t
know it then, fur ye was just a round bundle--in her arms. Mrs. Jo G.
always speaks to the p'int when she does speak," Davy continued, "an'
all she said was, 'This is all that's left, Cap'n Billy--the mother's
gone!'"

"Oh! my Cap'n!" murmured Janet; "and only to-night I have heard this!"

"Now don't take on, Janet!" David clumsily stroked the pretty head that
had found a resting place upon the iron railing. "It was because Billy
hated any takin' on that he kept mum. Him an' me an' Mrs. Jo G. we have
always acted as if nothin' unusual had happened. Ye had a stormy voyage,
child, an' Billy wanted that ye should have calm, while he was in
control."

"Oh! Cap'n Billy, my poor old Daddy! And I've been a wild, uncaring
girl, David. Never taking hold like the others! Just following Daddy
about, and being a burden! And to think it was--it was boarders that
aroused me! Oh! Davy, it makes me sick."

"Now see here, Janet!" David got up and walked twice around the little
gallery. "I ain't a-sayin' but what ye ought t' be helpin' yerself an'
takin' anxiety off o' Billy: but I do say that it ain't goin' t' ease
Billy any, if ye go gallivantin' off to the Hills with any fool notion
that good looks is goin' t' help ye."

"They always help, Cap'n David, always!" Janet's assertion came through
a muffled sob. "You mustn't think I care for my looks myself. I'd just
as soon be as peaked and blue-white as Mrs. Jo G.'s Maud, but I know
pretty looks are just so much to the good--"

"Or bad!" broke in David.

"Well, have it that way. But it is according to how you use them. I'm
going to use my good looks wisely!"

"By gum!" muttered David. This was his escape valve. When other words
failed, "by gum" eased the tension. "Ye ain't much on looks, Janet, when
ye come to that," he said presently. "Ye ain't tidy, nor tasty; ye ain't
a likely promise fur what a handy woman ought t' be. Yer powerful breezy
an' uncertain, an' yer unlike what folks is use t'."

"Davy!" Janet came in front of him and the light fell full upon her.
"Davy, you just listen and see how wise I am! Do you know why the city
folks have come to Quinton? We never, at least not many of us, saw
anything very splendid about the Hills, the dunes and the bay, now did
we?"

"The fact is, we didn't!"

"Well, these people are wild about them because they are unlike the
common things they are used to. I am like Quinton, Davy; I know it way
down in my heart. You won't catch m