with Osgood on personal matters. Between
them a marital silence was kept, which was more expressive than the
conjugal volubility which ordinarily exists; it proved that they had
passed through profounder experiences.

When the storm ceased Peter went to the station for his Boston
newspaper, which he read to Maria, who took it afterward and read it
over to herself. Brother Quakers, Peter's neighbors, who lived out of
sight, dropped in from time to time to exchange a word with Maria, or
hold talks outside with Peter, with one foot in the rut and the other
on the wagon-step. The present subject of interest, Osgood discovered,
was the approaching Quarterly Meeting, and the mackerel fishery. Peter
asked him to accompany himself and Maria to the town where the meeting
was to be. They breakfasted at sunrise, when the day arrived, in full
dress--Peter in a snuff-colored suit, and Maria in a series of brown
articles--dress, shawl, and bonnet. They started in good spirits in an
open wagon, with an improvised seat for Peter in front. Beyond a belt
of pine woods stood the meeting-house, and a mile beyond the
meeting-house lay the town, before a vast bay. Osgood drove alone into
the town, and spent several hours there. He visited the shops to find
some trifle for Maria, and then went through the town down to the
shore. How happy he grew in the pure wind and the gay morning light!
The gulls rode over the foaming wave-crests and dipped into their
green walls, and hawks swooped between the steadfast sky and heaving
deep. The sea traveled round and round before his eyes with a mad joy,
and tempted him to plunge into it. He wrote his name in the heavy sand
with a broken shell, and the water filtered out the letters; then he
paved it in pebbles with the word _Strength_.

Peter and Maria were waiting for him when he returned to the
meeting-house with the wagon.

"Thee has been skylarking," she said.

"After something for you," he answered, putting in her hand a handsome
work-basket.

"Has thee so much money that thee must waste it on me, Osgood?"

But she was pleased with the gift. They rode home amicably. Peter, as
a favor, allowed Osgood to drive, while he imparted to Maria sundry
bits of information gained at the meeting.

"Mackerel" went in and out at Osgood's ears without gaining his
attention, till he caught at something Peter said about the _Bonita_.
He listened. Three vessels were about to sail from the town on a
mackerel