s and prettiness;
dusting the ornaments and fine china on the shelves of the whatnot;
straightening the frames of the pictures on the walls; and, in her less
romantic moments, hemming towels or sheets, or putting up preserved
fruits. I know she was always amiable and obliging and that everybody
loved her.

Miss Williams was a good deal the elder of her sister, and was of a
clear white pallor and an aged delicacy and shyness that were very
captivating. She had judgment and a clear, dispassionate brain, and
I presume she acted the part in the little firm of a sort of court of
appeals and final adviser and referee. She talked little and had little
to do with outward affairs, but she sat observant and penetrating
and formed conclusions in her mind. There had been no brother of The
Blodgett to induce her to change her maidenly state, but I think there
must have been a quiet, touching romance somewhere hidden in the shadows
of the previous forty or fifty years. She admired and delighted in her
energetic, practical sister as much as the latter adored her for her
serenity and wisdom. There was between them an intimacy, confidence,
and mutual understanding that were charming to behold. When the blessed
Blodgett had died, one can imagine the vital support and consolation
which Miss Williams had been able to afford to her afflicted sister.
Each of them seemed, in some way, to explain and enlarge one's
conception of the other. Widely different as they appeared outwardly,
there was a true sisterly likeness deep down in them. Such was the
feminine council that ruled the destinies of the Yankee captains and of
their consul.

These captains and this consul formed nine-tenths of the population of
the house, and such other denizens as it had were at least Americans. I
never learned the cause of this predilection for representatives of the
great republic and for the seafaring variety of them in particular. Be
that as it might (and it is an interesting inquiry in itself), it can
be readily understood that it worked out well as a business idea. There
were no quarrels or heart-burnings among the jolly occupants of Mrs.
Blodgett's table; first, because they were all Americans in the country
of their hereditary enemies, and, secondly, because they were all men
of the same calling, and that calling the sea. The bonds of fraternity
between them were double-riveted and copper-fastened. Thus all who had
experienced the Blodgett regime proclaimed