y sea.

In summer, too, a white-winged yacht, trim and trig, with her brass
rails, tiny cannon, and duck-clad crew, occasionally sails into the
harbor and anchors, to send her complement of fashionable
pleasure-seekers ashore. Here they ramble along the one main street,
with its plank walk, peeping curiously into the open doors and windows
of the shops, at the simply clad women and barefooted children who eye
them with awe. Each are as wide apart from the other as the poles in
their dress, manners, and ways of living, and each as much a curiosity
to the other.

Of the social life of the island there is little to be said, for it is
as simple as the garb of its plain people, who never grow rich and are
seldom very poor. Each of the two villages is blessed with a diminutive
church, Baptist in denomination, the one at Rockhaven the oldest and
known as Hard-Shell; that at Northaven as Free-Will. Each calls together
most of the womenkind and grown-up children, as well as a few of the
men, every Sunday, while the rest of the men, if in summer, lounge
around the wharves smoking and swapping yarns. There is no great
interest in religion among either sex, and church attendance seems more
a social pleasure than a duty.

Occasionally a few of the young people will get together, as young folks
always do, to play games; and though it is in the creed of both churches
that dancing is to be abjured, nevertheless old Jess Hutton, whose
fiddle was his wife, child, and sole companion in his solitude, was
occasionally induced to play and call off for the lads and lasses of the
town, with a fringe of old folks around the walls as spectators.

"I like to see 'em dance," he always said, "fer they look so happy when
at it; 'sides, when they get old they won't want to. Dancin's as nat'ral
to young folks as grass growin' in spring."

Every small village has its oracle, whose opinion on all matters passes
current as law and gospel, whose stories and jokes are repeated by all,
and who is by tacit consent chosen moderator at town meetings, holds the
office of selectman and chairman of the school committee for life, is
accepted as referee in all disputes, and the friend, counsellor, and
adviser of all. Such a man in Rockhaven was Jesse Hutton. Though he
argued with the Rev. Jason Bush, who officiated at Rockhaven on Sundays,
about the unsocial nature of close communion, and occasionally met and
had a tilt with the Northaven minister, he was a fr