coast blows, and off she trapsed."

Mrs. Davids sighed like November. "So you have some hard luck as well as
myself. I don't suppose you can _get_ a housekeeper to keep her long,"
said she, dismally.

"Abel Grimes tells me it is enough sight easier getting wives than
housekeepers, and I'm some of a mind to try that tack," replied Captain
Ben, smiling grimly.

Mrs. Davids put up her hand to feel of her back hair, and smoothed down
her apron; while Miss Persis Tame blushed like a withered rose, and
turned her eyes modestly out of the window.

"I am _so_. But the difficulty is, who will it be? There are so many to
select from it is fairly bothersome," continued Captain Ben, winking
fast and looking as though he was made of dry corncobs and hay.

Miss Persis Tame turned about abruptly. "The land alive!" she
ejaculated with such sudden emphasis that the dishes shook on their
shelves and Captain Ben in his chair. "It makes me mad as a March hare
to hear men go on as though all they'd got to do was to throw down their
handkerchers to a woman, and, no matter who, she'd spring and run to
pick it up. It is always 'Who will I marry?' and not 'Who will marry
me?'"

"Why, there is twice the number of widders that there is of widderers
here at the P'int. That was what was in my mind," said Captain Ben, in a
tone of meek apology. "There is the Widow Keens, she that was Azubah
Muchmore. I don't know but what she would do; Lyddy used to think every