don't see how you ever did it, Cap'n Kendrick," she declared. "And
Benijah and Mr. Paine are just as contented as we are. It is a miracle."

Sears grinned. "I don't know quite how I did it, myself," he said.
"'Twas the most complicated piece of steerin' I ever did, and if we come
out without shipwreck it _will_ be a miracle! I'm goin' to tackle that
hay question next. There's hay enough on that lower meadow of ours to
pay for corn for the hens for quite a spell. I'll see if I can't make a
dicker there somehow. Then if I can fix up a deal with the hens to trade
corn for eggs, we'll come out pretty well, won't we?"

This sort of thing interested him and made him a trifle more contented
with his work. His talents as a diplomat, such as they were, were needed
continually. The interior of the Fair Harbor was a sort of incubator for
petty squabbles, jealousies, prejudices and complaints, some funny, many
ridiculous, and almost all annoying. The most petty he refused to be
troubled with, bidding the complainants go to Mrs. Berry. His refusals
were good-natured but determined.

"Well, I tell you, Miss Peasley," he said, when that lady had come to
him with a long, involved wail concerning the manner in which Mrs.
Constance Cahoon, who occupied the seat next her at table, insisted on
keeping the window open all through meals, "so's I sit there with a
draft blowin' right down my neck the whole time." "I tell you, Miss
Peasley," said the captain, "if I were you I would shut the window."

"But I do shut it," declared Desire. "And every time I jump up and shut
it, up she bounces and opens it again."

"Humph! I see.... Well, exercise helps digestion, so they say. You can
jump as long as she can bounce, can't you?"

Miss Peasley was disgusted. "Well," she snapped, "I don't call that much
help. I supposed if I went to the _manager_ he'd put his foot down."

"He's goin' to--and then take it up and put it down again. I've got to
hobble out to see to mowin' the meadow. You tell Mrs. Berry all about
it."

As a part of his diplomacy he made it a point to spend half an hour each
morning in consultation with Cordelia Berry. The matron of the Fair
Harbor was at first rather suspicious and ready to resent any intrusion
upon her rights and prerogatives. But at each conference the captain
listened so politely to her rambling reports, seemed to receive her
suggestions so eagerly and to ask her advice upon so many points, that
her suspicions