Galusha the Magnificent

CHAPTER V

An hour or so later when Martha Phipps, looking out of her dining room window, saw her boarder enter the front gate, his personal appearance caused her to utter a startled exclamation. Primmie came running from the kitchen.

“What's the matter, Miss Martha?” she demanded. “Eh! My savin' soul!”

Mr. Bangs' head was enveloped in the scarf which his hostess had lent him when he set forth upon his walk. It—the scarf—was tied under his chin and the fringed ends flapped in the wind. His round face, surrounded by the yarn folds, looked like that of the small boy in the pictures advertising somebody-or-other's toothache cure.

“My savin' soul!” cried Primmie, again. She was rushing to the door, but her mistress intervened.

“Primmie,” she ordered, briskly, “stay where you are!”

She opened the door herself.

“Come right in, Mr. Bangs,” she said. “No, don't stop to tell me about it, but come right in and sit down.”

Galusha looked up at her. His face was speckled with greenish brown spots, giving it the appearance of a mammoth bird's egg. Primmie saw the spots and squealed.

“Lord of Isrul!” she cried, “he's all broke out with it, whatever 'tis! Shall I—shall I 'phone for the doctor, Miss Martha?”

“Be still, Primmie. Come in, Mr. Bangs.”

“Why, yes, thank you. I—ah—WAS coming in,” began Galusha, mildly. “I—”

“You mustn't talk. Sit right down here on the lounge. Primmie, get that rum bottle. Don't talk, Mr. Bangs.”

“But, really, Miss Phipps, I—”

“Don't TALK.... There, drink that.”

Galusha obediently drank the rum. Martha tenderly untied the scarf.

“Tell me if it hurts,” she said. Her patient looked at her in surprise.

“Why, no, it—ah—it is very nice,” he said. “I—ah—quite like the taste, really.”

“Heavens and earth, I don't mean the rum. I hope that won't HURT anybody, to say the least. I mean—Why, there isn't anything the matter with it!”

“Matter with it? I don't quite—”

“Matter with your head.”

Galusha raised a hand in bewildered fashion and felt of his cranium.

“Why—ah—no, there is nothing the matter with my head, so far as I am aware,” he replied. “Does it look as if it were—ah—softening or something?”

Miss Martha ignored the pleasantry. “What have you got it tied up for?” she demanded.

“Tied up?” Galusha's smile broadened. “Oh, I see,” he observed. “Well, I lost my hat. It blew off into the—ah—sea. It was rather too cold to be about bareheaded, so I used the scarf you so kindly lent me.”

Martha gazed at him for an instant and then burst into a hearty laugh.

“Mercy on me!” she cried. “WHAT an idiot I am! When I saw you come into the yard with your head bandaged—at least I thought it was bandaged—and your face—But what IS the matter with your face?”

“My face? Why, nothing.”

“Nonsense! It's a sight to see. You look the way Erastus Beebe's boy did when the cannon-cracker went off too soon. Primmie, hand me that little lookin'-glass.”

Primmie snatched the small mirror from the wall.

“See, Mr. Bangs,” she cried, holding the mirror an inch from his nose. “Look at yourself. You're all broke out with a crash—rash, I mean. Ain't he, Miss Martha?”

Galusha regarded his reflection in the mirror with astonishment.

“Why, I—I seem to be—ah—polka-dotted,” he said. “I never saw anything so—Dear me, dear me!”

He drew his fingers down his cheek. The speckles promptly became streaks. He smiled in relief.

“I see, I see,” he said. “It is the lichen.”

This explanation was not as satisfying as he evidently meant it to be. Martha looked more puzzled than ever. Primmie looked frightened.

“WHAT did he say 'twas?” she whispered. “'Tain't catchin', is it, Miss Martha?”

“It is the lichen from the tombstones,” went on Galusha. “Most of them were covered with it. In order to read the inscriptions I was obliged to scrape it off with my pocketknife, and the particles must have blown in my face and—ah—adhered. Perhaps—ah—some soap and water might improve my personal appearance, Miss Phipps. If you will excuse me I think I will try the experiment.”

He rose briskly from the sofa. Primmie stared at him open-mouthed.

