Cap'n Dan's Daughter

horing his dory and stabling Daniel for the night, entered the dining room he found his two messmates deep in consultation, and with evidences of strenuous mental st

nd Lorenzo, who was purring restfully upon the discarded jac

nted Captain Eri, slipping out of his own jacket and pulling h

hand, just referred to, across his forehead and thereby putting that po

orders," was the answer. "What

got such hifalutin' notions, that nothin' less than a circus bill 'll do him. I don't see why somethin' plain and sensible like 'Woman wanted to do di

to catch a wife with, ain't it? I can see 'em comin'. I cal'late you'd stay single till Jedgment, and then you wouldn't git one. No, sir! The thing to do is to be

crifice indignantly. "They mi

you'd better keep the dishwashin' out of it. I know dishwashin' would never git ME; I've go

Captain Eri, after two or three trials, by which he added t

ing to Work and Keep House shipshape and aboveboard. No sea-lawyers

t, with this addition, being duly approved, the required fifty cents was inclosed, as was a letter to the editor of the matrimonial jour

o do now, Jerry, is to pick out your wife and let us know

said the lucky one rather gloomily. "

tailed account of his meeting with the new electrician, omitting, however, in consideration for the feelings of Captain

him?" asked Captain Perez,

gued as Parker used to be and he didn't treat Baxter and me as if Cape Codders was a kind of animals, the way some of the summer folks do. He had the sense not to offer

some more news and it ain't good news, eith

w!" exclaimed

ll me!" said

John Baxter do now?" And Capta

it is true that each of the trio had given up long voyages, it is equally true that none had given up work entirely. Some people might not consider it restful to rise at four every weekday morning and sail in a catboat twelve miles out to sea and haul a wet cod line for hours, not to mention t

and iced and the last barrel sent to the railway station it was almost supper time. Captain Eri

d it was nearly eight o'clock before he finished washing dishes. This

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,

fellow like "Web" Saunders, but it was the effect that this action of the Sta

atened 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 Bible literally and to interpret it accordingly. When his daughter and her husband were drowned in the terrible City of Belfast disaster, it is an Orham tradition that John Baxter, dressed in gunny-bags and sitting on an ash-heap, was found by his friends mourning in what he believed to be the Biblical "s

irs are lively meetings. John Baxter was a "Come-Outer," and ever since the enterprising Mr. Saunders opened his billiard room, the old man's tirades of righteous wrath had been directed against this den of iniquity. Since it became known that "Web" had made application for the li

Death" speech on Examination Day took a fancy to and refused to laugh at the little chap who tremblingly ventured to assert that

d, and, after yelling "Ship ahoy!" through the keyhole a number of t

ho lived just across the road. "He's gone to Come-Outers' me

to the neck," and when the Captain arrived there, he found the par

l have a reel movin' meetin' to-night because Mr. Perley's here, and he says he feels the sperrit a-workin'. Set right down there by the

k I'm goin' to set on that cricket? My laigs 'll be way u

ngster, who was the next step downward in the family stair of child

, ma

try a saint! Sometimes seems's if I SHOULD give up. You be thankful, Abigail," to Miss Mullett, who sat by the door, "that you ain't got nine in a fa

at in the corner by the melodeon and proclaimed in

was you I'd be a go

een working his passage to the other side of the room, announced that he was all right and would "squeeze in on the sofy 'side of Cap'n Bax

e. I'm glad, though; Lord knows every God-fearin' man in this tow

been the premium earned by Mrs. Small for selling one hundred and fifty pounds of tea for a much-advertised house. "Ain't it awful? I says to Prissy Baker this mornin'

the comments of at least one-tenth of the population of Orham were poured into his ea

stess with emotion, "in havin' Mr. Perley

announced that everyone would join in singing, "Hymn number one hundred and ten, omitting the second and fourth stanzas: hymn number one hundred and ten, second and fourth stanzas omitted." The melodeon, torm

oardin' 'round" with "Come-Outers" up and down the Cape and taking part in their meetings. His services at such gatheri

ure that awaited them. He ran over the various denominations one by one, and one by one showed them to be worshipers of idols and followers

of the wicked is exalted. They're sellin' rum-RUM-in this town! They're a-sellin' rum and drinkin' of it and gloryin' in their shame. But the Lord ain't asleep! He's go

ke lamps under his rough white eyebrows, and his clenched fists pounding the back of the chair in front of him. Hi

efiance of the doctor. Nobody seemed much interested except a nervous young man with sandy hair and a celluloid collar, who had come with Mr. Tobias

and false starts and an air of relief when it was over. Then another hymn and more te

ful in the Lord's vineyard. They had allowed weeds to spri

the town than it ever has been afore. The Lord set us a watch to keep and we've slept on watch. And now there's a trap set for every young man in this c'munity. Do you think that that hell-hole down yonder is goin' to shut up because we talk about it in meetin'? Do you think Web Saunders is goin' to quit sellin' rum because we say he ought to? D

muttering that he was ready. There was a hushed silence for a moment or two, and then a storm of

puffing up, like a frog, under religious excitement, and then bursting forth in an inarticulate shout, disconcerting to the uninitiated. During Baxter's speech and the singing of the hymn his expansive red cheeks had been distended like

fired a dynamite charge beneath him. "Oh, the Devil!" he sh

rfered with the solemnity of Mr. Perley's closing remarks, and no one else was brave enough to "testify" under

down the road toward his home. John Baxter was silent and absent-minded, and most of the Captain's cheerful

n's law ought to be allowed

my jedgment that it pays to st

break man's law and keep

want to say nothin' to hurt your feelin's, but I should advise the feller that thought

've got

und that the Lord runs things most as well as us folks could run 'em. When there's a leak at one end of the schooner it don't pay to bore a hole at the other end to let the water out. Don'

ybe 'twould. Sometimes I feel as if my head w

any more; better

ll see. G

night,

nds of religion is like whisky, mighty bad for a weak hea