ourtship and Matrimony' from a last year's pill
almanac, if somebody showed him."

Once around the corner of the beach from Pegleg's shanty, Abner
danced a hornpipe, shocking a flock of gulls.

"Thirty-five cents from twenty-five dollars leaves twenty-four
dollars and sixty-five cents," he calculated swiftly. "And I'll get
a mess of clams beside. The papers will be mentionin' me as a
financier pretty soon."

"Did Pegleg suspect anything?" was Captain Enoch's first question
when Abner returned in triumph.

"Oh, he suspected," replied Abner jubilantly. "He wouldn't be Pegleg
if he didn't. But I didn't help him any, and he looked dreadful
disappointed. You can eat your chowder in peace, if you ain't so
love sick you've lost your appetite."

"It ain't hurt my appetite a mite," retorted the Captain. "And I
ain't goin' to let it. Let's see that book. I want to find out how
much I've be'n cheated."

With trembling fingers Captain Enoch turned to the chapter of
proposals. "'How to Propose to a Fat Lady,'" he read. "Humph!
M'lissy ain't fat. 'How to Propose to a Lady of Dignity and
Refinement. 'That sounds more like it. But the big words are thicker
than a school of mummychogs."

"Read it out loud," urged Abner.

Captain Enoch put a long forefinger on the first line and cleared
his throat.

"'Dear and esteemed lady,'" he began, "'it is with deep respect that
I venture to introduce the subject of matrimony in your presence.
You are my ideal of womanhood and your smile is more precious to me
than the Kohinoor.' What's the Kohinoor?" he asked, pausing.

"Skip it," suggested Abner. "I ain't no 'cyclopedia. Go on."

"'It is with painful trep-trep-trepidation that I bring my suit
before you.'"

Captain Enoch paused again. "'Suit?'" he repeated. "I don't see how
that fits in. What's a suit got to do with a proposal?"

"Mebbe it's a hint that you might want your clo's mended after you
was married," decided Abner. "Anyway, it sounds all right the way
it's wrote. Stop a stoppin'. You never'll git it read, if you don't
keep goin'."

Thus adjured the captain proceeded. "'Oh, dear one, beloved lady of
my dreams, my own--' There's a blank place. It says under it, 'name
of lady.'"

"Wall, say M'lissy," interjected Abner.

Captain Enoch's bronzed countenance was the color of a tomato on a
tin can, but he went on valiantly, "'My own M'lissy, come to my arms,
and fill my measure of happiness to overflowing by promising to