ave tried, but I don't seem to know how and I guess likely
I was too old to learn. When I go she won't have a relation to look out
for her. That has troubled me a lot and I have thought about it more
than a little, I can tell you. And so I have decided to leave her in
your care. I am hoping you will take charge of her and bring her up to
be a good girl and a good woman, same as her mother was before her. I
know you two will be just the ones for the job.

"Jumpin' fire!" broke in Shadrach, the irrepressible.

"Hush, Shadrach," continued Mr. Hamilton. "Go on, Judge."

Baxter continued his reading. The letter told of the will, of the
property, whatever it might be, left in trust for the child, and of the
writer's desire that it might be used, when turned into money, for her
education. There were two pages of rambling references to stocks
and investments, the very vagueness of these references proving the
weakening shrewdness and lack of business acumen of Captain Hall in his
later years. Then came this:

When this first comes to you I know you will both feel you are not
fitted to take charge of my girl. You will say that neither of you has
had any children of his own and you have not got experience in that
line. But I have thought it over and I know I am right. I couldn't find
better pilots afloat or ashore. Shadrach has been to sea and commanded
vessels and is used to giving orders and having them carried out. He
sailed mate with me for a good many voyages and was my partner ashore. I
know him from truck to keelson. He is honest and able and can handle
any craft. He will keep the girl on the course she ought to sail in
her schooling and such and see she does not get on the rocks or take to
cruising in bad company. Zoeth has had the land training. He is a pious
man and as good outside the church as he is in, which is not always the
case according to my experience. He has the name all up and down the
Cape of being a square, honest storekeeper. He will look out for Mary's
religious bringing up and learn her how to keep straight and think
square. You are both of you different from each other in most ways but
you are each of you honest and straight in his own way. I don't leave
Mary in the care of one but in the charge of both. I know I am right.

"He said that very thing to me a good many times," put in the Judge.
"He seemed to feel that the very fact of your being men of different
training and habits of thought mad