“Ain't there NOTHIN' the matter with you, Mr. Bangs?” she asked. “Is the way your face is tittered up just dirt?”

“Just dirt, that's all. It came from the old tombstones in the cemetery.”

Primmie's mouth was open to ask another question, but Miss Phipps closed it.

“Stop, Primmie,” she said. Then, turning to Galusha who was on his way to the stairs, she asked:

“Excuse me, Mr. Bangs, but have you been spendin' this lovely forenoon in the graveyard?”

“Eh? Oh, yes, yes. In the old cemetery over—ah—yonder.”

“Humph!... Well, I hope you had a nice time.”

“Oh, I did, I did, thank you. I enjoyed myself very much indeed.”

“Yes, I should think you must have.... Well, come down right away because dinner's ready when you are.”

Galusha hastened up the stairs. His hostess gazed after him and slowly shook her head.

“Miss Martha, Miss Martha.”

Martha turned, to find Primmie excitedly gesticulating. “Didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you?” whispered Primmie.

“Didn't you tell me what? Stop wigglin'.”

“Yes'm. Didn't I tell you 'undertaker'?”

“WHAT?”

“Undertaker. Him, the Bangs one. Yesterday 'twas remains, to-day it's graveyards. My savin' soul, I—”

“Hush, hush! Have you thought to get that dictionary from Lulie yet?”

“Oh, now, ma'am, I snum if I didn't forget it. I'll go right over this minute.”

“No, you won't. I'll go myself after dinner.”

That Sunday dinner was a bountiful repast and Galusha ate more than he had eaten in three meals at his mountain hotel. He was a trifle tired from his morning's stroll and so decided to remain indoors until the following day. After the table was cleared Miss Phipps, leaving Primmie to wash the dishes, went over to the light keeper's house.

“I'll be back soon, Mr. Bangs,” she said. “If you get lonesome go out into the kitchen and Primmie'll talk to you. Goodness gracious!” she added, laughing, “that's a dreadful choice I'm leavin' you—lonesomeness or Primmie. Well, I won't leave you to either long.”

During the meal he had told them of his chance discovery of the old church and graveyard and of the loss of the brown derby. Primmie plainly regarded the catastrophe to the hat as a serious matter.

“Well, now, if that ain't too bad!” she exclaimed. “Blowed right out to sea, and 'most brand-new, too. My savin' soul, Miss Martha, folks ought to be careful what they say, hadn't they?... Eh, hadn't they?”

“Oh, I guess so, Primmie. I don't know what you're talkin' about. Can't I help you to a little more of the chicken pie, Mr. Bangs? Just a little BIT more?”

Galusha had scarcely time to decline the third helping of chicken pie when Primmie plunged again into the conversation.

“Why, I mean folks ought to be careful what they say about—about things. Now you and me hadn't no notion Mr. Bangs was goin' to lose his hat when we was talkin' about it this mornin', had we?”

Miss Phipps was much embarrassed.

“Have a—a—Oh, do have a little potato or cranberry sauce or somethin', Mr. Bangs,” she stammered. “A—a spoonful, that's all. Primmie, be STILL.”

“Yes'm. But you know you and me WAS talkin' about that hat when Mr. Bangs started out walkin'. Don't you know we was, Miss Martha?”

This was the final straw. Martha, looking about in desperation, trying to look anywhere but into her guest's face, caught one transitory glimpse of that face. There was a twinkle in Galusha's eye.

“I never liked that hat myself,” he observed, dryly.

Again their glances met and this time he smiled. Martha gave it up.

“Oh, dear!” she exclaimed, with a laugh. “You know what they say about children and—other folks, Mr. Bangs. Primmie, if you say another word while we're at this table I'll—I don't know what I'll do to you. STOP! You've said plenty and plenty more, as father used to say. Truly, Mr. Bangs, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. I honestly DIDN'T think the hat was becomin', that's all.”

“Neither did I, Miss Phipps. I didn't think so when I bought it.”

“You didn't? Then for mercy sakes why did you buy it?”

