. "Signs cost money," he said. "It takes paint to
make a sign, same as it does to keep a henhouse lookin' respectable.
This is the only Sol Cobb in Trumet, fur's I ever heard, and he's well
off, sartin. He ought to be; I never heard of him lettin' go of anything
he got hold of. Maybe you think I'm talkin' pretty free about your
relation, Mrs. Barnes," he added, apologetically. "I hadn't ought to, I
suppose, but I've had one or two little dealin's with Sol, one time or
'nother, and I--well, maybe I'm prejudiced. Excuse me, won't you? He may
be altogether different with his own folks."

Thankful was still staring at the dubious and forbidding front door.

"It doesn't seem as if it could be," she said. "But if you say so of
course 'tis."

"Yes, ma'am, I guess 'tis. That's Sol Cobb's henhouse and the old
rooster is in, judgin' by the signs. Those are his rubbers on the step.
Wearin' rubbers winter or summer is a habit of his. Humph! I'm talkin'
too much again. You're goin' in, I suppose, ma'am?"

Thankful threw aside the carriage robe and prepared to clamber from the
wagon.

"I surely am," she declared. "That's what I came way over here for."

The captain sprang to the ground and helped her to alight.

"I'll be right across the road at the store there," he said. "I'll be on
the watch when you came out. I--I--"

He hesitated. Evidently there was something else he wished to say, but
he found the saying difficult. Thankful noticed the hesitation.

"Yes, what was it, Cap'n Bangs?" she asked.

Captain Obed fidgeted with the reins.

"Why, nothin', I guess," he faltered. "Only--only--well, I tell you,
Mrs. Barnes, if--if you was figgerin' on doin' any business with Mr.
Cobb, any money business, I mean, and--and you'd rather go anywheres
else I--I--well, I'm pretty well acquainted round here on the Cape
amongst the bank folks and such and I'd be real glad to--"

Thankful interrupted. She had, after much misgiving and reluctance,
made up her mind to approach her distant relative with the mortgage
proposition, but to discuss that proposition with strangers was, to her
mind, very different. She had mentioned the proposed mortgage to Emily,
but she had told no one else, not even the captain himself. And she did
not mean to tell. The boarding house plan must stand or fall according
to Mr. Cobb's reception of it.

"No, no," she said, hastily. "It ain't anything important--that is, very
important."

"Well, all right. You