ain't got much time left to love you in. Fools?
Course they be, and I've told some of 'em so till I've got a sore throat
hollerin'. But, by the creepin'----"

"Judah! Has Phillips been saying things about me?"

"Hey? Him? No, no, no! He don't say nothin' about nobody no time,
nothin' out of the way, that is. He's always praisin' of you up, so they
tell me, and excusin' you and forgivin' you."

"Forgivin' me? What do you mean by that?"

"Hold on! don't get mad at _me_, Cap'n Sears. I mean when they say what
a pity 'tis that he, the man whose wife owned all this Seymour property
and the fifty thousand dollars and such--when they go to poorin' him and
heavin' overboard hints about how other folks have the spendin' of that
money and all--he just smiles, sad but sort of sweet, and says it's all
right, his dear Lobelia done what seemed to her proper, and if he has to
suffer a little grain, why, never mind.... That's the way he talks."

"But where do I come in on that?"

"Well--well, you don't really, Cap'n Sears. Course you don't. But
you--you have got the handlin' of that money, you know. And you are
gettin' wages for skipperin' the Fair Harbor. I've heard it said--not by
him, oh, creepin', no!--but by others, that _he_ ought to have that
skipper's job, if anybody had. Lots of folks seem to cal'late he'd ought
to _own_ the Harbor. But instead of that he don't own nothin', they say,
and scratches along in two rooms, down to Joe Macomber's, and,
underneath all his sufferin', he's just as sweet and uncomplainin' and
long-endurin' and--and high-toned and sociable and--and----"

"Yes, yes. I see. Do they say anything more? What about my bein'
Elizabeth Berry's trustee?"

Mr. Cahoon paused before replying. "Well, they do seem to hold that
against you some, I'm afraid," he admitted reluctantly. "I don't know
why they do. And they don't say much in front of me no more, 'cause,
they realize, I cal'late, that I'm about ready to knock a few of 'em
into the scuppers. But it--it just don't help you none, Cap'n, takin'
care of that money of Elizabeth's don't. And it does help that Eg
man.... Why? Don't ask me. I--I'm sick and disgusted. _I_ shan't go to
no church vestry to hear him lecture on Eyetalian paintin' or--or
glazin', or whatever 'tis. And have you noticed how they bow down and
worship him over to the Fair Harbor? Have you noticed Cordelia Berry?
She's makin' a dum fool of herself, ain't she? Not that that's a very
hard