the whole vitals of this place had gone away on
that afternoon train," the Captain admitted. "And yet I know it's awful
foolish, 'cause she'll only be gone a couple of weeks."

"I'm glad that question about the name is settled," mused Zoeth. "That
kind of troubled me, that did."

The partners had worried not a little over the question of whether
Crawford's name was legally Smith or Farmer. If it were Farmer and he
must be so called in South Harniss, they feared the revival of the old
scandal and all its miserable gossip. But when they asked Crawford he
reassured them.

"I consulted my lawyer about that," he said. "My father's middle name
was Smith; that is why he took it, I suppose. Edwin Smith is not so very
different from Edgar Smith Farmer, shorter, that's all. He and my mother
were married under the name of Smith. Mother never knew he had had
another name. I was born Smith and christened Smith and my lawyer
tells me that Smith I am. If there had been any question I should have
petitioned to have the name changed."

So that question was settled and Shadrach and Zoeth felt easier because
of it.

"Zoeth," observed Shadrach, after replying to his friend's remark
concerning the name, "do you know what I kind of felt as if we'd ought
to have had here this afternoon?"

"No, Shadrach," replied Zoeth, "I don't. What was it?"

"Seemed to me we'd ought to had one of them music box chairs. I'd
like to have put it under that Keith woman and seen her face when the
Campbells started to come. Ho, ho!"

"What in the world made you think of that?" demanded his partner.

"Oh, I don't know. Thinkin' about Mary-'Gusta, I cal'late, set me to
rememberin' how we fust met her and about Marcellus's funeral and all.
That made me think of the chair, you see. I ain't thought of it afore
for years."

Zoeth nodded. "Shadrach," he said, "that was a blessed day for you and
me, the day when we brought that child home in our old buggy. The Lord
put her there, Shadrach."

"Well, I guess likely He did, maybe, in a way of speakin'. Does seem so,
that's a fact."

"Our lives was pretty sot and narrow afore she came. She's changed
everything."

"That's so. Hello! What's that noise? I declare if it ain't Isaiah
liftin' up his voice in song! In a hymn tune! What do you think of
that?"

From the kitchen, above the rattle of dishes, Mr. Chase's nasal falsetto
quavered shrilly:

"There shall be showers of blessin's--"

The Captain in