wet
cod line for hours, not to mention the sail home and the cleaning and
barreling of the catch. Captain Eri did that. Captain Perez was what
he called "stevedore"--that is, general caretaker during the owner's
absence, at Mr. Delancy Barry's summer estate on the "cliff road." As
for Captain Jerry, he was janitor at the schoolhouse.

The catch was heavy the next morning, as has been said, and by the time
the last fish was split and iced and the last barrel sent to the railway
station it was almost supper time. Captain Eri had intended calling
on Baxter early in the day, but now he determined to wait until after
supper.

The Captain had bad luck in the "matching" that followed the meal, and
it was nearly eight o'clock before he finished washing dishes. This
distasteful task being completed, he set out for the Baxter homestead.

The Captain's views on the liquor question were broader than those of
many Orham citizens. He was an abstainer, generally speaking, but his
scruples were not as pronounced as those of Miss Abigail Mullett,
whose proudest boast was that she had refused brandy when the doctor
prescribed it as the stimulant needed to save her life. Over and over
again has Miss Abigail told it in prayer-meeting; how she "riz up" in
her bed, "expectin' every breath to be the last" and said, "Dr. Palmer,
if it's got to be liquor or death, then death referred to!"--meaning,
it is fair to presume, that death was preferred rather than the brandy.
With much more concerning her miraculous recovery through the aid of a
"terbacker and onion poultice."

On general principles the Captain objected to the granting of a license
to a fellow like "Web" Saunders, but it was the effect that this action
of the State authorities might have upon his friend John Baxter that
troubled him most.

For forty-five years John Baxter was called by Cape Cod people "as smart
a skipper as ever trod a plank." He saved money, built an attractive
home for his wife and daughter, and would, in the ordinary course of
events, have retired to enjoy a comfortable old age. But his wife died
shortly after the daughter's marriage to a Boston man, and on a voyage
to Manila, Baxter himself suffered from a sunstroke and a subsequent
fever, that left him a physical wreck and for a time threatened to
unsettle his reason. He recovered a portion of his health and the
threatened insanity disappeared, except for a religious fanaticism
that caused him to accept the