perils I tell 'bout. Yes, sir, I don't
dispute I'm a hi-mighty liar," he repeated, sighing and shaking his
head.

"But when I come here to the Shell Road, where there warn't nobody
knowed me, it struck me forcible," pursued Cap'n Abe, "that my fambly
bein' so little known I could achieve a sort of vicarious repertation
as a seagoin' man.

"Ye see what I mean? I cal'lated if I'd had a brother--a brother who
warn't marked with a fear of the ocean--_he_ would ha' been a sailor.
Course he would! All us Silts was seafarin' men!

"An' I thought so much 'bout this brother that I _might_ ha' had, and
what he would ha' done sailin' up an' down the world, learnin' to be a
master mariner, an' finally pacin' his own quarter-deck, that he grew
like he was real to me, Niece Louise--he re'lly did. I give him a
name. 'Am'zon' has been a name in our fambly since Cap'n Reba Silt
first put the nose of his old _Tigris_ to the tidal wave of the Am'zon
River--back in seventeen-forty. He come home to New Bedford and named
his first boy, that was waitin' to be christened, 'Am'zon Silt.'

"So I called this--this dream brother of mine--'Am'zon.' These
Cardhaven folks warn't likely to know whether I had a brother or not.
And I made up he went to sea when he was twelve--like I told ye, my
dear. Ye-as. I did hate to lie to ye, an' you just new-come here.
But I'd laid my plans for a long while back just to walk out, as it
were, an' let these fellers 'round here have a taste o' Cap'n Am'zon
Silt that they'd begun to doubt was ever comin' to Cardhaven. An'
hi-mighty!" exploded Cap'n Abe, with a great laugh, "I _have_ give 'em
a taste of him, I vum!"

"Oh, you have, Uncle Abram! You have!" agreed Louise, and burst, into
laughter herself. "It is wonderful how you did it! It is marvelous!
How _could_ you?"

"Nothin' easier, when you come to think on't," replied Cap'n Abe. "I'd
talked so much 'bout Cap'n Am'zon that he was a fixed idea in people's
minds. I said when he come I'd go off on a v'y'ge. I'd fixed
ev'rything proper for the exchange when you lit down on me, Niece
Louise. Hi-mighty!" grinned Cap'n Abe, "at first I thought sure you'd
spilled the beans."

Louise rippled another appreciative laugh. "Oh, dear!" she cried,
clapping her hands together. "It's too funny for anything! How you
startled Betty! Why, even Lawford Tapp was amazed at your appearance.
You--you do look like an old pirate, Uncle Abram."

"Don't I?" r