'd never do for un, Skipper John."

"No?"

"Never. They're not suited to each other at all. He'd be mis'able with
her."

Skipper John grinned.

"Poor Dickie!" he sighed.

Peggy Lacey was in tears at last.

"Father John," she sobbed, "I'm jus' desperate with fear an' grief. I
can't bear it no longer." She began to pace the floor in a tumult of
emotion. "I can't breathe," said she. "I'm stifled. My heart's like t'
burst with pain." She paused--she turned to Skipper John, swaying
where she stood, her hands pitifully reaching toward the old man, her
face gray and dull with the agony she could no longer endure; and her
eyes closed, and her head dropped, and her voice fell to a broken
whisper. "Oh, hold me!" she entreated. "I'm sick. I'll fall."

Skipper John took her in his arms.

"Ah, hush!" he crooned. "'Tis not so bad as all that. An' he's not
worth it, the great dunderhead!"

Peggy Lacey pushed Skipper John away.

"I'll not yield t' nobody!" she stormed, her soft little face gone
hard with a savage determination. Her red little lips curled and the
nostrils of her saucy little nose contemptuously expanded. "I've
neither eye-glasses nor grammar," said she, "but I'll ensnare Dickie
Blue for all that."

"I would," said Skipper John.

"I will!"

"An' without scruple!"

"Not a twinge!"

"I'd have no mercy."

"Not I!"

"An' I'd encourage no delay."

"Skipper John, do you write that letter t' St. John's this very day,"
said Peggy, her soft, slender little body magnificently drawn up to
the best of its alluring inches. She snapped, "We'll see what comes o'
that!"

"Hoosh!" Skipper John gloated.

"Waste no time, sir. 'Tis a ticklish matter."

"The answer will be shipped straight t' you, Peggy. 'Twill be here in
less 'n a fortnight." Skipper John broke into a wild guffaw of
laughter. "An' Dickie himself will fetch the trap for his own feet,
ecod!"

Peggy remained grave.

"I'm determined," she declared. "There's nothin' will stop me now.
I'll do it, no matter what."

"Well, then," said Skipper John, "I 'low 'tis all over but the
weddin'."

Skipper John privately thought, after all, that a good deal of fuss
was being made over the likes o' Dickie Blue. And I think so too.
However, the affair was Peggy Lacey's. And doubtless she knew her own
business well enough to manage it without ignorant criticism.

In the Winter weather, when the coast was locked in with ice, and
continuing until the first