wide is it, Hosy?"

"About twenty miles at the narrowest point, I believe," I said.

"Twenty miles! About as far as Bayport to Provincetown. Well, I don't
know whether any of your ancestors or mine came over with William the
Conquerer or not, but if they did, they didn't have far to come. I
cal'late I'll be contented with having my folks cross in the Mayflower.
They came three thousand miles anyway."

She was inclined to regard the Channel rather contemptuously just then.
A half hour later she was more respectful.

The steamer was awaiting us at the pier. As the throng of passengers
filed up the gang-plank she suddenly squeezed my arm.

"Look! Hosy!" she cried. "Look! Isn't that him?"

I looked where she was pointing.

"Him? Who?" I asked.

"Look! There he goes now. No, he's gone. I can't see him any more. And
yet I was almost certain 'twas him."

"Who?" I asked again. "Did you see someone you knew?"

"I thought I did, but I guess I was mistaken. He's just got home; he
wouldn't be startin' off again so soon. No, it couldn't have been him,
but I did think--"

I stopped short. "Who did you think you saw?" I demanded.

"I thought I saw Doctor Herbert Bayliss goin' up those stairs to the
steamboat. It looked like him enough to be his twin brother, if he had
one."

I did not answer. I looked about as we stepped aboard the boat, but
if young Bayliss was there he was not in sight. Hephzy rattled on
excitedly.

"You can't tell much by seein' folks's backs," she declared. "I remember
one time your cousin Hezekiah Knowles--You don't remember him, Hosy; he
died when you was little--One time Cousin Hezzy was up to Boston with
his wife and they was shoppin' in one of the big stores. That is, Martha
Ann--the wife--was shoppin' and he was taggin' along and complainin',
same as men generally do. He was kind of nearsighted, Hezzy was, and
when Martha was fightin' to get a place in front of a bargain counter he
stayed astern and kept his eyes fixed on a hat she was wearin'. 'Twas a
new hat with blue and yellow flowers on it. Hezzy always said, when he
told the yarn afterward, that he never once figured that there could
be another hat like that one. I saw it myself and, if I'd been in his
place, I'd have HOPED there wasn't anyway. Well, he followed that hat
from one counter to another and, at last, he stepped up and said, 'Look
here, dearie,' he says--They hadn't been married very long, not long
enough to get out of the