"I snum!" he emphatically observed. "Cardhaven folks seem bit with
some kind o' bug. Talk 'bout curiosity! 'Hem! I dunno what Cap'n
Am'zon'll think of 'em."

"_I_ think they are funny," Louise retorted, her laughter bubbling up
again.

"Likely it looks so to you," said Cap'n Abe. "They're pretty average
funny I do guess to a stranger, as ye might say. But after you've
summered 'em and wintered 'em for twenty-odd years like I have, land
sakes! the humor's worn hi-mighty thin!"




CHAPTER V

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT

Cap'n Abe produced a pipe. He looked at his niece tentatively.
"Do--do you mind tobacker smoke?"

"Daddy-prof is an inveterate," she laughed.

"Huh? An--an invet'rate _what_?"

"Smoker. I don't begrudge a man smoking tobacco as long as we women
have our tea. A nerve tonic in both cases."

"I dunno for sure that I've got any nerves," Cap'n Abe said, the