bet you will, Cap'n Sears!" he vowed. "And if he ain't flat enough
then I'll come and jump on him. And I ain't no West Injy hummin'-bird
neither."

Kendrick's next move was to talk with his sister. Her visits at the
Minot place had not been quite as frequent of late. She came, of course,
but not as often, or so it seemed to the captain, and when she came she
carefully avoided all reference to her new boarder. Sears knew the
reason, or thought he did. He had hurt her feelings by intimating that
Mr. Phillips might not be as altogether speckless as she thought him. He
had not enthused over her giving up the best parlor to his Egbertship
and Sarah was disappointed. But, loyal and loving soul that she was, she
would not risk even the slightest disagreement with her brother, and so
when she called, spoke of everything or everybody but the possible cause
of such disagreement. Yet the cause was there and between brother and
sister, as between Elizabeth and Sears, lay the slim, lengthy,
gracefully undulating shadow of Judge Knowles' pet bugbear, who was
rapidly becoming Sears Kendrick's bugbear as well.

The captain had not visited the Macomber home more than twice since
Judah carted him away from it in the blue truck-wagon. One fine day,
however, he and the Foam Flake made the journey again, although with the
buggy, not the wagon. He chose a time when he knew Kent was almost
certain to be over at Bradley's office in Orham and when Phillips was
not likely to be in his rooms. Of course there was a chance that he
might encounter the latter, but he thought it unlikely. His guess was a
good one and Egbert was out, had gone for a ride, so Mrs. Macomber said.
Mrs. Cap'n Elkanah Wingate had furnished the necessary wherewithal for
riding. "The Wingates let him use their horse and team real often," said
Sarah. "They're awful fond of him, Mrs. Wingate especial. I don't know
as Cap'n Elkanah is so much; he is kind of cross-grained sometimes and
it's hard for him to like anybody very long."

She was hard at work, ironing this time, but she would have put the
flatiron back on the stove and taken her brother to the sitting room if
he had permitted. "The idea of a man like you, Sears, havin' to sit on
an old broken-down chair out here in the wash-shed," she exclaimed. "It
ain't fittin'."

The captain sniffed. "I guess if it's fittin' for you to be workin' out
here I shouldn't complain at sittin' here," he observed. "Is that Joel's
shirt?