"Oh, Sally Brown was a bright mulatter,
Way, oh, roll and go!
She drinks rum and chews terbacker,
Spend my money on Sally Brown.
Whee--_yip_!"

Miss Elvira's thin figure stiffened to an exclamation point of
disapproval. Captain Kendrick turned uneasily in the direction of the
singer. Mrs. Chase, aware that something was going on and not wishing to
miss it, cupped her ear with her hand. And Judah began the second
verse.

"Oh, Sally Brown, I'll surely miss you,
Way, oh, roll and go!
How I'd love to hug and kiss you!
Spend my money on Sally Brown.
Whee--_yip_!"

"Judah!" roared the captain, who was suffering acute apprehension.
"Judah!"

"Oh, Sally Brown----"

"_Judah!"_

"Eh? What is it, Cap'n Sears?"

"Shut up."

"Eh! Shut up what? What's open?"

"Stop that noise."

"What noise?"

"That noise of yours. That singin'."

"Eh? Oh, all right, sir. Aye, aye, Cap'n, just as you say."

Captain Sears, relieved, turned again to his visitors. But the visitors
were rapidly retreating along the path, the lines of Miss Elvira's back
indicating disgust and outraged gentility. Mrs. Chase, however, looked
back. Obviously she still did not know what it was all about.

Sears, although he chuckled a good deal over the affair, was a trifle
annoyed, nevertheless. It was a good joke, of course, and he certainly
cared little for the approval or disapproval of Miss Elvira Snowden. But
when he considered what the prim spinster's version of the happening was
likely to be and the reputation her story was sure to confer, inside the
Fair Harbor fences at least, upon him and his household companion, he
was tempted to wish that that companion's musical talent had been hidden
under a napkin, or, better still, a feather bed. He--Kendrick--was to
live, for a time indefinite, next door to the Fair Harborites, and it is
always pleasant to be on good terms with one's neighbors. True, those
neighbors might be, the majority of them, what Mr. Cahoon called
them--which was whatever term of approbrium he happened to think of at
the moment, "pack of old hens" being the mildest--but the captain knew
that one, at least, was not an "old hen." "That Berry girl," which was
his way of thinking of her, was attractive and kind and a lady. They had
met but once, it is true, but she had made a most favorable impression
upon him. He had caught glimpses of her on two occasions, in the Fair
Harbo