of rank, and adorned with brass
buttons, what a luster all this shed over the inhabitants of the fifth
floor of Mulberry Court! Carl, Mary, Tim, Martin, were no longer rated
as little street Arabs; suddenly they became the nieces, nephews
(probably the heirs) of Captain James Frederick Dillingham who
commanded the _Charlotte_ and had sailed to every port under the sun.
How the neighbors gossiped, congratulating themselves that they had
discovered Mrs. McGregor's virtues in time to be included in her circle
of acquaintances! Oh, they had always known she was a lady! Wasn't her
ancestry stamped upon her very face?

As for the Captain himself, his career, when contrasted with the
humdrum life of Mulberry Court, was like that of a returned Columbus.
How could he fail to be enveloped in a halo of fascination? For
Mulberry Court was dingy and dull. Probably not one of its toiling
throng was destined ever to see much beyond the city's muddy streets,
crowded sidewalks, cheap shops, and seething tenements. But at least,
even right here in Baileyville, it was possible to glimpse through
other eyes the wonders denied them.

Therefore when Captain Dillingham came to call one did the next best
thing to really going to India--one went there by proxy and saw in
imagination white-turbaned natives, resplendent temples, sun-flooded
tropics arched by turquoise skies. Even the Murphys could do that, and
without it costing them a cent, either. The Captain told Julie O'Dowd
stories of China while she ironed Joey's dresses, and the tediousness
of the task was forgotten in the enchantment of the tale. As for
Grandfather Harling, after the stranger's first visit he strained his
ears for a second, and when with a cheery "Ahoy!" the knob turned and
the small gray man entered, it seemed as if the very sunlight came with
him. And Mrs. Harling welcomed his coming too for even the men's talk
of cargoes, commerce, shipping, and stevedores had its lure for her.

In fact, all the neighborhood agreed that the dapper little captain
"had a way with him."

"Why, he could actually talk about dried codfish, I do believe, and
make you think there was nothing on earth like it!" exclaimed Julie
O'Dowd to Mrs. Murphy. "I never saw such a man! And so kind withal.
Simple as a child, too. You don't catch him prating about his doings.
Why, Mike Sullivan who went once to New York talked more about it than
does this critter all his circlings of the globe."

Aye,