ignited' yet and the doctors are worried. I should think they'd be more
worried if it had."

Emily shook her head. "I am glad I didn't have to answer that remark,
Auntie," she said. "I never could have done it without disgracing
myself. She is a genuine Mrs. Malaprop, isn't she?"

This was a trifle too deep for Mrs. Barnes, who replied that she didn't
know, she having never met the Mrs. What's-her-name to whom her cousin
referred. "She's a genuine curiosity, this Parker woman, if that's what
you mean, Emily," she said. "And so's her brother, though a different
kind of one. We must get Cap'n Bangs to tell us more about 'em in the
mornin'. He thinks that--that heirloom house of mine will look better
in the daylight. Well, I hope he's right; it looked hopeless enough
tonight, what I could see of it."

"I like that Captain Bangs," observed Emily.

"So do I. It seems as if we'd known him for ever so long. And how his
salt-water talk does take me back. Seems as if I was hearin' my father
and Uncle Abner--yes, and Eben, too--speakin'. And it is so sort of good
and natural to be callin' somebody 'Cap'n.' I was brought up among