pt when there was
a funeral. He rigged up a little shelter for himself in the center, with
a music stand I made for him out of scantling; and often he took his
lunch in his pocket and spent the whole day. Not a child ventured to
show himself, and he had it as much to himself as though he owned it;
and he could lay his stovepipe down now without any fear of its being
greased up or sat on. It led to his asking a raft of questions about the
natives and their superstitions, and how none of them ventured to go
near the place unless in a big party. He came back to that again and
again, and always with the same interest. I ought to have suspected what
was running in his head, but I didn't. In fack, we had all settled down
now like we had always lived together, and I didn't bother any more
about him, or what he said or did, than if he had been my wife's father!
It was a good deal like having a rich uncle to stay with you, and after
the first excitement you took it all as a matter of course.

Even Iosefo, sitting on the trunk in the bedroom, became one of them
things that ran into habit; and in some ways it was a good idea, too,
for it brought custom to the store, what with the deacons coming over to
talk about church affairs, and the Committee on Ways and Means meeting
there regular. Even the gold twenty every week settled down in the same
channel of routine, and I didn't bite it any more, as I used to do, nor
hold it in my hand wondering where it come from. I just put it away with
the rest and thought no more about it. The only concern of me and Sarah
was to feed up the old fellow to the best of our ability and try and
make him pleased.

We had been running along like this for I don't know how long, when one
night, toward the small hours, a singular thing happened. I was sleeping
very light, and I woke up all of a sudden and saw Old Dibs standing in
the doorway! He had a candle in his hand and bulked up enormous in his
red silk dressing gown, and there was a wild look on his unshaved face.

I held my breath and watched him through my half-shut eyes--watched him
for quite a spell, till he softly tiptoed away again in his naked feet,
and I heard the door close behind him in the house. I waited a long
while wondering what to do, and what there could be in the boatshed to
bring him out at such an unlikely hour. At first I was for getting my
rifle and sitting up the balance of the night; but then, as I waked up
more and tried to