e log, lad, on the course you're steerin'!"

So I did not have another; but the one, you may believe! had done the
mischief.

[4] I am informed that there are strange folk who do not visualize
after the manner of Judith and me. 'Tis a wonder how they
conceive, at all!

IX

AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART

My uncle's errand, speedily made known, for Judith's restoration, was
this: to require my presence betimes at tea that evening, since (as he
said) there was one coming by the mail-boat whom he would have me
favorably impress with my appearance and state of gentility--a thing I
was by no means loath to do, having now grown used to the small
delights of display. But I was belated, as it chanced, after all: for
having walked with Judith, by my uncle's hint, to the cairn at the
crest of Tom Tulk's Head, upon the return I fell in with Moses Shoos,
the fool of Twist Tickle, who would have me bear him company to Eli
Flack's cottage, in a nook beyond the Finger, and lend him comfort
thereafter, in good or evil fortune, as might befall. To this I gave a
glad assent, surmising from the significant conjunction of smartened
attire and doleful countenance that an affair of the heart was
forward. And 'twas true; 'twas safely to be predicted, indeed, in
season and out, of the fool of our harbor: for what with his own
witless conjectures and the reports of his mates, made in unkind
banter, his leisure was forever employed in the unhappy business: so
that never a strange maid came near but he would go shyly forth upon
his quest, persuaded of a grateful issue. 'Twas heroic, I thought, and
by this, no less than by his attachment, he was endeared to me.

* * * * *

I sniffed a change of wind as we fell in together. 'Twould presently
switch to the south (I fancied); and 'twould blow high from the
sou'east before the night was done. The shadows were already long; and
in the west--above the hills which shut the sea from sight--the blue
of mellow weather and of the day was fading. And by the lengthened
shadows I was reminded that 'twas an untimely errand the fool was
upon. "'Tis a queer time," said I, "t' be goin' t' Eli's. Sure, Moses,
they'll be at the board!"

"Dear man! but I'm wonderful crafty, Dannie," he explained, with a sly
twitch of the eye. "An they're at table, lad, with fish an' brewis sot
out, I'm sure t' cotch the maid within."

"The maid?" I inquired.

"Ay, l