the whole matter with him; would plan
with him on his concerns; would try to see if it were not possible to
postpone a little the payment of debts and to hasten the collection of
claims; to get a part of the money for a short time from a son in Boston
or a married daughter in New Bedford; and so, by pulling and hauling, to
weather the Cape.

I must say a word about his position in town matters. He had been at sea
the greater part of the time from sixteen to fifty-two. During that time
he had had absolutely no concern with political affairs. He had never
voted: for he had never, as it had happened, been ashore at the time of
an election. And yet before he had been at home six years he was one
of the selectmen of the town and overseer of the poor, and had
become familiar with the details of Massachusetts town government,
superficially so simple, in fact so complex. It was a large town, of no
small wealth. Lying as it did along the seaboard, where havoc was always
being made by disasters of the sea, there was not only a larger number
than in an inland town of persons actually quartered in the poorhouse,
but there were many broken families who had to be helped in their own
homes. And it was to me an interesting fact that in dealing with two
score households of this class, Captain Pel-ham, who had spent most of
his time at sea, was able to display the utmost tact and judgment. He
applied to their affairs that same plain kindliness and sound sense
which he showed in the matter of discounts at the bank.

While the friendships of Captain Pelham were chiefly in his own town,
his acquaintance was not confined to it. In his own quiet, unpretending
way he was something of a man of the world. He was known in the marine
insurance offices in the large cities. He had been familiar all his
life with large affairs; he had commanded valuable ships, loaded with
fortunes in teas and silks, in the days when an India captain was a
merchant.

III.

You will ask me why it is that I have been telling you about these men,
and what it is that connects them.

It was now ten years since Captain Pelham's only son, himself at
twenty-two the master of a vessel, had married a daughter of James
Parsons,--a tall, impulsive, and warm-hearted girl,--one of those girls
to whom children always cling. Both James Parsons's daughters had proved
attractive and had married well. It had been a disappointment in Captain
Pelham's household, perhaps, that