so handy here that it fits in first rate. And, besides, it sounds so
natural. My dad called me 'Bos'n' when I was little."

Emily accepted the title complacently. She was quite contented to be
called almost anything, so long as she was permitted to stay with her
new friend. Already the bos'n had taken charge of the deck and the rest
of the ship's company; Captain Cy and "Lonesome," the cat, obeyed her
orders.

On the second Sunday morning after her arrival "Bos'n" suggested that
she and Captain Cy go to church.

"Mother and I always went at home," she said. "And Auntie Oliver used to
say meeting was a good thing for those that needed it."

"Think I need it, do you?" asked the captain, who, in shirt sleeves and
slippers, had prepared for a quiet forenoon with his pipe and the Boston
Transcript.

"I don't know, sir. I heard what you said when Lonesome ate up the
steak, and I thought maybe you hadn't been for a long time. I guess
churches are different in South America."

So they went to church and sat in the old Whittaker pew. The captain had
been there once before when he first returned to Bayport, but the sermon
was more somnolent than edifying, and he hadn't repeated the experiment.
The pair attracted much attention. Fragments of a conversation, heard
by Captain Cy as they emerged into the vestibule, had momentous
consequences.

"Kind of a pretty child, ain't she?" commented Mrs. Eben Salters,
patting her false front into place under the eaves of her Sunday bonnet.

"Pretty enough in the face," sniffed Mrs. "Tad" Simpson, who was wearing
her black silk for the first time since its third making-over. "Pretty
enough that way, I s'pose. But, my land! look at the way she's
rigged. Old dress, darned and patched up and all outgrown! If I had
Cy Whittaker's money I'd be ashamed to have a relation of mine come to
meetin' that way. Even if her folks was poorer'n Job's off ox I'd spend
a little on my own account and trust to getting it back some time. I'd
have more care for my own self-respect. Look at Alicia Atkins. See how
nice she looks. Them feathers on her hat must have cost somethin', I bet
you. Howdy do, 'Licia, dear? When's your pa comin' home?"

The Honorable Heman had left town on a business trip to the South.
Alicia was accompanied by the Atkins housekeeper and, as usual, was
garbed regardless of expense.

Mrs. Salters smiled sweetly upon the Atkins heir and then added, in a
church whisper: "Don't she look