, when
Eben drove the buggy out of the barn and Emma come skipping down the
piazza steps, I see him peeking out of the little winder.

The Kelly critter had all sail sot and colors flying. Her dress was some
sort of mosquito netting with wall-paper posies on it, and there was
more ribbons flapping than there is reef-p'ints on a mainsail. And
her hat! Great guns! It looked like one of them pictures you see in a
flower-seed catalogue.

"Oh!" she squeals, when she sees the buggy. "Oh! Mr. Cobb. Ain't you
afraid to go in that open carriage? It looks to me like rain."

But Eben waved his flipper, scornful. "My forecast this morning," says
he, "is cloudy now, but clearing by and by. You trust to me, Mis' Kelly.
Weather's my business."

"Of COURSE I trust you, Mr. Cobb," she says, "Of course I trust you, but
I should hate to spile my gown, that's all."

They drove out of the yard, fine as fiddlers, and I watched 'em go. When
I turned around, there was Beriah watching 'em too, and he was smiling
for the first time that morning. But it was one of them kind of smiles
that makes you wish he'd cry.

At ha'f-past ten it begun to sprinkle; at eleven 'twas raining hard; at
noon 'twas a pouring, roaring, sou'easter, and looked good for the next
twelve hours at least.

"Good Lord! Beriah," says Cap'n Jonadab, running into the Weather
Bureau, "you've missed stays THIS time, for sure. Has your
prophecy-works got indigestion?" he says.

But Beriah wasn't there. The shanty was closed, and we found out
afterwards that he spent that whole day in the store down at the Port.

By two o'clock 'twas so bad that I put on my ileskins and went over to
Wellmouth and telephoned to the Setuckit Beach life-saving station
to find out if the clambakers had got there right side up. They'd got
there; fact is, they was in the station then, and the language Peter
hove through that telephone was enough to melt the wires. 'Twas all in
the shape of compliments to the prophet, and I heard Central tell him
she'd report it to the head office. Brown said 'twas blowing so they'd
have to come back by the inside channel, and that meant landing 'way up
Harniss way, and hiring teams to come to the Port with from there.

'Twas nearly eight when they drove into the yard and come slopping
up the steps. And SUCH a passel of drownded rats you never see. The
women-folks made for their rooms, but the men hopped around the parlor,
shedding puddles with every hop, and