laimed. "Whoever those people are, they are
strangers here, and they don't know where to stop, for they first go to
one side of the street and then to the other."

The widow looked around sharply. "Humph!" said she. "Those men are
sailormen. You might see that in a twinklin' of an eye. Sailormen
always drive that way, because that is the way they sail ships. They
first tack in one direction and then in another."

"Mr. Ducket didn't like the sea?" remarked Dorcas, for about the three
hundredth time.

"No, he didn't," answered the widow, for about the two hundred and
fiftieth time, for there had been occasions when she thought Dorcas put
this question inopportunely. "He hated it, and he was drowned in it
through trustin' a sailorman, which I never did nor shall. Do you
really believe those men are comin' here?"

"Upon my word I do!" said Dorcas, and her opinion was correct.

The wagon drew up in front of Mrs. Ducket's little white house, and the
two women sat rigidly, their hands in their laps, staring at the man
who drove.

This was an elderly personage with whitish hair, and under his chin a
thin whitish beard, which waved in the gentle breeze and gave Dorcas
the idea that his head was filled with hair which was leaking out from
below.

"Is this the Widow Ducket's?" inquired this elderly man, in a strong,
penetrating voice.

"That's my name," said the widow, and laying her knitting on the bench
beside her, she went to the gate. Dorcas also laid her knitting on the
bench beside her and went to the gate.

"I was told," said the elderly man, "at a house we touched at about a
quarter of a mile back, that the Widow Ducket's was the only house in
this village where there was any chance of me and my mates getting a
meal. We are four sailors, and we are making from the bay over to
Cuppertown, and that's eight miles ahead yet, and we are all pretty
sharp set for something to eat."

"This is the place," said the widow, "and I do give meals if there is
enough in the house and everything comes handy."

"Does everything come handy to-day?" said he.

"It does," said she, "and you can hitch your horse and come in; but I
haven't got anything for him."

"Oh, that's all right," said the man, "we brought along stores for him,
so we'll just make fast and then come in."

The two women hurried into the house in a state of bustling
preparation, for the furnishing of this meal meant one dollar in cash.

The four m