ship
and made voyages to the Far East. The teaspoons were queer little
fiddle-patterned affairs; they were made by an ancestor who was a
silversmith with a shop on Cornhill before General Gage's army was
quartered in Boston. And cups and spoons and napkins were so clean that
it seemed almost sacrilegious to soil them by use.

Captain Shadrach did not soil his to any great extent at first. The
Captain was plainly overawed by the genteel elegance of his surrounding
and the manner of his hostess. But Mr. Keith was very much at ease and
full of fun and, after a time, a little of Shadrach's self-consciousness
disappeared. When he learned that grandfather Wyeth had been a seafaring
man he came out of his shell sufficiently to narrate, at Keith's
request, one of his own experiences in Hongkong, but even in the midst
of his yarn he never forgot to address his hostess as "ma'am" and he did
not say "Jumpin Judas" once.

After luncheon Mr. Keith and the Captain left the house together.
"Goin' to attend to that little mite of business I spoke to you about,
Mary-'Gusta," explained Shadrach, confidentially. "We'll be back pretty
soon. I cal'late maybe you'd better wait here, that is," with a glance
at Mrs. Wyeth, "if it'll be all right for you to."

"Of course it will be all right," declared Mrs. Wyeth promptly. "I shall
be glad to have her."

"Thank you, ma'am. If she won't be in the way I--"

"If she were likely to be in the way I should say so. She won't be."

"Yes--er--yes, ma'am," stammered Shadrach. "Thank you, ma'am."

When he and Mr. Keith were out of the house he drew a long breath.

"Judas!" he observed, feelingly. "Say, that cousin of yours don't waste
any words, does she? When it comes to speakin' what's in her mind she
don't fool around none. She's as right up and down as a schooner's
fo'mast."

Keith laughed heartily. "Emily is blunt and outspoken," he said. "She
prides herself on that. But she is as square as a brick. She never says
one thing to your face and another behind your back."

"No, I--I judge that's so. Well, that's all right; I ain't got any
objections to that way of talkin' myself. But say, if every woman was
like her there wouldn't be many sewin' circles, would there? The average
sewin' circle meetin' is one part sew and three parts what So-and-so
said."

When the little mite of business had been transacted and the pair
returned to the Wyeth house they found Mrs. Wyeth and Mary-'Gusta
awaitin