as
near as Uncle Terry could describe it, with human forms clinging to the
ice-clad rigging and tempestuous seas leaping over them. The subject
held an uncanny influence over her, and she had spent months on the
picture. But this shadow of her life she kept carefully guarded from
all.

CHAPTER II

UNCLE TERRY

"I wa'n't consulted 'bout comin' into this world," said Uncle Terry
once, "an' I don't 'spect to be 'bout goin' out. I was born on a wayback
farm in Connecticut, where the rocks was so thick we used ter round the
sheep up once a week an' sharpen thar noses on the grin'stun, so't they
could get 'em 'tween the stuns. I walked a mile to school winters, an'
stubbed my toes on the farm summers, till I was fourteen, an' then the
old man 'greed to give me my time till I was twenty-one if I'ud pay him
half I earned. I had a colt an' old busted wagon, an' I took to
dickerin'. I bought eggs an' honey an' pelts of all sorts, an' peddled
notions an' farmin' tools. When I cum of age I went to the city an'
turned trader an' made a little money; got married an' cum down into
Maine an' bought a gold mine. I've got it yit! That is, I've got the
hole whar I s'posed the mine was. Most o' my money went into it an'
stayed thar. Then I got a chance to tend light and ketch lobsters, an'
hev stuck to it ever since. I take some comfort livin' and try an' pass
it along. The widder Leach calls me a scoffer, but she allus comes to me
when she's needin', an' don't allus have to cum, either. My life's been
like most everybody else's--a streak o' lean an' a streak o' fat, with
lean predominatin'. 'Twas a streak o' fat when I found a good woman an'
she said 'yes,' an' a streak o' lean when I was bamboozled by a lawyer
into buyin' a gold mine. I've kep' that hole ever since an' paid taxes
on't, to prove to myself jest how big a fool a man can be an' live.

"I've never wronged nobody, nor done much prayin', an' when the Almighty
calls me I think I'll stand jest as good a chance o' gittin' a harp as
those who's done more on't. The worst skinnin' I ever got was done by
this ere lawyer who never sot down to meals 'thout askin' a blessin',
an' mebbe that's the reason I'm a scoffer. I've observed a good deal
since I left the old farm, an' have come to the belief that thar's a
sucker born every minit and two ter ketch him. When I was young I took
hold o' the big end o' the log an' did the liftin'; but now I take hold
o' the little end an' d