“Well, the man said it was just the hat for me and—ah—I didn't wish to argue, that's all. Besides, I thought perhaps he knew best; selling hats was his—ah—profession, you see.”

“Yes, SELLIN' 'em was. Do you always let folks like that pick out what they want to sell you?”

“No-o, not always. Often I do. It saves—ah—conversation, don't you think?”

He said nothing concerning his meeting with Miss Hallett and the South Wellmouth station agent, but he did mention encountering Captain Jethro and Mr. Pulcifer. Martha seemed much interested.

“Humph!” she exclaimed. “I wonder what possessed Cap'n Jeth to go over to the cemetery in the mornin'. He almost always goes there Sunday afternoons—his wife's buried there—but he generally goes to church in the mornin'.”

Galusha remembered having heard the light keeper refer to the exchange of preachers. Miss Phipps nodded.

“Oh, yes,” she said, “that explains it, of course. He's down on the Wapatomac minister because he preaches against spiritualism. But what was Raish Pulcifer doin' in that cemetery? He didn't have anybody's grave to go to, and he wouldn't go to it if he had. There's precious little chance of doin' business with a person after he's buried.”

“But I think it was business which brought Mr. Pulcifer there,” said Galusha. “He and—ah—Captain Hallett, is it? Yes—ah—thank you. He and the captain seemed to be having a lengthy argument about—about—well, I'm not exactly certain what it was about. You see, I was examining a—ah—tomb”—here Primmie shivered—“and paid little attention. It seemed to be something about some—ah—stock they both owned. Mr. Pulcifer wished to sell and Captain Hallett did not care to buy.”

Martha's interest increased. “Stock?” she repeated. “What sort of stock was it, Mr. Bangs?”

“I didn't catch the name. And yet, as I remember, I did catch some portion of it. Ah—let me see—Could there be such a thing as a—ah—'ornamenting' stock? A Wellmouth ornamenting or decorating stock, you know?”

Miss Phipps leaned forward. “Was it Wellmouth Development Company stock?” she asked.

“Eh? Oh, yes—yes, I'm quite certain that was it. Yes, I think it was, really.”

“And Raish wanted Cap'n Jeth to buy some of it?”

“That was what I gathered, Miss Phipps. As I say, I was more interested at the time in my—ah—pet tomb.”

Primmie shivered again. Miss Martha looked very serious. She was preoccupied during the rest of the dinner and, immediately afterward, went, as has been told, over to the Hallett house, leaving her guest the alternative of loneliness or Primmie.

At first he chose the loneliness. As a matter of fact, his morning's exercise had fatigued him somewhat and he went up to his room with the intention of taking a nap. But, before lying down, he seated himself in the rocker by the window and looked out over the prospect of hills and hollows, the little village, the pine groves, the shimmering, tumbling sea, and the blue sky with its swiftly moving white clouds, the latter like bunches of cotton fluff. The landscape was bare enough, perhaps, but somehow it appealed to him. It seemed characteristically plain and substantial and essential, like—well, like the old Cape Cod captains of bygone days who had spent the dry land portion of their lives there and had loved to call it home. It was American, as they were, American in the old-fashioned meaning of the word, bluff, honest, rugged, real. Galusha Bangs had traveled much, he loved the out of the way, the unusual. It surprised him therefore to find how strongly this commonplace, 'longshore spot appealed to his imagination. He liked it and wondered why.

Of course the liking might come from the contrast between the rest and freedom he was now experiencing and the fevered chase led him at the mountain hotel where Mrs. Worth Buckley and her lion-hunting sisters had their habitat. Thought of the pestilential Buckley female set him to contrasting her affectations with the kind-hearted and wholehearted simplicity of his present hostess, Miss Martha Phipps. It was something of a contrast. Mrs. Buckley was rich and sophisticated and—in her own opinion—cultured to the highest degree. Now Miss Phipps was, in all probability, not rich and she would not claim wide culture. As to her sophistication—well, Galusha gave little thought to that, in most worldly matters he himself was unsophisticated. However, he was sure that he liked Miss Phipps and that he loathed Mrs. Buckley. And he liked East Wellmouth, bareness and bleakness and lonesomeness and all. He rather wished he were going to stay there for a long time—weeks perhaps, months it might be; that is, of course, provided he could occupy his present quarters and eat at the Phipps' table. If he could do that why—why... humph!

