be ready there to help
the child in the mornin', when she came to look at her stockin'."

Captain Cephas fixed upon his friend an earnest glare. "That's pretty
considerable of an idea to come upon you so suddint," said he. "But I
can tell you one thing: there ain't a-goin' to be any such doin's in my
house. If you choose to come over here to sleep, and give up your
house to any woman you can find to take care of the little gal, all
right. But the thing can't be done here."

There was a certain severity in these remarks, but they appeared to
affect Captain Eli very pleasantly.

"Well," said he, "if you're satisfied, I am. I'll agree to any plan
you choose to make. It doesn't matter to me which house it's in, and
if you say my house, I say my house. All I want is to make the
business agreeable to all concerned. Now it's time fer me to go to my
dinner, and this afternoon we'd better go and try to get things
straightened out, because the little gal, and whatever woman comes with
her, ought to be at my house to-morrow before dark. S'posin' we divide
up this business: I'll go and see Mrs. Crumley about the little gal,
and you can go and see Mrs. Trimmer."

"No, sir," promptly replied Captain Cephas, "I don't go to see no Mrs.
Trimmer. You can see both of them just the same as you can see
one--they're all along the same way. I'll go cut the Christmas tree."

"All right," said Captain Eli. "It don't make no difference to me
which does which. But if I was you, cap'n, I'd cut a good big tree,
because we might as well have a good one while we're about it."

When he had eaten his dinner, and washed up his dishes, and had put
everything away in neat, housewifely order, Captain Eli went to Mrs.
Crumley's house, and very soon finished his business there. Mrs.
Crumley kept the only house which might be considered a boarding-house
in the village of Sponkannis; and when she had consented to take charge
of the little girl who had been left on her hands she had hoped it
would not be very long before she would hear from some of her relatives
in regard to her maintenance. But she had heard nothing, and had now
ceased to expect to hear anything, and in consequence had frequently
remarked that she must dispose of the child some way or other, for she
couldn't afford to keep her any longer. Even an absence of a day or
two at the house of the good captain would be some relief, and Mrs.
Crumley readily consented to the Chris