patiently accepted the new name with the resignation of her patient
nature. But the name pleased her after her beloved lord had
explained.

"I was saving that name for the handsomest clipper-ship that money
could build," he said. "But when I married you, little woman, I got
something better than a clipper-ship; and when you know sailorman's
natur' better, you'll know what that compliment means. Yes,
Providunce sent me here," continued the Cap'n, poking down his
tobacco with broad thumb. "There I was, swashin' from Hackenny to
t'other place, livin' on lobscouse and hoss-meat; and here you was,
pinin' away for some one to love you and to talk to you about something
sensibler than dropped stitches and croshayed lamp-mats. Near's I
can find out about your 'sociates round here, you would have got more
real sense out of talkin' with Port and Starboard up there," he added,
pointing to his pet parrots, which had followed him in his wanderings.
"We was both of us hankerin' for a companion--I mean a married
companion. And I reckon that two more suiteder persons never started
down the shady side--holt of hands, hey?"

He caught her hands and pulled her near him, and she bent down and
kissed his weather-beaten forehead.

At that instant Col. Gideon Ward came clattering into the yard in
his tall wagon. He glared at this scene of conjugal affection, and
then lashed his horse savagely and disappeared in the direction of
the barn.

"I read once about a skelington at a feast that rattled his dry bones
every time folks there started in to enjoy themselves," said the