meditation, "there was certain
a good many curiosities of human natur' in this neighborhood years ago.
There was more energy then, and in some the energy took a singular turn.
In these days the young folks is all copy-cats, 'fraid to death they
won't be all just alike; as for the old folks, they pray for the
advantage o' bein' a little different."

"I ain't heard of a copy-cat this great many years," said Mrs. Fosdick,
laughing; "'twas a favorite term o' my grandfather's. No, I wa'n't
thinking o' those things, but of them strange straying creatur's that
used to rove the country. You don't see them now, or the ones that used
to hive away in their own houses with some strange notion or other."

I thought again of Captain Littlepage, but my companions were not
reminded of his name; and there was brother William at Green Island,
whom we all three knew.

"I was talking o' poor Joanna the other day. I hadn't thought of her for
a great while," said Mrs. Fosdick abruptly. "Mis' Brayton an' I recalled
her as we sat together sewing. She was one o' your peculiar persons,
wa'n't she? Speaking of such persons," she turned to explain to me,
"there was a sort of a nun or hermit person lived out there for years
all alone on Shell-heap Island. Miss Joanna Todd, her name was,--a
cousin o' Almiry's late husband."

I expressed my interest, but as I glanced at Mrs. Todd I saw that she
was confused by sudden affectionate feeling and unmistakable desire for
reticence.

"I never want to hear Joanna laughed about," she said anxiously.

"Nor I," answered Mrs. Fosdick reassuringly. "She was crossed in
love,--that was all the matter to begin with; but as I look back, I can
see that Joanna was one doomed from the first to fall into a melancholy.
She retired from the world for good an' all, though she was a well-off
woman. All she wanted was to get away from folks; she thought she wasn't
fit to live with anybody, and wanted to be free. Shell-heap Island come
to her from her father, and first thing folks knew she'd gone off out
there to live, and left word she didn't want no company. 'Twas a bad
place to get to, unless the wind an' tide were just right; 'twas hard
work to make a landing."

"What time of year was this?" I asked.

"Very late in the summer," said Mrs. Fosdick. "No, I never could laugh
at Joanna, as some did. She set everything by the young man, an' they
were going to marry in about a month, when he got bewitched with a girl
'