nd he smiled broadly. "Why,
by Henry," he declared, "I ain't heard you talk that way afore since you
shipped aboard this General Minot craft along of me. That's the way you
used to poke fun at me aboard the old _Wild Ranger_ when we was makin'
port after a good v'yage. What's happened to spruce you up so? Doctor
ain't told you any special good news about them legs of yours, has he,
Cap'n? Limpin' Moses, I wisht that was it."

Sears shook his head. "No, Judah," he replied. "No such luck as that.
It's just my natural foolishness, I guess. And I'm goin' to the theater
to-night, too, all by myself. Think of it. Do you wonder I feel like a
boy in his first pair of long trousers?"

Mr. Cahoon's whisker-framed face expressed doubt and foreboding. "I
ain't sure yit that I'm doin' right in lettin' you pilot yourself down
to that town hall," he declared. "It ain't that I'm scart of the horse
runnin' away, or nothin' like that, you understand, but----"

His lodger burst into a roar of laughter.

"Runnin' away!" he repeated. "Judah, foam flakes drift away pretty often
and sometimes they blow away, but I never saw one run away yet. And if
this Foam Flake of yours ever started to run I should die of surprise
before anything else could happen to me. Don't worry about me. You'll be
here to help me aboard the buggy, when I'm ready to leave port, and
there'll be plenty of folks at the hall to help me out of it when I get
there. So I'll be all right and to spare."

"Um--well, maybe so. But it seems to me like takin' risks just the same.
Now, Cap'n Sears, why don't you let me drive you down, same as I always
do drive you? What makes you so sot on goin' alone?"

The captain did not answer for a moment. Then he said, "Judah, for a
good many long weeks--yes, and months--I've been havin' somebody drive
me or steer me or order me. To-night, by the Lord A'mighty, _I'm_ goin'
to drive and give my own orders."

"But the doctor----"

"The doctor doesn't know. And if you tell him I'll--well, you'll need
him, that's all. Every dog has its day, Judah, and this is my night."

"But it's goin' to rain and----"

"It isn't.... And, if it does, haven't you and I seen enough water not
to be afraid of it?"

"Salt water--yes; but----"

"There aren't any buts. That'll do, Judah. Go for'ard." So Mr. Cahoon,
obeying orders, went for'ard; that is, he went into the kitchen, and
Sears Kendrick was left upon the seat beneath the locust tree to smoke
an