oing out. There was nobody on the clam flats, although the tide was
just right at dawn. The surfman from the patrol station beyond The
Beaches paced to the end of his beat dressed in his best, like a man
merely taking a Sunday morning stroll.

The people she saw seemed to be changed out of their everyday selves.
Not only were they in Sabbath garb, but they had on their Sabbath
manner. Even to Milt Baker, the men were cleanly shaven and wore fresh
cotton shirts of their wives' laundering.

Cap'n Amazon appeared from his "cabin" when the first church bells
began to ring, arrayed in a much wrinkled but very good suit of "go
ashore" clothes of blue, which were possibly those he had worn when he
arrived at the store on the Shell Road. He wore a hard, glazed hat of
an old-fashioned naval shape and, instead of the usual red bandana, he
wore a black silk handkerchief tied about his head.

Just why he always kept his crown thus swathed, Louise was very
desirous of knowing. Yet she did not feel like asking him such a very
personal question. Had it been Cap'n Abe she would not for a moment
have hesitated. Louise had heard of men being scalped by savages and
she was almost tempted to believe that this had happened to Cap'n
Amazon in one of his wild encounters.

"We'll go to the First Church, Niece Louise," he said firmly. "Abe
always did. These small-fry craft, like the Mariner's Chapel, are all
right, I don't dispute; but they are lacking in ballast. It's in my
mind to attend the church that's the most like a well-founded, deep-sea
craft."

Louise was more impressed than amused by this philosophy. The captain
seemed to have put on his "Sunday face" like everybody else. As they
came out of the yard old Washington Gallup hobbled by, but instead of
stopping to chatter inconsequently, for he was an inveterate gossip, he
saluted the captain respectfully and hobbled on.

Indeed, the captain was a figure on this day to command profound
respect. It is no trick at all for a big man to look dignified and
impressive; but Cap'n Amazon was not a big man. However, in his blue
pilot-cloth suit, cut severely plain, and with his hard black hat on
his head he made a veritable picture of what a master-mariner should be.

On his quarter-deck, in fair or foul weather, Louise was sure that he
had never lacked the respect of his crew or their confidence. He was
distinctly a man to command--a leader and director by nature. He was,