Instead of lying down he sat by that window for more than half an hour thinking. He came out of his reverie slowly, gradually becoming conscious of a high-pitched conversation carried on downstairs. He had left his chamber door open and fragments of this conversation came up the staircase. It was Primmie's voice which he heard most frequently and whatever words he caught were hers. There was a masculine grumble at intervals but this was not understandable on the second floor.

“Now I know better.... My savin' soul, how you do talk, Zach Bloomer!... And I says to her, says I, 'Miss Martha,' I says.... My Lord of Isrul!...”

These were some of the “Primmieisms” which came up the staircase. Galusha rose to close his door but before he could accomplish this feat his own name was called.

“Mr. Bangs!” screamed Primmie. “Mr. Bangs, be you layin' down? You ain't asleep, be you, Mr. Bangs?”

If he had been as sound asleep as Rip Van Winkle that whoop would have aroused him. He hastened to assure the whooper that he was awake and afoot.

“Um-hm,” said Primmie, “I'm glad of that. If you'd been layin' down I wouldn't have woke you up for nothin'. But I want to ask you somethin', Mr. Bangs. Had you just as soon answer me somethin' if I ask it of you, had you, Mr. Bangs?”

“Yes, Primmie.”

“Just as soon's not, had you?”

“Yes, quite as soon.”

“All right. Then I—I... Let me see now, what was it I was goin' to ask? Zach Bloomer, stop your makin' faces, you put it all out of my head. It's all right, Mr. Bangs, I'll think of it in a minute. Oh, you're comin' down, be you?”

Galusha was coming down. It seemed to be the advisable thing to do. Miss Cash was doing her “thinking” at the top of her lungs and the process was trying to one with uneasy nerves. He entered the sitting room. Primmie was there, of course, and with her was a little, thin man, with a face sunburned to a bright, “boiled-lobster” red, and a bald head which looked amazingly white by contrast, a yellowish wisp of mustache, and an expression of intense solemnity, amounting almost to gloom. He was dressed in the blue uniform of the lighthouse service and a blue cap lay on the table beside him.

“Mr. Bangs,” announced Primmie, “this is Mr. Zach Bloomer. Zach, make you acquainted with Mr. Bangs, the one I was tellin' you about. Mr.—Mr.—Oh, my savin' soul, what IS your first name, Mr. Bangs?”

“Galusha, Primmie. How do you do, Mr. Bloomer?”

The little man rose upon a pair of emphatically bowed legs and shook hands. “I'm pretty smart,” he observed, in a husky voice. Then he sat down again. Galusha, after waiting a moment, sat down also. Primmie seemed to be wrestling with a mental problem, but characteristically she could not wrestle in silence.

“What was it I wanted to ask you, Mr. Bangs?” she said. “I snum I can't think! Zach, what was it I wanted to ask Mr. Bangs?”

Mr. Bloomer paid not the slightest attention to the question. His sad blue eye was fixed upon vacancy.

“Galushy—Galushy,” he said, huskily. “Huh!”

Galusha was, naturally, rather startled.

“Eh? I—ah—beg your pardon,” he observed.

“I was thinkin' about names,” explained Mr. Bloomer. “Queer things, names are, ain't they? Zacheus and Galushy.... Godfreys!”

He paused a moment and then added:

     “'Zacheus he
       Did climb a tree
       His Lord to see.'

Well, if he wan't any taller'n I be he showed good jedgment.... Zacheus and Galushy and Primrose!... Godfreys!”

Primmie was shocked. “Why, Zach Bloomer!” she exclaimed. “The idea of your talkin' so about a person's name you never met but just now in your lifetime.”

Zacheus regarded the owner of the name.

“No offense meant and none given, Mr. Bangs,” he observed. “Eh? That's right, ain't it?”

“Certainly, certainly, Mr. Bloomer. I'm not in the least offended.”

“Um-hm. Didn't cal'late you would be. Can't help our names, can we? If my folks had asked me aforehand I'd a-been named plain John. As 'tis, my name's like my legs, growed that way and it's too late to change.”

