t his hours alone.'

"'You, too, Tumm?'

"'_Me?_' says I. 'Good Heavens!'

"'Uh-huh,' says he. 'I 'low; but that don't comfort _me_ so very much.
You see, Tumm, I got t' live with myself, an' bein' quite well
acquainted with myself, I don't _like_ to. They isn't much domestic
peace in my ol' heart; an' they isn't no divorce court I ever heared
tell of, neither here nor hereafter, in which a man can free hisself
from his own damned soul.'

"'Never you mind,' says I.

"'Uh-huh,' says he. 'You see, I _don't_ mind. I--I--I jus' don't
_dast_! But if I could break the law, as I've been teached it,' says
he, 'they isn't nothin' in the world I'd rather do, Tumm, than found a
norphan asylum.'

"'Maybe you will,' says I.

"'Too late,' says he; 'you see, I'm fashioned.'

"He was."

Tumm laughed a little.

* * * * *

Tumm warned us: "You'll withhold your pity for a bit, I 'low. 'Tis not
yet due ol' Small Sam Small." He went on: "Small? An'--an' ecod! Small
Sam Small! He gained the name past middle age, they says, long afore I
knowed un; an' 'tis a pretty tale, as they tells it. He skippered the
_Last Chance_--a Twillingate fore-an'-after, fishin' the Labrador,
hand an' trap, between the Devil's Battery an' the Barnyards--the Year
o' the Third Big Haul. An' it seems he fell in love with the cook. God
save us! Sam Small in love with the cook! She was the on'y woman
aboard, as it used t' be afore the law was made for women; an' a sweet
an' likely maid, they says--a rosy, dimpled, good-natured lass,
hailin' from down Chain Tickle way, but over-young an' trustful, as it
turned out, t' be voyagin' north t' the fishin' with the likes o'
Small Sam Small. A hearty maid, they says--blue-eyed an' flaxen--good
for labor an' quick t' love. An' havin' fell in love with her,
whatever, Small Sam Small opened his heart for a minute, an' give her
his silver watch t' gain her admiration. 'You'll never tell the crew,
my dear,' says he, 'that I done such a foolish thing!' So the maid
stowed the gift in her box--much pleased, the while, they says, with
Small Sam Small--an' said never a word about it. She'd a brother t'
home, they says--a wee bit of a chappie with a lame leg--an' thinks
she, 'I'll give Billy my silver watch.'

"But Sam Small, bein' small, repented the gift; an' when the _Last
Chance_ dropped anchor in Twillingate harbor, loaded t' the gunwales
with green fish, he come scowlin' on deck.

"