eems 's if there was a Providence in it:
seems 's if you was kind of SENT--there!"

"I don't know what you must think of me answerin' an advertisement for
a husband that way. It makes me 'shamed of myself when I think of it, I
declare. And in that kind of a paper, too."

"I've wondered more times than a few how you ever got a hold of that
paper. 'Tain't one you'd see every day nat'rally, you know."

Mrs. Snow paused before she answered. Then she said slowly, "Well, I'm
s'prised you ain't asked that afore. I haven't said much about myself
sence I've been here, for no p'tic'lar reason that I know of, except
that there wasn't much to tell and it wasn't a very interestin' yarn to
other folks. My husband's name was Jubal Snow--"

"You don't say!" exclaimed the Captain. "Why, Jerry used to know him."

"I shouldn't wonder. Jubal knew a lot of folks on the Cape here. He
was a good husband--no better anywheres--and he and I had a good life
together long as he was well. I've sailed a good many v'yages with him,
and I feel pretty nigh as much at home on the water as I do on land.
Our trouble was the same that a good many folks have; we didn't cal'late
that fair weather wouldn't last all the time, that's all.

"It wasn't his fault any more than 'twas mine. We saved a little money,
but not enough, as it turned out. Well, he was took down sick and had to
give up goin' to sea, and we had a little place over in Nantucket, and
settled down on it. Fust along, Jubal was able to do a little farmin'
and so on, and we got along pretty well, but by and by he got so he
wa'n't able to work, and then 'twas harder. What little we'd saved went
for doctor's bills and this, that, and t'other. He didn't like to have
me leave him, so I couldn't earn much of anything, and fin'lly we come
to where somethin' had to be done right away, and we talked the thing
over and decided to mortgage the house. The money we got on the mortgage
lasted until he died.

"He had a little life insurance, not enough, of course, but a little. He
was plannin' to take on more, but somehow it never seemed as if he could
die, he so big and strong, and we put it off until he got so he couldn't
pass the examination. When the insurance money come I took it to Jedge
Briar, a mighty good friend of Jubal's and mine and the one that held
the mortgage on the house, and I told him I wanted to pay off the
mortgage with it, so's I'd have the house free and clear. But the Jedge
advise