nd. He managed to pull himself together, however, and stammered:

"Dressed? Oh, I'm dressed, of course. It's you I'm tryin' to git some
life into."

"Well, why didn't you call a feller, 'stead of gittin' up and dressin'
all by yourself. I never see such a critter. Where's my socks?"

To avoid further perplexing questions Captain Eri went into the dining
room. The table was set, really set, with a clean cloth and dishes that
shone. The knives and forks were arranged by the plates, not piled in a
heap for each man to help himself. The Captain gasped.

"Well, I swan to man!" he said. "Has Jerry had a fit or what's struck
him? I ain't seen him do anything like this for I don't know when."

"Oh, Cap'n Burgess didn't fix the table, if that's what you mean," said
the new nurse. "Cap'n Baxter seemed to be sleepin' or in a stupor like,
and the Doctor, when he come, said I might leave him long enough to run
downstairs for a few minutes, so--"

"The Doctor? Has the Doctor been here this mornin'?"

"Yes, he come 'bout an hour ago. Now, if you wouldn't mind goin' up
and stayin' with Cap'n Baxter for a few minutes while I finish gettin'
breakfast. I've been up and down so many times in the last ha'f hour, I
don't know's I'm sartin whether I'm on my head or my heels."

The Captain went upstairs in a dazed state. As he passed through what
had been his room he vaguely noticed that the bureau top was clean, and
that most of the rubbish that had ornamented it had disappeared.

The sick man lay just as he had left him, his white face as colorless
as the clean pillow case against which it rested. Captain Eri remembered
that the pillow cases in the spare room had looked a little yellow the
night before, possibly owing to the fact that, as the room had not been
occupied for months, they had not been changed. He reasoned that the
improvement was another one of the reforms instituted by the lady from
Nantucket.

He sat down in the rocker by the bed and thought, with a shiver, of the
missing coat. There were nine chances out of ten that whoever found it
would recognize it as belonging to the old "Come-Outer." The contents
of the pocket would be almost certain to reveal the secret if the coat
itself did not. It remained to be seen who the finder was and what
he would do. Meanwhile there was no use worrying. Having come to this
conclusion the Captain, with customary philosophy, resolved to think of
something else.

Mrs. Snow entered an