in Eri whistled softly, scratched his head, and then read the
letter over again to himself. At length Captain Perez broke the spell.

"Jerusalem!" he exclaimed. "She don't lose no time, does she?"

"She's pretty prompt, that's a fact," assented Captain Eri.

Captain Jerry burst forth in indignation:

"Is THAT all you've got to say?" he inquired with sarcasm, "after
gittin' me into a scrape like this? Well now, I tell you one thing, I--"

"Don't go on your beam ends, Jerry," interrupted Captain Eri. "There
ain't no harm done yit."

"Ain't no harm done? Why how you talk, Eri Hedge! Here's a woman that
I ain't never seen, and might be a hundred years old, for all I know,
comin' down here to-morrow night to marry me by main force, as you might
say, and you set here and talk about--"

"Now, hold on, hold on, Jerry! She ain't goin' to marry you unless you
want her to, 'tain't likely. More I think of it, the more I like the
woman's way of doin' things. She's got sense, there's no doubt of that.
You can't sell HER a cat in a bag. She's comin' down here to see you and
talk the thing over, and I glory in her spunk."

"Wants me to pay her fare! I see myself doin' it! I've got ways enough
to spend my money without paying fares for Nantucket folks."

"If you and she sign articles, as she calls it, you'll have to pay more
than fares," said Captain Perez, in a matter-of-fact tone. "I think same
as Eri does; she's a smart woman. We'll have to meet her at the depot,
of course."

"Well _I_ won't! Cheeky thing! Let her find out where I am! I cal'late
she'll have to do some huntin'."

"Now, see here, Jerry," said Captain Eri, "you was jest as anxious to
have one of us get married as anybody else. You haven't got to marry
the woman unless you want to, but you have got to help us see the thing
through. I wish myself that we hadn't been quite so pesky anxious
to give her the latitude and longitude, and had took some sort of an
observation ourselves; but we didn't, and now we've got to treat her
decent. You'll be at that depot along with Perez and me."

When Captain Eri spoke in that tone his two cronies usually obeyed
orders. Even the rebellious Jerry, who had a profound respect for his
younger friend, gave in after some grumbling.

They sat up until late, speculating concerning the probable age and
appearance of the expected visitor. Captain Perez announced that he
didn't know why it was, but he had a notion that she was about