owin'
your hook into unproductive waters around here, as ye might say. Even
chummin' won't sarve ye. _Good_-night!"

After getting rid of this importunate customer, Cap'n Abe closed his
door and put out his store lights--an hour earlier than usual--and came
back to sit down with Louise. His visage was red and determination sat
on his brow.

"I snum!" he emphatically observed. "Cardhaven folks seem bit with
some kind o' bug. Talk 'bout curiosity! 'Hem! I dunno what Cap'n
Am'zon'll think of 'em."

"_I_ think they are funny," Louise retorted, her laughter bubbling up
again.

"Likely it looks so to you," said Cap'n Abe. "They're pretty average
funny I do guess to a stranger, as ye might say. But after you've
summered 'em and wintered 'em for twenty-odd years like I have, land
sakes! the humor's worn hi-mighty thin!"

CHAPTER V

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT

Cap'n Abe produced a pipe. He looked at his niece tentatively.
"Do--do you mind tobacker smoke?"

"Daddy-prof is an inveterate," she laughed.

"Huh? An--an invet'rate _what_?"

"Smoker. I don't begrudge a man smoking tobacco as long as we women
have our tea. A nerve tonic in both cases."

"I dunno for sure that I've got any nerves," Cap'n Abe said, the
corners of his eyes wrinkling. "Mebbe I was behind the door when they
was given out. But a pipeful o' tobacker this time o' the evening
_does_ seem sort o' satisfyin'. That, and knittin'."

Having filled his pipe and lit it, he puffed a few times to get it well
alight and then reached for a covered basket that Louise had noticed on
a small stand under Jerry's cage. He drew from this a half-fashioned
gray stocking that was evidently intended for his own foot and the
needles began to click in his strong, capable hands.

"Supprise you some, does it, Louise?" Cap'n Abe said. "Cap'n Am'zon
taught me. Most old whalers knit. That, an' doin' scrimshaw work, was
'bout all that kep' 'em from losing their minds on them long v'y'ges
into the Pacific. An' I've seen the time myself when I was hi-mighty
glad I'd l'arned to count stitches.

"Land sakes! Some o' them whalin' v'y'ges lasted three-four years.
Cap'n Am'zon was in the old bark _Neptune's Daughter_ when she was
caught in the ice and drifted pretty average close't to the south pole.

"You know," said Cap'n Abe reflectively, "the Antarctic regions ain't
like the Arctic. 'Cause why? There ain't no folks there. Cap'n
Am'zon says the