y-and-by Moses came.

"You've been long on the road," says I.

"Well, Dannie," he explained, looking at his cap, which he was
awkwardly twirling, "I sort o' fell in with Parson Stump by the way,
an' stopped for a bit of a gossip."

I begged him to sit with us.

"No," says he; "but I'm 'bliged t' you. Fac' is, Dannie," says he,
gravely, "I isn't got time."

My uncle was amazed.

"I've quit the ship," Moses went on, "not bein' much of a hand at
cookin'. I'll be t' home now," says he, "an' I'd be glad t' have you
an' Skipper Nicholas drop in, some day soon, when you're passin'
Whisper Cove."

We watched him twirl his cap.

"You'd find a wonderful warm welcome," says he, "from Mrs. Moses
Shoos!"

With that he was gone.

XXI

FOOL'S FORTUNE

"Close the door, Dannie," says Tumm, in the little cabin of the _Quick
as Wink_, late that night, when the goods were put to rights, and the
bottle was on the counter, and the schooner was nodding sleepily in
the spent waves from the open sea. "This here yarn o' the weddin' o'
Moses Shoos is not good for everybody t' hear." He filled the
glasses--chuckling all the time deep in his chest. "We was reachin' up
t' Whoopin' Harbor," he began, being a great hand at a story, "t' give
the _Quick as Wink_ a night's lodgin', it bein' a wonderful windish
night; clear enough, the moon sailin' a cloudy sky, but with a bank o'
fog sneakin' round Cape Muggy like a fish-thief. An' we wasn't in no
haste, anyhow, t' make Sinners' Tickle, for we was the first trader
down this season, an' 'twas pick an' choose for we, with a clean bill
t' every harbor from Starvation Cove t' the Settin' Hen. So the
skipper he says we'll hang the ol' girl up t' Whoopin' Harbor 'til
dawn; an' we'll all have a watch below, says he, with a cup o' tea,
says he, if the cook can bile the water 'ithout burnin' it. Now, look
you! Saucy Bill North is wonderful fond of his little joke; an' 'twas
this here habit o' burnin' the water he'd pitched on t' plague the
poor cook with, since we put out o' Twist Tickle on the v'y'ge down.

"'Cook, you dunderhead!' says the skipper, with a wink t' the crew,
which I was sorry t' see, 'you been an' scarched the water agin.'

"Shoos he looked like he'd give up for good on the spot--just like he
_knowed_ he was a fool, an' _had_ knowed it for a long, long
time--sort o' like he was sorry for we an' sick of hisself.

"'Cook,' says the skipper, 'you went an' done it agin. Y