sh! You got on wonderfully. And as for the worth of my
opinions--well, you ask Northern Lights what she thinks of 'em. She'll
tell you, I'll bet."

"Northern Lights" was Captain Sears's pet name for Mrs. Aurora Chase.
Elizabeth asked why Aurora should hold his opinions lightly. The captain
chuckled.

"Well," he explained, "she asked me yesterday what I thought of the
Orthodox minister's sermons about the Universalist folks play-actin'. I
said I hadn't heard 'em first hand, but that I understood they were hot.
I thought she sailed off with her nose pretty well aloft, but I couldn't
see why. To-day Esther Tidditt told me that she had understood me to say
the sermons were 'rot.' That's what comes of bein' hard of hearin'. Ho,
ho! But truth will out, won't it?"

The afternoon preceding the evening when "Down by the Sea" was to be
publicly presented upon the stage of the town hall was overcast and
cloudy. Judah, with one eye upon the barometer swinging in its gimbals
in the General Minot front entry, had gloomily prophesied rain. Captain
Sears, although inwardly agreeing with the prophecy, outwardly
maintained an obstinate optimism.

"I don't care if the glass is down so low that the mercury sticks out of
the bottom and hits the deck," he declared. "It isn't goin' to rain
to-night, Judah. You mark my words."

"I'm a-markin' 'em, Cap'n Sears. I'm a-markin' of 'em. But what's the
use of words alongside of a fallin' glass like that? And, besides, ain't
I been watchin' the sky all the afternoon? Look how it's smurrin' up
over to the west'ard. Look at them mare's tails streakin' out up aloft.

'Mack'rel skies and mares' tails
Make lofty ships to douse their sails.'

You know that's well's I do, Cap'n Sears."

"Yes, yes, so I do, Judah. But do you know this one?

'Hi, diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.'

What have you got to say to that, eh?"

Judah stared at him. His chin quivered.

"Wh--wh--" he stammered. "What have I got to say to that? Why, I ain't
got nawthin' to say to it. There ain't no sense to it. That's Mother
Goose talk, that's all that is, What's that got to do with the
weather?"

"It would have somethin' to do with it if a cow jumped over the moon,
wouldn't it?"

"Eh? But---- Oh, creepin' prophets, Cap'n Sears, what's the use of you
and me wastin' our breath over such foolishness? You're just bein'
funny, that's all." His expression changed, a