not interested, but I'll believe it with
pleasure if you wish me to."

"I don't wish nothin'. You've GOT to believe it. And whether you stay
here ten minutes or ten years you've got to mind your own business. I
won't have any hints or questions about me--from you nor nobody else.
'Mind your own business,' that's the motto of Eastboro Twin-Lights,
while I'm boss of 'em. If you don't like it--well, the village is only
five mile off, and I'll p'int out the road to you."

He delivered this ultimatum with extraordinary energy. Then he reached
for his overturned chair, set it on its legs, and threw himself into it.
"Well," he demanded, after a moment; "what do you say to that?"

"Hurrah!" replied Mr. Brown cheerfully.

"Hurrah? For the land sakes! . . . Say, CAN'T you talk sensible, if you
try real hard and set your mind to it? What is there to hurrah about?"

"Everything. The whole situation. Atkins," Brown leaned forward now and
spoke with earnestness, "I like your motto. It suits me. 'Mind your own
business' suits me down to the ground. It proves that you and I were
made to work together in a place just like this."

"Does, hey? I want to know!"

"You do know. Why, just think: each of us has pleaded 'not guilty.'
We've done nothing--we're entirely innocent--and we want to forget it.
I agree not to ask you how old you are, nor why you wear your brand of
whiskers, nor how you like them, nor--nor anything. I agree not to ask
questions at all."

"Humph! but you asked some last night."

"Purely by accident. You didn't answer them. You asked me some, also,
if you will remember, and I didn't answer them, either. Good! We forget
everything and agree not to do it again."

"Ugh! I tell you I ain't done nothin'."

"I know. Neither have I. Let the dead past be its own undertaker, so
far as we are concerned. I'm honest, Atkins, and tolerably straight. I
believe you are; I really do. But we don't care to talk about ourselves,
that's all. And, fortunately, kind Providence has brought us together in
a place where there's no one else TO talk. I like you, I credit you with
good taste; therefore, you must like me."

"Hey? Ho, ho!" Seth laughed, in spite of himself. "Young man," he
observed, "you ain't cultivated your modesty under glass, have you?"

Brown smiled. "Joking aside," he said, "I don't see why I shouldn't, in
time, make an ideal assistant lightkeeper. Give me a trial, at any rate.
I need an employer; you need a help