ghter" owned up that
she "adored" 'em.

"If you knew," continues Mrs. Thompson, "how I've planned and contrived
to get this treasure. I've schemed--My! my! My daughter says she's
actually ashamed of me. Oh, no! I can't tell even you where I got it.
All's fair in love and collecting, you know, and there are more gems
where this came from."

She laughed and "my daughter" laughed, and the Duchess and "Irene dear"
laughed, too, and said the plate was "SO quaint," and all that, but
you could fairly hear 'em turn green with jealousy. It didn't need a
spyglass to see that they wouldn't ride easy at their own moorings till
THEY'D landed a treasure or two--probably two.

And sure enough, in a couple of days they bore down on the Thompsons,
all sail set and colors flying. They had a pair of plates that for
ugliness and price knocked the "ginuwine Hall nappy" higher 'n the main
truck. And the way they crowed and bragged about their "finds" wa'n't
fit to put in the log. The Dowager and "my daughter" left that dinner
table trembling all over.

Well, you can see how a v'yage would end that commenced that way.
The Dowager and Barbara would scour the neighborhood and capture more
prizes, and the Duchess and her tribe would get busy and go 'em one
better. That's one sure p'int about the collecting business--it'll stir
up a fight quicker'n anything I know of, except maybe a good looking
bachelor minister. The female Thompsons and Smalls was "my dear-in'"
each other more'n ever, but there was a chill setting in round them
piazza thrones, and some of the sarcastic remarks that was casually hove
out by the bosom friends was pretty nigh sharp enough to shave with. As
for Milo and Eddie, they still smoked together behind the barn, but the
atmosphere on the quarter-deck was affecting the fo'castle and there
wa'n't quite so many "old mans" and "dear boys" as there used to was.
There was a general white frost coming, and you didn't need an Old
Farmer's Almanac to prove it.

The spell of weather developed sudden. One evening me and Cap'n Jonadab
and Peter T. was having a confab by the steps of the billiard-room,
when Milo beats up from around the corner. He was smiling as a basket of
chips.

"Hello!" hails Peter T. cordial. "You look as if you'd had money left
you. Any one else remembered in the will?" he says.

Milo laughed all over. "Well, well," says he, "I AM feeling pretty good.
Made a ten-strike with Mrs. T. this afternoon for sure