Galusha smiled.

“You're a philosopher, I see, Mr. Bloomer,” he said.

“He's assistant keeper over to the lighthouse,” explained Primmie. As before, Zach paid no heed.

“I don't know as I'd go so far as to call myself that,” he said. “When I went to school the teacher told us one time about an old critter who lived in a—in a tub, seem's if 'twas. HE was one of them philosophers, wan't he?”

“Yes. Diogenes.”

“That's the cuss. Well, I ain't never lived in a tub, but I've spent consider'ble time ON one; I was aboard a lightship for five or six year. Ever lived aboard a lightship, Mr. Bangs?”

“No.”

“Humph!... Don't feel disapp'inted on that account, do you?”

“Why—ah—no, I don't know that I do.”

“Ain't no occasion. 'Bout the same as bein' in jail, 'tis—only a jail don't keep heavin' up and down. First week or so you talk. By the second week the talk's all run out of you, like molasses out of a hogshead. Then you set and think.”

“I see. And so much thinking tends to bring out—ah—philosophy, I suppose.”

“Huh! Maybe so. So much settin' wears out overalls, I know that.”

Primmie interrupted.

“I've got it!” she cried, enthusiastically. “I know now!”

Galusha started nervously. Primmie's explosiveness was disturbing. It did not disturb Mr. Bloomer, however.

“Posy here'd be a good hand aboard a lightship,” he observed. “Her talk'd NEVER run out.”

Primmie sniffed disgust. “I wish you wouldn't keep callin' me 'Posy' and such names, Zach Bloomer,” she snapped. “Yesterday he called me 'Old Bouquet,' Mr. Bangs. My name's Primrose and he knows it.”

The phlegmatic Zacheus, whose left leg had been crossed above his right, now reversed the crossing.

“A-ll right—er Pansy Blossom,” he drawled. “What is it you're trying to tell us you know? Heave it overboard.”

“Hey?... Oh, I mean I've remembered what 'twas I wanted to ask you, Mr. Bangs. Me and Zach was talkin' about Miss Martha. I said it seemed to me she had somethin' on her mind, was sort of worried and troubled about somethin', and Zach—”

For the first time the assistant light keeper seemed a trifle less composed.

“There, there, Primmie,” he began. “I wouldn't—”

“Be still, Zach Bloomer. You know you want to find out just as much as I do. Well, Zach, he cal'lated maybe 'twas money matters, cal'lated maybe she was in debt or somethin'.”

Mr. Bloomer's discomfiture was so intense as to cause him actually to uncross his legs.

“Godfreys, Prim!” he exclaimed. “Give you a shingle and a pocket-handkercher and you'll brag to all hands you've got a full-rigged ship. I never said Martha was in debt. I did say she acted worried to me and I was afraid it might be account of some money business. She was over to the light just now askin' for Cap'n Jeth, and he's the one her dad, Cap'n Jim Phipps, used to talk such things with. They went into a good many trades together, them too.... But there, 'tain't any of your affairs, is it, Mr. Bangs—and 'tain't any of Primmie's and my business, so we'd better shut up. Don't say nothin' to Martha about it, Mr. Bangs, if you'd just as soon. But course you wouldn't anyhow.”

This was a tremendously long speech for Mr. Bloomer. He sighed at its end, as if from exhaustion; then he crossed his legs again. Galusha hastened to assure him that he would keep silent. Primmie, however, had more to say.

“Why, Zach Bloomer,” she declared, “you know that wan't only part of what you and me was sayin'. That wan't what I wanted to ask Mr. Bangs. YOU said if 'twas money matters or business Miss Martha went to see Cap'n Jeth about you cal'lated the cap'n would be cruisin' up to Boston to see a medium pretty soon.”

“The old man's Speritu'list,” exclaimed Zach. “Always goes to one of them Speritu'list mediums for sailin' orders.”

“Now you let me tell it, Zach. Well, then I said I wondered if you wan't a kind of medium, Mr. Bangs. And Zach, he—”

Galusha interrupted this time.

