make
a fust-class wife for any man. I hope you'll say so, too, when you
see her. There ain't nothin' hity-tity about her, but she's got more
common-sense than any woman I ever saw. But there! I shan't talk another
bit about her to-night. Come on home and turn in."

And go home and turn in they did, but not without protestation from the
pair who had yet to meet the woman from Nantucket.

CHAPTER VI

THE SCHOOLHOUSE BELL RINGS

"All hands on deck! Turn out there! Turnout!"

Captain Eri grunted and rolled over in his bed; for a moment or two he
fancied himself back in the fo'castle of the Sea Mist, the bark in which
he had made his first voyage. Then, as he grew wider awake, he heard,
somewhere in the distance, a bell ringing furiously.

"Turn out, all hands! Turn out!"

Captain Eri sat up. That voice was no part of a dream. It belonged to
Captain Jerry, and the tone of it meant business. The bell continued to
ring.

"Aye, aye, Jerry! What's the matter?" he shouted.

"Fire! There's a big fire up in the village. Look out of the window, and
you can see. They're ringing the schoolhouse bell; don't you hear it?"

The Captain, wide awake enough by this time, jumped out of bed, carrying
the blankets with him, and ran to the window. Opening it, he thrust out
his head. The wind had changed to the eastward, and a thick fog had come
in with it. The house was surrounded by a wet, black wall, but off to
the west a red glow shone through it, now brighter and now fainter. The
schoolhouse bell was turning somersaults in its excitement.

Only once, since Captain Jerry had been janitor, had the schoolhouse
bell been rung except in the performance of its regular duties. That
once was on a night before the Fourth of July, when some mischievous
youngsters climbed in at a window and proclaimed to sleeping Orham that
Young America was celebrating the anniversary of its birth. Since then,
on nights before the Fourth, Captain Jerry had slept in the schoolhouse,
armed with a horsewhip and an ancient navy revolver. The revolver was
strictly for show, and the horsewhip for use, but neither was called
into service, for even if some dare-devil spirits did venture near the
building, the Captain's snores, as he slumbered by the front door, were
danger signals that could not be disregarded.

But there was no flavor of the Fourth in the bell's note this night.
Whoever the ringer might be, he was ringing as though it was his only
hope