ally, Uncle Josiah?"

"He ain't so bad on looks, if that's what you're driving at."

"Father says he must be very strong, too."

"I cal'late he ain't lacking on that p'int, neither," agreed the
Captain, blinking his swollen eyelids.

Elizabeth laughed heartily.

"Oh! By the way, what did you and your handsome minister do to Father
last night?"

"Is your pa ailing, too?"

"He says he is quite lame, and when I asked him what the matter was, he
only smiled, and told me to find out from you. Did your minister take
him for a burglar, too?"

"Is that all your father said about it?"

"Yes, except that it was his own fault."

Captain Pott chuckled. "I feared he wa'n't going to see it that way last
night. Eadie Beaver put the parson in here while I was in the city on a
special trip. She came over the day I left last week, and said it would
be real nice if he could live with me and eat with her. I told her I'd
see about shipping a parson in my house, meaning I'd have nothing to do
with him. Well, she went ahead and bunked him here, thinking I'd meant
it was all right. It 'pears she done it against your father's ideas,
too. So he come over last night and tried to get Mr. McGowan to move
out. That made me madder than what Eadie had done, so I asked him right
then if he was willing to stay. He said he was. Your pa got sore, and
started real dignified to go home. The candle that Mr. McGowan had been
using was on the floor, and your pa's heel hit it. His cane went up and
he went down. His high hat took a swim in a bucket of soapy water that
the parson had been using to swab decks with."

"Father is so very dignified! It must have been quite funny," she
commented, between paroxysms of laughter. "I wish I could have seen
him!"

"'Twas a mite funny. I fished his beaver out the pail, and he made off
holding it away from him like it was p'ison."

Sudden seriousness on the part of the girl caused the Captain to look in
the direction of her gaze. A tall young man had emerged from the back
door of the house, pail in hand. He came hurriedly toward the well.

"That's him," confirmed the seaman in answer to a look from Elizabeth.

"He? A minister?"

"You see now why I wa'n't strong enough to throw him out, don't you? I
cal'late Eadie Beaver would say the Lord took my strength away, but the
Lord don't need to give that feller a hand. He's a hull host to
himself."

"He doesn't look in the least like one," declared Elizabeth.