“I—a medium!” he gasped. “Well, really, I—ah—oh, dear! Dear me!”

“AIN'T you a kind of medium, Mr. Bangs?”

“Certainly not.”

“Well, I thought undertakin' was your trade till Miss Martha put her foot down on the notion and shut me right up. You AIN'T an undertaker, be you?”

“An undertaker?... Dear me, Primmie, you—ah—well, you surprise me. Just why did you think me an undertaker, may I ask?”

“Why, you see, 'cause—'cause—well, you was talkin' yesterday about interestin' remains and—and all this forenoon you was over in the cemetery and said you had such a good time there and... and I couldn't see why anybody, unless he was an undertaker, or—or a medium maybe, would call bein' around with dead folks havin' a good time... Quit your laughin', Zach Bloomer; you didn't know what Mr. Bangs' trade was any more'n I did.”

Mr. Bloomer cleared his throat. “Mr. Bangs,” he observed sadly, “didn't I tell you she'd make a ship out of a shingle? If you'd puffed smoke, and whistled once in a while, she'd have cal'lated you must be a tugboat.”

Galusha smiled.

“I am an archaeologist,” he said. “I think I told you that, Primmie.”

Primmie looked blank. “Yes,” she admitted, “you did, but—”

Zacheus finished the sentence.

“But you didn't tell TOO much when you told it,” he said. “What kind of an ark did you say?”

And then Galusha explained. The fact that any one in creation should not know what an archaeologist was seemed unbelievable, but a fact it evidently was. So he explained and the explanation, under questioning, became lengthy. Primmie's exclamations, “My savin' soul” and “My Lord of Isrul” became more and more frequent. Mr. Bloomer interjected a remark here and there. At length a sound outside caused him to look out of the window.

“Here comes the old man and Martha,” he said. “Cal'late I'd better be gettin' back aboard. Can't leave Lulie to tend light all the time. Much obliged to you, Mr. Bangs. You've cruised around more'n I give you credit for. Um-hm. Any time you want to know about a lightship or—or lobsterin' or anything, I'd be pleased to tell you. Good-day, sir. So long—er—Sweet William. See you later.”

The “Sweet William” was addressed to Primmie, of course. The bow-legged little man, rolling from side to side like the lightship of which he talked so much, walked out of the room. A moment later Martha Phipps and Captain Jethro Hallett entered it.

Both Miss Phipps and the light keeper seemed preoccupied. The former's round, wholesome face was clouded over and the captain was tugging at his thick beard and drawing his bushy eyebrows together in a frown. He was a burly, broad-shouldered man, with a thin-lipped mouth, and a sharp gray eye. He looked like one hard to drive and equally hard to turn, the sort from which fanatics are made.

Primmie scuttled away to the dining room. Galusha rose.

“Good-afternoon, Captain Hallett,” he said.

Jethro regarded him from beneath the heavy brows.

“You know Mr. Bangs, Cap'n Jeth,” said Martha. “You met this mornin', didn't you?”

The light keeper nodded.

“We run afoul of each other over to the graveyard,” he grunted. “Well, Martha, I don't know what more there is to say about—about that thing. I've told you all I know, I cal'late.”

“But I want to talk a little more about it, Cap'n Jeth. If Mr. Bangs will excuse us we'll go out into the dinin' room. Primmie's up in her room by this time. You will excuse us, won't you, Mr. Bangs? There was a little business matter the cap'n and I were talkin' about.”

Galusha hastened to say that he himself had been on the point of going to his own room—really he was.

Miss Martha asked if he was sure.

“You needn't go on our account,” she protested. “We can talk in the dinin' room just as well as not, can't we Cap'n Jeth?”

The captain bowed his head. “We ain't cal'latin' to talk very long anyhow,” he said, solemnly. “This is the Lord's day, Mr. Bangs.”

Galusha hastily admitted that he was aware of the fact. He hurried into the hall and up the stairs. As he reached the upper landing he heard the ponderous boom of the light keeper's voice saying, “Martha, I tell you again there's no use frettin' yourself. We've to wait on the Lord. Then that wait will be provided for; it's been so revealed to me.”

