I've come to your house except on business, without
some fishes, terrapin, scallops, or sich to sell fer the hotel?"

Miss Porter blushed like a girl.

"Well, seein' as how you mention it, I reckon it's a fact." Her manner
did not betray how often she had wondered, and perhaps grieved, over
that fact during the score of years.

Then, Ichabod at last took heart of courage, and spoke boldly:

"This time, Sarah, arter due deliberation, an' study, Ichabod has come
to ye to give something away. Tain't nothin' that comes out o' these
waters or sands or marshes. Tain't gold, nor yit silver, but somethin'
that nobody in all these years could 'a' bought, had they tried. Could
ye guess what it mout be, Sarah?"

There came a certain dreaminess into the woman's eyes, which, if a
little dimmed, had by no means lost their luster.

"I never was good at guessing, Ichabod," she said simply. "I cal'late
you'll jest have to tell me. I know from the way you speak that it must
be something perfectly splendid."

"Wall, now, you may think it more wuthless than plain seaweed, an' if ye
do, why ye must speak right out, Sarah. What I have come to offer ye is
Ichabod Jones' love!"

Ichabod waited through a full minute for the answer that failed to come.
The woman's eyes were gazing out over the broad expanse of the Atlantic,
which opened so gloriously before them. He took one of her hands in his,
and pressed it gently as he went on speaking.

"It's true that I'm some old, but I ain't crippled. An' arter all these
years o'--yes, oh, hell!--I want to be loved ag'in. Sarah, I'll tell ye,
an' it's God's truth, I never did love that triflin' woman. I have come
to that idea arter a long time o' thinkin'. I was young, an' I thought I
loved her, but, Sarah, I just had my haid turned. Time is now tellin' my
true feelin's."

Still the woman made no answer, but her very silence gave encouragement
to the wooer.

"I'm through with fishin' an' lonely livin', whether or no, Sarah. All
these years that I've hung around alone, it hain't cost me much to live,
an' I've got a right smart o' money saved up. Ye know, this hotel ain't
big 'nough fer all the Yankees that'd like to stop on the way up an'
down offen their yachts. I was a-thinkin' las' night what a thing it'd
be for me an' you to be real partners, an' let me spend some o' the
savin's to double the size o' the hotel, an' hire 'nough help to take
the strain offen you in runnin' o' it."

The mi