anything--well, you know what I mean, Jed."

"Yes. Yes, Sam, I suppose I do."

"Yes. Well, I--I don't know why it never struck me, either. If
Georgianna--if my wife had been alive, she'd have noticed, I'll
bet, but I didn't. 'Twas only last evenin'; when he came to get
her to go to the pictures, that it came across me, you might say,
like--like a wet, cold rope's end' slappin' me in the face. I give
you my word, Jed, I--I kind of shivered all over. She means--she
means somethin' to me, that little girl and--and--"

He seemed to find it hard to go on. Jed leaned forward.

"I know, Sam, I know," he said. His friend nodded.

"I know you do, Jed," he said. "I don't think there's anybody else
knows so well. I'm glad I've got you to talk to. I cal'late,
though," he added, with a short laugh, "if some folks knew I came
here to--to talk over my private affairs they'd think I was goin'
soft in the head."

Jed smiled, and there was no resentment in the smile.

"They'd locate the softness in t'other head of the two, Sam," he
suggested.

"I don't care where they locate it. I can talk to you about things
I never mention to other folks. Guess it must be because you--you--
well, I don't know, but it's so, anyhow. . . . Well, to go ahead,
after the young folks had gone I sat there alone in the parlor, in
the dark, tryin' to think it out. The housekeeper had gone over to
her brother's, so I had the place to myself. I thought and thought
and the harder I thought the lonesomer the rest of my life began to
look. And yet--and yet I kept tellin' myself how selfish and
foolish that was. I knew 'twas a dead sartinty she'd be gettin'
married some time. You and I have laughed about it and joked about
it time and again. And I've joked about it with her, too. But--
but jokin's one thing and this was another. . . . Whew!"

He drew a hand across his forehead. Jed did not speak. After a
moment the captain went on.

"Well," he said, "when she got home, and after he'd gone, I got
Maud to sit on my knee, same as she's done ever since she was a
little girl, and she and I had a talk. I kind of led up to the
subject, as you might say, and by and by we--well, we talked it out
pretty straight. She thinks an awful sight of him, Jed. There
ain't any doubt about that, she as much as told me in those words,
and more than told me in other ways. And he's the only one she's
ever cared two straws for, she told me that. And--