no need of further words.

It was nearly dark that afternoon, and they were all sitting
around the kitchen fire, the three seafaring men smoking, and
Mrs. Trimmer greatly enjoying it. There could be no objection to
the smell of tobacco in this house so long as its future mistress
enjoyed it. The little girl sat on the floor nursing a Chinese
idol which had been one of her presents.

"After all," said Captain Eli, meditatively, "this whole
business come out of my sleepin' with my best ear up. Fer if I'd
slept with my hard-o'-hearin' ear up--" Mrs. Trimmer put one
finger on his lips. "All right," said Captain Eli, "I won't say
no more. But it would have been different."

Even now, several years after that Christmas, when there is
no Mrs. Trimmer, and the little girl, who has been regularly
adopted by Captain Eli and his wife, is studying geography, and
knows more about latitude and longitude than her teacher at
school, Captain Eli has still a slight superstitious dread of
sleeping with his best ear uppermost.

"Of course it's the most all-fired nonsense," he says to
himself over and over again. Nevertheless, he feels safer when
it is his "hard-o'-hearin' ear" that is not upon the pillow.




LOVE BEFORE BREAKFAST