worth the damage. He has got too many ways of hurting us, Cap'n. He
has always had his own way in these parts, and he probably always
will. Let him go. We won't get the toll, nor the fines, but we'll
have our bridge left."

"I was thinking of resigning this job," returned the Cap'n; "it was
not stirrin' enough for a seafarin' man; but I'm sort of gittin'
int'rested. How much will ye take for your bridge?"

But the director curtly refused to sell.

"All right, then," said the skipper, chocking his axe viciously into
a sapling birch and leaving it there, "I'll fill away on another
tack."

For the next two weeks, as though to exult in his victory, the Colonel
made many trips past the toll-house.

He hurled much violent language at the Cap'n. The Cap'n, reinforced
with his vociferous parrots, returned the language with great
enthusiasm and volubility.

Then came the day once more when the little woman sat down in a chair
in the shade of the woodbine.

"I took the first chance, Cap'n, while my brother has gone up-country,
to come to tell you how much I appreciate your generous way of doing
what I asked of you. You are the first man that ever put away selfish
pride and did just what I asked."