Miss Phipps sighed heavily. “Maybe so, Jethro,” she said, “but what will some of us live on while we're waitin'? THAT hasn't been revealed to you, has it?”

For the rest of that afternoon Galusha sat by his bedroom window, thinking. His thoughts were along the line of those interrupted by Primmie's summons. When, at supper time, he again descended the stairs, his mind was made up. He was going to make a suggestion, a suggestion which seemed to him somewhat delicate. In one sense of the term it was a business proposition, in another—well, he was not precisely certain that it might not be considered presuming and perhaps intrusive. Galusha Cabot Bangs was not a presuming person and he was troubled.

After the supper dishes were washed and Primmie sent to bed—“sent” is the exact word, for Miss Cash, having had a taste of Egypt and the Orient, was eagerly hoping for more—Miss Phipps and Galusha were together in the sitting room. Doctor Powers had paid a brief visit. He found his patient so much improved that he announced him well enough to travel if he wished.

“If it is really necessary for you to go to-morrow, Mr. Bangs,” he said, “I think you're strong enough to risk it.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” said Galusha. Then he added, with his little smile, “I couldn't go before to-morrow. You see, I—ah—haven't any hat.”

In the sitting room, after supper, Galusha was idly turning the pages of Camp, Battlefield and Hospital, a worn book of Civil War sketches, printed immediately after that war, which he had found upon the shelf of the closet in his room, along with another volume labeled Friendship's Garland, a Nosegay of Verse. Of the two, although a peace-loving individual, he preferred the camp and battlefield to the Nosegay; the latter's fragrance was a trifle too sweet.

Suddenly Martha, who had been sitting quiet in the rocker, spoke.

“Mr. Bangs,” she said, “I saw Lulie Hallett when I was over at the light this afternoon. We had a good talk together before Cap'n Jethro came back. She told me about your bein' so kind to her and Nelson over by the old church this mornin'. She was real grateful to you and she says she shall thank you herself when she sees you. She asked me to do it for her now.”

Galusha was confused. “Oh, it was nothing, really,” he hastened to explain. “I—ah—Well, I intruded upon them somewhat suddenly. I see she told you of that.”

Miss Phipps was smiling to herself. She looked a little guilty.

“Well,” she admitted, “Lulie did say that you kind of—er—flew over the bank. She said no one was ever quite so surprised as she was at that minute.”

Mr. Bangs thoughtfully shook his head.

“Except myself, perhaps,” he observed.

Martha's smile became a laugh. “Probably that's so,” she admitted. “But, Mr. Bangs, Lulie is awfully anxious that you shouldn't think there was anything wrong about her meetin' Nelson Howard in that way. There isn't. She's a splendid girl and he's a fine young man. I think the world of Lulie and I like Nelson, too.”

She paused a moment and then went on.

“It's Cap'n Jethro that makes all the trouble,” she said. “There's no reason in the world—that is, no sensible reason—why Lulie and Nelson shouldn't be engaged to be married. Of course he isn't doin' very well in a business way just now, but that's partly from choice on Lulie's account. Nelse was a telegraph operator up in Brockton before the war. When the war came he went right into the Navy and started in at the Radio School studyin' to be a wireless operator. Then he was taken down with the 'flu' and had to give up study. Soon as he got well he went into the transport service. Lulie, you see, was teachin' school at Ostable, but her father's health isn't what it used to be and then, besides, I think she was a little worried about his spiritualism. Jethro isn't crazy about it, exactly, but he isn't on an even keel on that subject, there's no doubt about that. So Lulie gave up teachin' and came here to live with him. When Nelson was mustered out he took the station agent's job at South Wellmouth so as to be near her. I think he doesn't feel right to have her here alone with her father.”

“But—ah—she isn't alone, is she? I gathered that Mr.—ah—Bloomer—”

“Zach Bloomer? Yes, he's there, but Zach isn't lively company, especially for a girl like Lulie. If Jethro was taken—well, with a fit or somethin', Zach would probably sit down and cross those bow legs of his and moralize for an hour or so before he got ready to help pick the old man up. Nelson knows that and so he refused two real good offers he had and took the position at the South Wellmouth depot. But he's studyin' at his wireless all the time and some day—but I'm afraid that day will be a long way off. Cap'n Jeth is as set as the side of a stone wharf and you'd have to take him to pieces to move him. That was another of father's sayin's,” she added, “that about the stone wharf.”

