ter?" I asked her. "You speak in such a weary, discouraged
way that you must be getting ill. You have simply tired yourself to death
over that boy of Frenchy's. By George! But I'll be glad when we get away
from this place!"

And then the minx looked at me, just as sweetly as ever, and her voice
had that little caressing tone of hers.

"Don't worry, dear Daddy, I'll have plenty of rest at sea," she told me.

So we had our breakfast, very pleasantly, and I was thanking my stars
that all our troubles would be over in no time, little thinking that
they were just beginning. So I rose, and took my stout cane, very proud
of showing the population how nicely I could walk, and went out on the
porch, ready to go on board the yacht. The men were coming up to get our
baggage and the furniture we had taken from the _Snowbird_, and Susie
was ready to boss them. Then Helen, who had run upstairs, came down and
joined me.

"I'll help you down the road, Daddy," she said, "and after that I'll run
back to Frenchy's. I hear that Mr. Barnett went off somewhere in the
middle of the night, so as to return in time to see us off. He will be
back soon, and an hour or so won't matter, will it? The _Snowbird_
doesn't run on a schedule, Dad."

I looked at my watch, it was a quarter to nine.

"We're off by ten," I said. "First thing I know we won't get away till
afternoon if I listen to you another minute."

We had gone but a very little way down the road, which is nothing but a
deplorable sort of goat-path or gutter running down the side of the hill,
when we saw Dr. Grant coming down from Sammy's house, and the old
fisherman was remonstrating with him. My dear Jennie, it gave me the
shock of my life! The young man was actually staggering, and I
immediately decided that he was drunker than a whole batch of lords.

"Yer isn't fit ter be goin'," the old fellow was objecting. "Ye jist come
back ter th' house an' git ter bed, where ye belongs. Ye'll get a mite
o' sleep an' feel better. 'Tain't fair ter be goin' again right off. You
can't hardly be a-holdin' of yerself up."

Of course all this made me positive that the doctor had been hitting a
bottle pretty hard, and I was angry and sorry that Helen should see it
too, because she's taken a huge liking to that chap, and hitherto I could
hardly blame her. When I turned to her she was staring at him, and looked
as if some one had hit her with a club.

"It is too bad, daughter," I said. "I would n