As we came down the hill toward the village our ways divided,
and when I had seen the old captain well started on a smooth piece
of sidewalk which would lead him to his own door, we parted, the
best of friends. "Step in some afternoon," he said, as
affectionately as if I were a fellow-shipmaster wrecked on the lee
shore of age like himself. I turned toward home, and presently met
Mrs. Todd coming toward me with an anxious expression.
"I see you sleevin' the old gentleman down the hill," she
suggested.
"Yes. I've had a very interesting afternoon with him," I
answered, and her face brightened.
"Oh, then he's all right. I was afraid 'twas one o' his
flighty spells, an' Mari' Harris wouldn't"--
"Yes," I returned, smiling, "he has been telling me some old
stories, but we talked about Mrs. Begg and the funeral beside, and
Paradise Lost."
"I expect he got tellin' of you some o' his great narratives,"
she answered, looking at me shrewdly. "Funerals always sets him
goin'. Some o' them tales hangs together toler'ble well," she
added, with a sharper look than before.
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