r days, and then when I do git here ye hustle me
right away agin."

"And you wouldn't be here now if I hadn't brought you," was the retort.
"You're getting more obstinate every day, Sam'l Tobin. I don't know
what's coming over you."

"Sense, Martha, jist common sense. I'm seein' things in a new light.
Every time I come home ye keep naggin' so much at me that I'm always
glad when I git on board the boat agin. I wish to goodness I was thar
now. Wonder how Eben's makin' out."

"Most likely he's asleep," Flo laughingly replied. "I'd like to go on
board and surprise him. Wouldn't it be fun? May I, mother? You and
daddy go to Mrs. Hampton's without me."

"Indeed you'll do no such a thing," her mother sharply replied. "We
don't want another drowning accident here like that one at Benton's
wharf."

"But I don't want to drown myself, mother. I'm not like that poor
unfortunate girl. She was running away from a man who wanted to marry
her. Do you think I'd do such a foolish thing as that? Indeed I
wouldn't. I wish that Lord Somebody-or-other would come my way. I'm
sure I wouldn't drown myself to get clear of him. He wouldn't get rid
of me so easily. I wonder what it feels like to have a Lord's son in
love with you. I think it would be great."

"Don't talk such nonsense, Flo," Mrs. Tobin chided. "Men are
deceivers, and the less you have to do with them the better. Just
think of that poor girl who drowned herself. No doubt she found out
what that Lord's son was like, and rather than marry him she ended her
life. Did you hear whether they found her body, Sam'l?"

The captain gave a guilty start, coughed, and stared at his wife. He
was afraid she would ask this question.

"No, I guess they didn't find her, Martha. They was searchin' the
river when we pulled out from Benton's. I haven't heard anything
since. She's Henry Randall's daughter, I believe."

"And his wife, Sam'l, was old Silas Parks' daughter. He was the real
estate man who sold that bed of rocks to Mr. Hampton. She was worth a
pile of money when she married Randall."

"Yes, an' I guess she's worth more to-day, Martha. She's a shrewd one,
all right, an' as close-fisted as her dad. My, it was a caution the
way he took Hampton in on that place. It really isn't worth five
cents."

"But there's coal on it, though, Sam'l, an' that should be worth a
great deal."

"Coal, ha, ha. Yes, thar's coal, but what good is it way back in the
h