'n' riggin' o' my left-hand upper jaw.

"I was in sech a desp'rit agerny to git home that night I got onto
Leony's father's old white mar', 't was feedin' along by the road, an'
puttin' of 'er deown the hill, I'm dumed ef she didn't stumble and hove
me clean over her bows----"

"Father!"

"Wal, mother?"

"Ye swore, father!"

"Wal, thar'! mebbe I did, mother. But ye know when I jined the church
forty year ago, there was a kind o' takkit agreement atween Parson Roe
'n' me 't I could sweer when I wastellin' that pertick'lar story.

"Wal, the rute o' the matter was, 't as soon 's I was healed up inter
some shape ag'in, I went and see Phoeby Hamlin--she 't was."

No need for personal explanation. Captain Leezur's tone! Mother
Leezur's softly shrouded eyes!

"'What'll ye have for tea, Leezur?' says she. 'They ain't nothin' I
likes so well,' says I, ''s a mess o' codfish mixed up along o' eggs
and thickenin'.' Wal, Phoeby, she went eout, and she was gone a long
time--looked kind o' 's though I was gittin' into port.

"'Nd thar I sot and sot; 'nd every minute 't I sot there I was gittin'
surer somehow 't I was sightin' land. By 'n' by, Phoeby, she comes in,
and we sot deown together, 'nd I kep' takin' one help arfter another;
for arfter what I'd been through I was goin' to make sure whether I'd
got inter safe harbor or not. But deown she all went, slick as ile,
an' nary bone nor sign o' bone anywheres.

"'Phoeby,' says I, 'ye've wrarstled, and ye've conquered!' 'What on
'arth d'ye mean, Leezur?' says she. For figgeral language, ye know,
requires a very moderate dispersition; and women, even the moderatest
on 'em, haves tew quick perceptions for t' be entertained long with
figgeral language."

X

A CALL FROM NOTELY'S YACHT

"Why did you never come? I sent for you."

"I was afraid, Vesty, that new burden of motherhood, which you carried,
might take some physical mark or blight from a presence like mine. But
he is beautiful!"

He lay upon her arm, and he was beautiful, full fed from her breasts,
formed large and fair, his hair already waved as by a court barber!
Her eyes rested on him. Would all the weak and miserable of the world
be well-nigh forgotten now? She raised them to me again--Basin
eyes--all the weak and miserable of the world were dearer.

"He looks that proud way," she laughed, "when the boys play him to
sleep; they played him to sleep again before they went to their traps
thi