s and grass painted on it. And, I don't know as
you'll believe it, but it's a fact, the handle of that brush broom was
gilded! Yes sir, by Henry, _gilded_! 'Well,' thinks I to myself, 'if
this ain't then I don't know what is!' I did cal'late that I was
gettin' used to style, and high-toned money-slingin', but when it comes
to puttin' gold handles onto brush-brooms, that had me on my beam ends,
that did. And ain't it a sinful waste, Cap'n Sears, I ask you? Now ain't
it? And what in time is the _good_ of it? A brush-broom is just a broom,
no matter if----"

Again the captain interrupted. "Yes, yes, of course, Judah," he agreed,
laughing; "but what do you do up there all by yourself? In that big
house?"

"Oh, I don't live in the whole house. I could if I wanted to. Ogden, he
don't care where I live or what I do. All he wants of me, he says, is to
keep the place lookin' good, and the grass cut and one thing or 'nother.
He keeps hopin' he's goin' to rent it, you know, but they won't nobody
hire it. The only thing a place big as that would be good for is to keep
tavern. And we've got one tavern here in Bayport already."

Kendrick seemed to be thinking. He pulled his beard. Of course he wore a
beard; in those days he would have been thought queer if he had not.
Even the Harvard students who came to Bayport occasionally on summer
tramping trips wore beards or sidewhiskers; the very callowest Freshman
sported and nourished a moustache.

"So you don't occupy the whole house, Judah?" asked the captain.

"No, no," replied Mr. Cahoon. "I live out in the back part. There's the
kitchen and woodshed and dinin'-room out there and a couple of bedrooms.
That's all _I_ want. There's nine more bedrooms in that house, Cap'n,"
he declared solemnly. "That makes eleven altogether. Now what in tunket
do you cal'late anybody'd ever do with eleven bedrooms?"

Kendrick shook his head. "Give it up, Judah," he said. "For the matter
of that, I don't see what you do with two. Do you sleep in one week
nights and the other on Sundays?"

Judah grinned. "No, no, Cap'n," he said. "I don't know myself why I keep
that other bedroom fixed up. Cal'late I do it just for fun, kind of
makin' believe I'm going to have company, I guess. It gets kind of
lonesome there sometimes, 'specially meal times and evenin's. There I
set at mess, you know, grand as the skipper of the _Great Republic_,
cloth on the table, silver knife and fork, silver castor with blue glas