the State
House and was narrow and crooked and old-fashioned.

"What in the world are we doing up here?" queried Mary-'Gusta. "There
aren't any wholesale houses here, I'm sure. Haven't you made a mistake,
Uncle Shad?" Shadrach, who had been consulting a page of his pocket
memorandum book, replied that he cal'lated he'd got his bearin's, and,
to the girl's astonishment, stopped before a brick dwelling with a
colonial doorway and a white stone step which actually shone from
scrubbing, and rang the bell.

The maid who answered the bell wore a white apron which crackled with
starch. She looked as if she too had, like the step, been scrubbed a few
minutes before.

"This is No.--, ain't it?" inquired the Captain. "Humph! I thought so.
I ain't so much of a wreck yet but that I can navigate Boston without a
pilot. Is Mr. Keith in?"

The maid, who had received the pilot statement with uncomprehending
astonishment, looked relieved.

"Yes, sir," she said. "Mr. Keith's here. Are you the ones he's
expectin'? Walk in, please."

They entered the house. It was as spotlessly tidy within as without.
The maid ushered them into a parlor where old mahogany and old family
portraits in oil were very much in evidence.

"Sit down, please," she said. "I'll tell Mr. Keith you're here."

She left the room. Mary-'Gusta turned to the Captain in amazed
agitation.

"Uncle Shad," she demanded, "why on earth did you come HERE to see Mr.
Keith? Couldn't you have seen him at South Harniss?"

Shadrach shook his head. "Not today I couldn't," he said. "He's up here
today."

"But what do you want to see him for?"

"Business, business, Mary-'Gusta. Mr. Keith and me are tryin' to do a
little stroke of business together. We've got a hen on, as the feller
said. Say, this is kind of a swell house, ain't it? And clean--my soul!
Judas! did I move this chair out of place? I didn't mean to. Looks as if
it had set right in that one spot for a hundred years."

Keith entered at that moment, followed by an elderly lady whose gown was
almost as old-fashioned as the furniture. She was a rather thin person
but her face, although sharp, was not unkind in expression and her
plainly arranged hair was white. Mary-'Gusta liked her looks; she
guessed that she might be very nice indeed to people she knew and
fancied; also that she would make certain of knowing them first.

"Hello, Captain Gould," hailed Keith. "Glad to see you. Found the place
all right, I see."