en when the housekeeper,
dripping, but cheerful, appeared on the scene. She and Josiah had had a
stormy passage on the way down, for the easy-going Daniel had objected
to being asked to trot through drifts, and Mrs. Snow had insisted that
he should be made to do it. The ford was out of the question, so they
stalled the old horse in the Mayo barn and borrowed Abner's dory to make
the crossing.

Mrs. Snow took charge at once of the tired men, and the overtaxed Miss
Patience was glad enough to have her do it. Luther Davis was in bed,
and Captain Eri, after an hour's sojourn in the same snug harbor,
had utterly refused to stay there longer, and now, dressed in a suit
belonging to the commandant, was stretched upon a sofa in the front
room.

The Captain was the most surprised of all when Mrs. Snow appeared. He
fairly gasped when she first entered the room, and seemed to be struck
speechless, for he said scarcely a word while she dosed him with hot
drinks, rubbed his shoulder--the bone was not broken, but there was
a bruise there as big as a saucer--with the liniment, and made him
generally comfortable. He watched her every movement with a sort of
worshipful wonder, and seemed to be thinking hard.

Captain Davis, although feeling a little better, was still very weak,
and his sister and Captain Perez were with him. Josiah soon returned
to the Mayo homestead to act as ferryman for Dr. Palmer when the latter
should arrive, and Ralph, finding that there was nothing more that he
could do, went back to the cable station. The storm had abated somewhat
and the wind had gone down. Captain Eri and Mrs. Snow were alone in the
front room, and, for the first time since she entered the house, the
lady from Nantucket sat down to rest. Then the Captain spoke.

"Mrs. Snow," he said gravely, "I don't believe you've changed your
clothes sence you got here. You must have been soaked through, too. I
wish you wouldn't take such risks. You hadn't ought to have come over
here a day like this, anyway. Not but what the Lord knows it's good to
have you here," he added hastily.

The housekeeper seemed surprised.

"Cap'n Eri," she said, "I b'lieve if you was dyin' you'd worry for fear
somebody else wouldn't be comf'table while you was doing it. 'Twould
be pretty hard for me to change my clothes," she added, with a laugh,
"seein' that there probably ain't anything but men's clothes in the
place." Then, with a sigh, "Poor fellers, they won't need 'e