r enthusiastic concerning
a scene which must be so very much a matter of course to him.

"The Almighty done a good job when He built that," observed Captain
Jethro, waving his hand toward the Atlantic. "Don't never get tired
of lookin' at salt water, I don't, and yet I've been in it or on it or
around it pretty much all my life. And now I'm up above it," he added,
thoughtfully. "We're pretty high up where we are now, Mr. Bangs. I like
to set up here and--er--well, kind of think about things, sometimes....
Humph!... Do you cal'late we're any nigher when we're up aloft here than
we are down on the ground yonder; nigher to THEM, I mean?"

His visitor was puzzled. "I--I beg your pardon?" he stammered.
"Nigher--ah--nearer to--ah--what?"

"Nigher to them--them that's gone afore. Seems sometimes, when I'm alone
up here, particular of a foggy day, as if I was consider'ble nigher
to them--to HER, especial--than when I'm on the ground. Think there's
anything in it, do you?"

Galusha said he didn't know; we know so little about such things,
really. He wondered what the captain had invited him up there to talk
about. Some spiritualistic subject, very likely; the conversation seemed
to be tending that way. Jethro appeared to have forgotten altogether
the seance and his, Galusha's, assumption of the character of the small,
dark "evil influence." It looked very much as if that assumption--so far
as it entailed the permanent shifting of prejudice from Nelson Howard to
himself--had been effort wasted.

Captain Jeth pulled at his beard and seemed to be dreaming. Galusha
pitied the old fanatic as he stood there, massive, rugged, brows drawn
together, sturdy legs apart as if set to meet the roll of a ship at
sea--a strong figure, yet in a way the figure of a wistful, dreaming
child, helpless--

"Mr. Bangs," said the light keeper, "don't you cal'late, if you set out
to, you could sell my four hundred Wellmouth Development same as you
sold Martha's two hundred and fifty?"

Galusha would have sat down, if there had been anything except the floor
to sit down on. As a matter of fact, even that consideration might not
have prevented his sitting; his knees bent suddenly and he was on his
way to the floor, but his shoulders struck the wall behind him and
furnished the support he so very much needed. So far as speech was
concerned, that was out of the question. His mouth opened and shut, but
nothing audible issued therefrom. Mr. Bangs, at t