ly being founded on the ground that she never gave him "a
chance."

"_Such_ a tongue," rambled on the captain, "an' so fast an' confused
like she's wuss than the Tower of Babel itself, an' jes' as like to
scatter the folks what's livin' around her. But if ye've got a thing to
tell that's got a pint, folks mostly likes to hear the ins an' outs of
it, 'thout the trouble of askin' no questions, an' I'd as lieve tell
'em to 'em. So I'll tell ye all about it, Jim, an' all of ye."

"Well, if it's any thin' about my business, would you mind havin' it
out right quick, Cap?" said Jim.

"An' ain't I a doin' it?" responded the captain. "Don't be in sech a
hurry, boy. I got to get my breath to talk, after walkin' up the hill
for to rest Sanky Pansy a bit, for the cart was powerful full this
mornin', an' he did have a load, an' he's gettin' old an' has to be
eased off a bit like myself, an' I felt kind of blowed an' puffy-like.
Soon's I can talk good, I will. Young folks is allers got to be
impatient. There's my darter, Matildy Jane, she ain't none too patient,
you know--leastways, not onless it's with you, Jim,"--here a wink of
the eye at Jim made evident the playful irony of the exception, for Jim
was Matilda's _bete noir_, and a chronic warfare waged between the
two,--"an' she says to me this mornin', says she, 'Pa,' says she,--an'
ye might think I hadn't never learned her the Ten Comman'ments,
leastways the one about honorin' her father an' mother; but young folks
is different behaved from what they was in my day--at least them's my
opinions. I was jest a tellin' her an' Mis' Yorke how Peter Slade got
his boat capsized last night; an' 'Pa,' says she, 'it's time my bread
was took out of the oven, an' if you've got any thin' to say'--I
declar', Miss Amy, if she didn't give me a message about yer clothes;
how when the wind riz up last night, some of 'em was carried off the
lines into the sand, an' she had 'em to wash over again, an' wouldn't
have 'em home jes' up to time. Now, where was I, Jim?"

"Out on the sands, an' upset in Slade's boat, an' talkin' to Matilda
Jane; an' where you're goin' to is more than me or any one else can
tell, Cap," answered Jim, saucily. "You started to tell us something
about my peanut-business, I believe; but you've got considerable off
the line."

"To-o be sure, to-o be sure," said the old man, no whit offended or
displeased by the boy's pertness; for the spirit of _bon camaraderie_
which existe