fore him--not
even the opportunity to make more.

Overhead, amid the cherry branches, the bees buzzed and the robins
chirped. From the kitchen window came the click of dishes as Mrs.
Macomber washed and wiped them. Around the curve of the road by the
meeting-house came Dr. Sheldon's old horse, drawing Dr. Sheldon's
antiquated chaise, with the doctor himself leaning back comfortably upon
its worn cushions. Captain Kendrick, not being in the mood for a chat
just then even with as good a friend as his physician, made no move, and
the old chaise and its occupant passed by and disappeared around the
next curve. Sarah-Mary and Edgar and Bemis noisily trooped out of the
house and started for school. Edgar was enthusiastically carolling a
ditty which was then popular among Bayport juvenility. It was
reminiscent of a recent presidential campaign.

"Grant and Greely were fightin' for flies,
Grant gave Greely a pair of black eyes--"

The children, like Doctor Sheldon and the chaise, passed out of sight
around the bend of the road. Edgar's voice, more or less tunefully,
drifted back:

"Grant said, 'Do you want any more?'
Greely said, 'No, for my eyes are too sore.'"

Sears Kendrick crossed his knees and changed position upon the bench.
Obviously he could not hope to go to sea again for months at the very
earliest. Obviously he could not live during those months at his
sister's. She would be only too delighted to have him do so, but on that
point his mind was made up. And, quite as obviously, he could not long
exist, and pay an adequate price for the privilege of existing, with the
small sum which was left after his disastrous voyage upon the sea of
business. His immediate problems then were two: First, to find a
boarding place which was very, very cheap. Second, if possible, to find
a means of earning a little money. The first of these he might, perhaps,
solve after a fashion, but the second--and he a cripple! He groaned
aloud.

Then he gradually became aware of a new set of sounds, sounds
approaching along the road from the direction in which the children and
the doctor's equipage had disappeared. The sounds, at first rather
confused, gradually separated themselves into two varieties, one the
sharp, irregular rattle of a springless cart, the second a hoarse
unmusical voice which, like Edgar's, was raised in song. But in this
case the rattle of the cart caused the song to be broken unexpectedly
into jerky s