ack to the Mary Sands!" he said. "She's in port, loadin' up
with lumber for Floridy, and the skipper wants to make a change. I--I'll
be glad to see the Mary again, and I expect they'll take me on; what
say?"

"I expect they will!" said Mary dryly.

Then, all in a moment, she was laughing and crying on his shoulder.

"Calvin!" she cried. "Calvin, you foolish creatur'! you don't need to go
to Bath to find the Mary Sands. _I'm_ Mary Sands!"

"You!" said Calvin Parks.

She glanced up at him, and broke down again in laughter and tears.

"You needn't look like a stone image!" she cried. "'Tis so! I've been
Mary Sands right along. It sounded so comical your callin' me Hands, I
wouldn't let Cousins tell you. If I've stopped them once I have twenty
times. Besides, you was so mad at a woman's bein' owner of your
schooner, I couldn't help but laugh every time I thought of it. I s'pose
I've been foolish about it, but it's been a kind of play to me all this
time. Calvin, you make me act real forth-puttin', but--if you _won't_
speak for yourself--there! will you be master of the Mary Sands, afloat
and shore?"

She held out her hands with a pretty gesture. Calvin grasped them so
hard that she cried out, and his face, white again under its brown, set
in dogged lines of gentle obstinacy, the most hopeless kind.

"I can't!" he said. "Mary, all the more I can't because you are a rich
woman. You see that, don't you? I'm sure you must see that, Mary. Soon
as ever I've aimed that money again--"

"Oh! plague take the money," cried Mary, her patience giving way. "Give
it to the cat; she's fitter to take care of it than you are, Calvin
Parks. There! you do try me. You ain't fit to live alone, no more
than--and my goodness gracious me!" she cried, her voice changing
suddenly; "if I hadn't clean forgotten Cousins! Calvin, you've _got_ to
stay by us, you've just plain and simple got to! Hush! hold your
obstinate tongue and listen to me. Cousin Sam had an accident yesterday.
He was out with the old hoss of all, and they met the snow-plough, and
if that old creatur' didn't leap over the stone wall and smash the
sleigh to kindlin' wood! Cousin Sam's all stove up inside, he thinks,
but I'm in hopes not. There's no bones broke, and I guess all he got was
a good shakin' up; but anyway, he's in bed, and can't move hand or foot.
And I can't take care of him and Cousin Sim, and keep house, and see to
the stock and poultry too, Calvin Parks; now I