h me? What have I done? Or what do they
say I've done?"

Judah was very much embarrassed. His trouble showed in his face above
the whiskers. He had been bending over the cookstove singing at the top
of his lungs the interminable chantey dealing with the fortunes of one
Reuben Ranzo.

"'Ranzo was no sailor,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Ranzo was a tailor,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

"'Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo!
_Ranzo_, boys, Ranzo!
Hurrah for Reuben Ranzo!
_Ranzo_, boys, _Ranzo_!

"'Ranzo was no sailor,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
He shipped on board a whaler,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!'"

And so on, forever and forever. Judah had reached the point where:

"They set him holy-stonin',
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
And cared not for his groanin',
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

"_'Oh_, poor Reuben Ranzo!
_Ranzo_, boys, Ranzo!
Hurrah for----'

"Eh? Did you say somethin', Cap'n Sears?"

Sears repeated his question, and then, as no answer seemed to be
forthcoming, repeated it once more, with an order to "step lively."
Judah groaned and shook his head.

"I've been sort of afraid you might think somethin' was queer, Cap'n
Sears," he admitted. "I was hopin' you wouldn't, though, not till it
begun to blow over. All them kind of things do blow over, give 'em time.
One voyage I took--to Shanghai, seems to me 'twas, either that or Rooshy
somewheres--there was a ship's carpenter aboard and word got spread
around that he had a wooden leg. Now he didn't, you know; matter of fact,
all he had out of the way with him was a kind of--er--er--sheet-iron
stove lid, as you might call it, riveted onto the top of his head. He
was in the Mexican war, seemed so, and one of them cannon balls had caved
in his upper deck, you understand, and them doctors they----"

"Here, here, Judah! I didn't ask you about any iron-headed carpenters,
did I?"

"No; no, you never, Cap'n Sears. But what I started to say was that----"

"All right, but you stick to what I want you to say. Tell me what's the
matter with me in Bayport?"

Judah groaned again. "It 'tain't so much that there's any great that's
wrong along of you, Cap'n," he said, "as 'tis that there ain't nothin'
but what's so everlastin' right with another feller. That's the way I
size it up, and I've been takin' observations for quite a spell. Bayport
folks are spendin' seven days in the week lovin' this Egbert Phillips.
Consequentially they