ral voyages and, four years after the marriage, remained at
home for what, for him, was a long time. During that time a child,
a boy, was born.

The story of the christening of that child is one of Orham's pet
yarns even to this day. It seems that there was a marked
disagreement concerning the name to be given him. Captain Thad had
had an Uncle Edgar, who had been very kind to him when a boy. The
captain wished to name his own youngster after this uncle. But
Floretta's heart was set upon "Wilfred," her favorite hero of
romance being Wilfred of Ivanhoe. The story is that the parents
being no nearer an agreement on the great question, Floretta made a
proposal of compromise. She proposed that her husband take up his
stand by the bedroom window and the first male person he saw
passing on the sidewalk below, the name of that person should be
given to their offspring; a sporting proposition certainly. But
the story goes on to detract a bit from the sporting element by
explaining that Mrs. Winslow was expecting a call at that hour from
the Baptist minister, and the Baptist minister's Christian name was
"Clarence," which, if not quite as romantic as Wilfred, is by no
means common and prosaic. Captain Thad, who had not been informed
of the expected ministerial call and was something of a sport
himself, assented to the arrangement. It was solemnly agreed that
the name of the first male passer-by should be the name of the new
Winslow. The captain took up his post of observation at the window
and waited.

He did not have to wait long. Unfortunately for romance, the
Reverend Clarence was detained at the home of another parishioner a
trifle longer than he had planned and the first masculine to pass
the Winslow home was old Jedidah Wingate, the fish peddler. Mrs.
Diadama Busteed, who was acting as nurse in the family and had been
sworn in as witness to the agreement between husband and wife,
declared to the day of her death that that death was hastened by
the shock to her nervous and moral system caused by Captain Thad's
language when old Jedidah hove in sight. He vowed over and over
again that he would be everlastingly condemned if he would label a
young-one of his with such a crashety-blank-blanked outrage of a
name as "Jedidah." "Jedidiah" was bad enough, but there WERE a few
Jedidiahs in Ostable County, whereas there was but one Jedidah.
Mrs. Winslow, who did not fancy Jedidah any more than her husband
did, wept