letters he had laid in her lap. There was one from
Joyce, one to her mother from Phil Tremont, and one bearing the address
in an upper corner of one of the agencies to which she had written. She
opened it eagerly, and Pink, watching her from the corner of his eye as
he sorted a handful of circulars, saw a shade of disappointment cross
her face. Every one else had left the office. She looked up to see the
old Captain smiling at her.

"First ship in from sea," he remarked knowingly. "Well, what's the
cargo?"

"No treasure aboard this one. It's just a printed form to say that they
have no vacancies at present, but have put me on the waiting list, and
will inform me if anything comes up later."

"Well, there're others to hear from," the Captain answered. "That's the
good of putting your hopes on more than one thing. In the meantime,
though, don't get discouraged."

"Oh, I'll not," was the cheerful answer. "You see, I have two mottoes to
live up to. One was on the crest that used to be sported in the
ancestral coat of arms once upon a time, away back in mamma's family. It
was a winged spur with the words '_Ready, aye ready_.'

"The other is the one we adopted ourselves from the Vicar of Wakefield:
'_Let us be inflexible, and fortune will at last change in our favor._'
So there I am, ready to go at a moment's notice, but also bound to keep
inflexible and wait for a turn if fortune wills it so. I don't know
what the Ware family would do sometimes without that saying of the old
Vicar's. His philosophy has helped us out of more than one hole."

The Captain, rather vague in his knowledge as to the old Vicar, nodded
sagely. "Pretty good philosophy to tie to," he remarked. Pink, to whom
the Vicar was merely a name, one of many in a long list of English
novels he had once memorized for a literature recitation, made no
response. He felt profoundly ignorant. But remembering Mr. Moredock's
hospitable remark that the latchstring of his library was always out for
his friends, he resolved to borrow the book that very night after
closing hours, and discover what there was in it that had "helped the
Ware family out of more than one hole."

As he and Mary left the office together the Captain called after her,
"By the way, I noticed a foreign stamp on one of your letters. Mexican,
wasn't it? If you're not making a collection yourself, I'd like to speak
for it. My little grandson's just started one, and I've promised him all
I can get