ne; and frowned impatiently, but I saw a tear
shining on his cheek.

I said that I must be going, it was growing late, and asked if I might
come again, and if he would take me out to the fishing grounds someday.

"Yes, come any time you want to," said my host, "'tain't so pleasant as
when poor dear was here. Oh, I didn't want to lose her an' she didn't
want to go, but it had to be. Such things ain't for us to say; there's
no yes an' no to it."

"You find Almiry Todd one o' the best o' women?" said Mr. Tilley as we
parted. He was standing in the doorway and I had started off down the
narrow green field. "No, there ain't a better hearted woman in the State
o' Maine. I've known her from a girl. She's had the best o' mothers. You
tell her I'm liable to fetch her up a couple or three nice good mackerel
early tomorrow," he said. "Now don't let it slip your mind. Poor dear,
she always thought a sight o' Almiry, and she used to remind me there
was nobody to fish for her; but I don't rec'lect it as I ought to. I see
you drop a line yourself very handy now an' then."

We laughed together like the best of friends, and I spoke again about
the fishing grounds, and confessed that I had no fancy for a southerly
breeze and a ground swell.

"Nor me neither," said the old fisherman. "Nobody likes 'em, say what
they may. Poor dear was disobliged by the mere sight of a bo't. Almiry's
got the best o' mothers, I expect you know; Mis' Blackett out to Green
Island; and we was always plannin' to go out when summer come; but
there, I couldn't pick no day's weather that seemed to suit her just
right. I never set out to worry her neither, 'twa'n't no kind o' use;
she was so pleasant we couldn't have no fret nor trouble. 'Twas never
'you dear an' you darlin'' afore folks, an' 'you divil' behind the
door!"

As I looked back from the lower end of the field I saw him still
standing, a lonely figure in the doorway. "Poor dear," I repeated to
myself half aloud; "I wonder where she is and what she knows of the
little world she left. I wonder what she has been doing these eight
years!"

I gave the message about the mackerel to Mrs. Todd.

"Been visitin' with 'Lijah?" she asked with interest. "I expect you had
kind of a dull session; he ain't the talkin' kind; dwellin' so much long
o' fish seems to make 'em lose the gift o' speech." But when I told
her that Mr. Tilley had been talking to me that day, she interrupted me
quickly.

"Then 'twas all