r. She, too, was fearful that her
cousin might have taken cold during the wet chill of the previous night.
But Emily declared she was very well indeed; that the very sight of the
sunlit sea through the dining-room windows had acted like a tonic.

"Good enough!" exclaimed Captain Obed, heartily. "Then we ought to be
gettin' a bigger dose of that tonic. Mrs. Barnes, if you and Miss Howes
would like to walk over and have a look at that property of yours, now's
as good a time as any to be doin' it. I'll go along with you if I won't
be in the way."

Thankful looked down rather doubtfully at the borrowed gown she was
wearing, but Miss Parker came to the rescue by announcing that her
guests' own garments must be dry by this time, they had been hanging by
the stove all night. So, after the change had been made, the two left
the Parker residence and took the foot-path at the top of the bluff.
Captain Obed seemed at first rather uneasy.

"Hope I ain't hurryin' you too much," he said. "I thought maybe it would
be just as well to get out of sight of Hannah as quick as possible. She
might take a notion to come with us. I thought sure Kenelm would, but
he's gone on a cruise of his own somewheres. He hustled outdoor soon as
breakfast was over."

Emily burst out laughing. "Excuse me, please," she said, "but I've
been dying to do this for so long. That--that Miss Parker is the oddest
person!"

The captain grinned. "Thinkin' about that 'diagram' yarn?" he asked.
"'Tis funny when you hear it the first four or five times. Hannah Parker
can get more wrong words in the right places than anybody I ever run
across. She must have swallowed a dictionary some time or 'nother, but
it ain't digested well, I'm afraid."

Thankful laughed, too. "You must find her pretty amusin', Cap'n Bangs,"
she said.

The captain shook his head. "She's a reg'lar dime show," he observed.
Then he added: "Only trouble with that kind of a show is it gets kind of
tiresome when you have to set through it all winter. There! now you can
see your property, Mrs. Barnes, and ten mile either side of it. Look's
some more lifelike and cheerful than it did last night, don't it?"

It most assuredly did. They had reached the summit of a little hill
and before and behind and beneath them was a view of shore and sea that
caused Emily to utter an exclamation of delight.

"Oh!" she cried. "WHAT a view! What a wonderful view!"

Behind them, beyond the knoll upon which stood t