ere, Miss Lennox. We're plain folks and
there ain't much going and coming. Maybe you don't mind that, though?"

"I like it. When one has been teaching school all the year in a noisy
city, quiet seems the one thing to be desired. Besides, I like to
fancy myself something of an artist. I paint and sketch a little when
I have time, and Miss Courtland, who was here last summer, said I
could not find a more suitable spot. So I came because I knew that
mackerel fishing was carried on along the shore, and I would have a
chance to study character among the fishermen."

"Well, the shore ain't far away, and it's pretty--though maybe us
folks here don't appreciate it rightly, being as we're so used to it.
Strangers are always going crazy over its 'picturesqueness,' as they
call it. As for 'character,' I reckon you'll find all you want of that
among the Pointers; anyway, I never seed such critters as they be.
When you get tired of painting, maybe you can amuse yourself trying to
get to the bottom of our mystery."

"Oh, have you a mystery? How interesting!"

"Yes, a mystery--a mystery," repeated Mr. Bentley solemnly, "that
nobody hain't been able to solve so far. I've give it up--so has
everyone else. Maybe you'll have better luck."

"But what is it?"

"The mystery," said Mr. Bentley dramatically, "is--Young Si. He's the
mystery. Last spring, just when the herring struck in, a young chap
suddenly appeared at the Point. He appeared--from what corner of the
globe nobody hain't ever been able to make out. He bought a boat and a
shanty down at my shore and went into a sort of mackerel partnership
with Snuffy Curtis--Snuffy supplying the experience and this young
fellow the cash, I reckon. Snuffy's as poor as Job's turkey; it was a
windfall for him. And there he's fished all summer."

"But his name--Young Si?"

"Well, of course, that isn't it. He did give himself out as Brown, but
nobody believes that's his handle--sounds unnatteral here. He bought
his establishment from 'old Si,' who used to fish down there and was a
mysterious old critter in a way too. So when this young fellow stepped
in from goodness knows where, some of the Pointers christened him
Young Si for a joke, and he never gets anything else. Doesn't seem to
mind it. He's a moody, keep-to-himself sort of chap. Yet he ain't
unpopular along shore, I believe. Snuffy was telling me they like him
real well, considering his unsociableness. Anyways, he's as handsome a
cha