And with the coming of Elsie Preston and Mrs. Snow life in the little
house by the shore took on a decided change. The Nantucket lady having
satisfied herself that John Baxter's illness was likely to be a long
one, wrote several letters to persons in her native town, which letters,
although she did not say so, were supposed by the captains to deal with
the care of her property while she was away. Having apparently relieved
her mind by this method, and evidently considering the marriage question
postponed for the present, she settled down to nurse the sick man and to
keep house as, in her opinion, a house should be kept. The captains knew
nothing of her past history beyond what they had gathered from stray
bits of her conversation. She evidently did not consider it necessary to
tell anything further, and, on the other hand, asked no questions.

In her care of Baxter she was more like a sister than a hired nurse. No
wife could have been more tender in her ministrations or more devotedly
anxious for the patient's welfare.

In her care of the house, she was neatness itself. She scoured and swept
and washed until the rooms were literally spotless. Order was Heaven's
first law, in her opinion, and she expected everyone else to keep up to
the standard. Captain Perez and Captain Eri soon got used to the change
and gloried in it, but to Captain Jerry it was not altogether welcome.

"Oh, cat's foot!" he exclaimed one day, after hunting everywhere for his
Sunday tie, and at length finding it in his bureau drawer. "I can't git
used to this everlastin' spruced-up bus'ness. Way it used to be, this
necktie was likely to be 'most anywheres 'round, and if I looked out in
the kitchen or under the sofy, I was jest as likely to find it. But now
everything's got a place and is in it."