er in, and I'm goin'
to try to git one to-day. I bet my hat they have 'em to Coney
Island."

I tried to stop him. I didn't want him to demean himself before the
oarsmen and onlookers by tryin' to find boats that hadn't been hearn
on in hundreds of years. But I couldn't git the idea out of his head
till after dinner. Then he wuz more meller and inclined to listen to
reason. It wuz a oncommon good meal, and he felt quite softened down
in his mean by the time he finished. And Whitfield's boatman he'd
engaged come with a good sizeable boat and we sot sail for Shadow
Island.

[Illustration: "_I tried to stop him. I didn't want him to demean
himself before the oarsmen tryin' to find boats that
hadn't been hearn on in hundreds of years._" (_See
page 67_)]

When we got there the sun wuz tingin' the tops of the trees with its
bright light, but the water on the nigh side, where we landed, wuz
cool and green and shadowy. Dretful fresh and restful and comfortable
that hot muggy day.

We disembarked on the clean little wharf and walked up to the lot
Whitfield had bought. It wuz a pretty place in a kind of a holler
between high rocks, but with a full and fair view of the river on the
nigh side, on the off side and on the back the tall trees riz up. The
site of the house mebby bein' so low down wuz the reason that there
wuz good deep earth there. Tirzah Ann spoke of that most the first
thing:--

"I can have a good suller, can't I?"

Whitfield spoke first of the view from the river, and little Delight
sez, "Oh what soft pretty grass."

Josiah looked round for a minute on the entrancin' beauty of the water
and the islands and up into the green shadders of the trees overhead,
and then off into the soft blue haze that wrapped the beautiful shores
in the distance. After gazin' silently for a minute he turned to me
and sez, "Didn't you bring any nut cakes with you? I'd like one to eat
whilst I think of another Island far more beautiful than this, where I
yearn to be."

I groaned in spirit but handed him the desired refreshment, and then
we talked over the subject of the cottage. Whitfield thought it would
be splendid for the health of Tirzah Ann and the children, to say
nothin' of their happiness. She and Delight both looked kinder
pimpin', and he sez, "Mother, I've got the lot, and now I am going to
lay up money just as fast as I can for our house; I hope we can live
here in a year or two anyway."

Well, we stayed here for q