eturned to a safe level.

As we came down the hill toward the village our ways divided, and when
I had seen the old captain well started on a smooth piece of sidewalk
which would lead him to his own door, we parted, the best of friends.
"Step in some afternoon," he said, as affectionately as if I were a
fellow-shipmaster wrecked on the lee shore of age like himself. I
turned toward home, and presently met Mrs. Todd coming toward me with an
anxious expression.

"I see you sleevin' the old gentleman down the hill," she suggested.

"Yes. I've had a very interesting afternoon with him," I answered, and
her face brightened.

"Oh, then he's all right. I was afraid 'twas one o' his flighty spells,
an' Mari' Harris wouldn't"--

"Yes," I returned, smiling, "he has been telling me some old stories,
but we talked about Mrs. Begg and the funeral beside, and Paradise
Lost."

"I expect he got tellin' of you some o' his great narratives," she
answered, looking at me shrewdly. "Funerals always sets him goin'. Some
o' them tales hangs together toler'ble well," she added, with a sharper
look than before. "An' he's been a great reader all his seafarin' days.
Some thinks he overdid, and affected his head, but for a man o' his
years he's amazin' now when he's at his best. Oh, he used to be a
beautiful man!"

We were standing where there was a fine view of the harbor and its long
stretches of shore all covered by the great army of the pointed firs,
darkly cloaked and standing as if they waited to embark. As we looked
far seaward among the outer islands, the trees seemed to march seaward
still, going steadily over the heights and down to the water's edge.

It had been growing gray and cloudy, like the first evening of autumn,
and a shadow had fallen on the darkening shore. Suddenly, as we looked,
a gleam of golden sunshine struck the outer islands, and one of them
shone out clear in the light, and revealed itself in a compelling way to
our eyes. Mrs. Todd was looking off across the bay with a face full of
affection and interest. The sunburst upon that outermost island made
it seem like a sudden revelation of the world beyond this which some
believe to be so near.

"That's where mother lives," said Mrs. Todd. "Can't we see it plain? I
was brought up out there on Green Island. I know every rock an' bush on
it."

"Your mother!" I exclaimed, with great interest.

"Yes, dear, cert'in; I've got her yet, old's I be. She's one of them