foolishness to them; I dare say they give her the blame o' the whole
on't. Ad'line ought to had the sense to see they had some right on
their side. Folks say he was the smartest fellow in his class to
college."

"Good King Agrippy! how hot it does git," said Jake rising
indignantly, as if the fire alone were to blame. "I must shove back
the cider again or 't will bile over, spite of everything. But 't is
called unwholesome to get a house full o' damp in the fall o' the
year; 't will freeze an' thaw in the walls all winter. I must git me a
new pipe if we go to the Corners to-morrow. I s'pose I've told ye of a
pipe a man had aboard the schooner that time I went to sea?"

Martin gave a little grumble of assent.

"'Twas made o' some sort o' whitish stuff like clay, but 'twa'n't
shaped like none else I ever see and it had a silver trimmin' round
it; 'twas very light to handle and it drawed most excellent. I al'ays
kind o' expected he may have stole it; he was a hard lookin' customer,
a Dutchman or from some o' them parts o' the earth. I wish while I was
about it I'd gone one trip more."

"Was it you was tellin' me that Ad'line was to work again in Lowell? I
shouldn't think her husband's folks would want the child to be fetched
up there in them boardin' houses"--

"Belike they don't," responded Jacob, "but when they get Ad'line to
come round to their ways o' thinkin' now, after what's been and gone,
they'll have cause to thank themselves. She's just like her gre't
grandsir Thacher; you can see she's made out o' the same stuff. You