ong up!' nor slap the reins nor feed her oats--I tell you,
boys, I get so homesick for it I think some days I'll chuck the whole
concern."

[Illustration: "HE LOOKED FROM ONE TWIN TO THE OTHER, HALF AMUSED, HALF
INDIGNANT."]

"What concern?" inquired Mr. Sam. "You appear to me to ramble in your
talk, Calvin, same as you allus did. Ma allus said you was a rambler in
your talk and a rover in your ways, and you'd never settle down till
you married."

"She did, did she?" said Calvin musing. "I expect she was about right.
Well--you see," he cast an apologetic glance at Mary Sands, who had come
in quietly and sat down with her sewing in the front room, "I've always
laid it to some to the fire. Look at your house here, boys!" he gave a
wistful glance round the two bright, tidy, cheerful rooms. "If I had a
home like this, would I be a rover? I guess not! I guess I shouldn't
need no cobbler's wax on the seat of the chair to hold me down; but if
all you had come home to was an empty cellar hole, not a stick nor a
stitch--nothing was saved, you remember,--why, you might feel different.
I took to the coastin' trade, as you know, and the past ten years I've
been master of the 'Mary Sands, Bath and Floridy with lumber.'"

"I want to know!" said Mr. Sam.

"Do tell me!" cried Mr. Sim. "Why--"

Mary Sands had dropped her work at the sound of her own name, and looked
up quickly; meeting Calvin Parks's look of unconscious admiration, the
wholesome color flushed into her face again, and her brown eyes began to
twinkle. She broke in quickly on Mr. Sim's slow speech.

"Was she a good vessel, Mr. Parks? You know I told you I was owner of a
schooner, and so I take an interest in vessels, especially coasters."

"If I should say that she was as fine-lookin' a vessel as you was lady,"
said Calvin deliberately, "you might cast it up that I was makin'
personal remarks, which far be it from me to do; but I will say that she
is a sweet schooner. There ain't a line of her but what is clean cut and
handsome to look at. And as for her disposition! there! I've knowed
vessels as was good-lookin', and yet so contrary and cantankerous that
you'd rather lay down and take a lickin' than sail in them, any day.
I've knowed poor-spirited vessels, and vessels that was just ornery and
mean; but 't is handsome is as handsome does with the Mary Sands. She's
sweet as her looks; she's capable and she willin'; she's free and yet
she's steady. If your Ma was he