uits of
oilers, followed it.

Jess had habits, and one was to devote all the time his dearly loved
niece, Mona Hutton, claimed to her amusement; and when she asked that he
accompany her flower or shell hunting of a summer afternoon, the store
could run itself for all that he cared.

It may be surmised that children exposed to the temptation of candy,
oranges, and nuts in his store, would pilfer, and some did; but that did
not annoy him.

"Hookin' things allus carries its own whip," he would say, "an' if they
wanter try it, let 'em. It's bound to be found out, one way or 'nother,
and when I've shamed 'em once or twice, they'll larn it's cheaper to ask
for 'em."

Children were seldom refused in his store, for he was like a boy baiting
squirrels with nuts in his desire to lure children there.

They were his chief solace and companions by day, for he kept bachelor's
hall over his store, and to have a crowd of them around was the company
he best enjoyed.

And what a godsend and wellspring of delight Jess and his store were to
all Rockhaven's progeny. In summer they came in barefooted bunches, even
to the toddlers who could scarce lisp their own names. They played hide
and seek behind his barrels and beneath his counter; they hid in empty
boxes and under piles of old sails in his back room. They littered his
piazza with crabs, starfish, long strips of kelpie and shells, they had
gathered among the rocks and on the beach, and left the few poor toys
and rag babies they possessed there. They ran riot over him and his
store; and as a climax to the happy after-school hour, Jess would
produce his old fiddle, and if there is any music that will reach a
child's heart, it is that.

And while Jess played they leaped, danced, crowed, and shouted as
insanely happy children will.

To him it was also supreme delight.

To them he was a perpetual Santa Claus, a wonder among men, a father
bountiful, whose welcome never failed, whose smile was always cordial,
and whose love seemed limitless. And they would obey a shake of his head
even. And when the frolic had lasted long enough and he said, "Run home
now," off they scampered. It is small wonder Jess Hutton was chief man
of Rockhaven.

But Jess had a vein of satire as well as philosophy.

"It's human natur," he would say, "for all of us to think our own
children's brighter'n our neighbor's, an' our own joys and sorrers o'
more account, and 'specially our aches and pains, 'n' the