"She can't cook for me," snorted Cap'n Abe. "I respect my stomach too
much to eat after Bet Gallup. She's as good a man afore the mast as
airy feller in Cardhaven. An' that's where she'd oughter be. But
never let her in the galley."

"Oh, well," Louise said cheerfully. "I'm a dab at camp cooking myself,
as I told you. Uncle Amazon and I will make out--if he comes."

"Oh! Ah! 'Hem!" said Cap'n Abe, clearing his throat. He stooped to
pick up a dropped potlid and came up very red in the face. "You
needn't borrow any trouble on that score, Cap'n Am'zon's as good a cook
as I be."

Only twice did Cap'n Abe make forced trips into the shop. The supper
hour of Cardhaven was well established and the thoughtful housewives
did not seek to make purchases while the fat was hot in Cap'n Abe's
skillet. One of these untimely customers was a wandering child with a
penny. "I might have waited on him, Cap'n Abe," Louise declared.

"Land sakes! so you might," the storekeeper agreed. "Though if he'd
seen you behind my counter I reckon that young 'un of 'Liathel
Grummet's would have been struck dumber than nature made him in the
fust place."

The other customer was a gangling, half-grown youth after a ball of
seine twine and the girl heard him say in a shocked whisper to Cap'n
Abe:

"Say! is it true there's one o' them movin' picture actresses goin' to