broken. "I tell ye I feel as if I was tied in a bag of fleas," said
the distressed mariner, and his pastor turned away to cough, hoping to
hide the smile that would come. "Widders an' old maids, they're busier
than the divil in a gale o' wind," grumbled the captain. "Poor Ann,
she was worth every one of 'em lashed together, and here you find me
with a head-wind every way I try to steer." The minister was a man at
any rate; his very presence was a protection.

Some wretched days went by while Captain Ball tried to keep his lonely
house with the assistance of one Silas Jenkins, who had made several
voyages with him as cook, but they soon proved that the best of
sailors may make the worst of housekeepers. Life looked darker and
darker, and when, one morning, Silas inadvertently overheated and
warped the new cooking stove, which had been the pride of Miss Ball's
heart, the breakfastless captain dismissed him in a fit of blind rage.
The captain was first cross and then abject when he went hungry, and
in this latter stage was ready to abase himself enough to recall Widow
Sparks, his sister's lieutenant, who lived close by in Ropewalk Lane,
forgetting that he had driven her into calling him an old hog two days
after the funeral. He groaned aloud as he thought of her, but reached
for his hat and cane, when there came a gentle feminine rap at the
door.

"Let 'em knock!" grumbled the captain, angrily, but after a moment's
reflection, he scowled and went and lifted the latch.

There stood upon the doorstep a middle-aged woman, with a pleasant
though determined face. The captain scowled again, but involuntarily
opened his fore-door a little wider.

"Capt'in Asaph Ball, I presume?"

"The same," answered the captain.

"I've been told, sir, that you need a housekeeper, owing to recent
affliction."

There was a squally moment of resistance in the old sailor's breast,
but circumstances seemed to be wrecking him on a lee shore. Down came
his flag on the run.

"I can't say but what I do, ma'am," and with lofty courtesy, such as
an admiral should use to his foe of equal rank, the master of the
house signified that his guest might enter. When they were seated
opposite each other in the desolate sitting-room he felt himself the
weaker human being of the two. Five years earlier, and he would have
put to sea before the week's end, if only to gain the poor freedom of
a coastwise lime schooner.

"Well, speak up, can't ye?" he said, t