“Why, why is the—ah—why is Captain Hallet so opposed to young Howard?” asked Galusha.

“Spiritualism. Foolishness, that's all. Before his wife died he was as sensible and shrewd a man as you'd care to see. He and father were old chums and father used to ask his advice about investments and all such things. They went into lots of deals together and generally made 'em pay, though Jethro usually made the most because he took more chances. He must be worth twenty or thirty thousand dollars, Cap'n Jeth Hallett is.”

She spoke as if these were enormous sums. Galusha, to whom all sums—sums of money, that is—were more or less alike, nodded gravely.

“His wife's death broke Jethro dreadfully,” continued Martha. “For six months or so he hardly spoke to anybody except Lulie. Then some Spiritualist or other—I think it was Ophelia Beebe or some rattlehead like her—got him to go to see a medium who was boardin' here at the Restabit Inn. He got—or thinks he got—a communication direct from Julia—his wife. After that he kept goin' to the Spiritualist camp meetin's and to Boston and to mediums from Dan to Beersheba, so to speak. A while ago one medium creature—and I wish she had been struck dumb before she could say it—told him that he must beware of a dark man who was tryin' to work evil upon his daughter. As luck would have it, Nelson Howard was home on leave and callin' on Lulie when her father got back from seein' that very medium. You can imagine what happened. And Jethro has been growin' more rabid on the subject ever since.”

She stopped. Her guest said nothing. He was thinking that if he were to make the suggestion—the proposition which he had determined upon before he came down to supper, he must make it soon. And he did not know how to begin.

Martha went on talking. She apparently did not notice his silence. It was more as if she were thinking aloud.

“If it wasn't for Lulie's bein' here,” she said, slowly, “I don't know what I should do sometimes, I get so lonesome. When father lived it was all so different. He was bright and cheerful and he and I were just as if we were the same age, as you might say. He never was cross and he didn't fret and if he worried he didn't let me know it. He just loved this place. It was near the salt water, and he loved that, and he had his garden and his hens and he was interested in town affairs and all. We didn't have much money, but we had enough, seemed so. Before he died he told me he hoped he'd left me well enough off to get along. 'The only thing that troubles me, Martha,' he said, 'is that some of the things I've put money into shouldn't turn out as I hoped. I've tried to be careful, but you can't always tell. If you want advice,' he said, 'go to Jethro Hallett. Jeth's a shrewd business man.' Ah, well, he didn't know that the spirits were goin' to run Cap'n Jeth. About the last words he said to me, father, I mean, was, 'Martha, hang on to the old place if you can. I hate to think of your sellin' it.' Of course I told him I never should sell it.”

“Well—ah—well—” Galusha felt that he ought to say something, “you don't intend selling it, do you, Miss Phipps?”

Martha did not answer immediately. And when she did speak it was not a reply.

“You must think we're a queer lot down here by the Bluffs, Mr. Bangs,” she said. “Primmie—you've seen what she is—and Zach Bloomer and Cap'n Jethro with his 'spirit revelations.' As I say, if it wasn't for Lulie I don't know what I should do. Get to be cracked myself, I presume likely.... But there,” she added, brightening, “do let's change the subject, for mercy sakes! Mr. Bangs, what do you suppose I did when I was over at the light this afternoon? Besides talkin' with Lulie, I mean.”

“Why—why, I don't know, I'm sure.”

“I don't believe you could guess, either. I looked up 'archaeologist' in the dictionary.”

Mr. Bangs blinked surprise behind the spectacles.

“In the—in the dictionary?” he repeated. “Oh—ah—dear me! Really!”

“Yes. I'm afraid you'll think I am awfully ignorant, but to save my soul I couldn't think what an archaeologist did, what sort of a business it was, I mean. Of course, I knew I OUGHT to know, and that I did know once, but it seemed to be perfectly certain that I didn't know THEN. So I looked it up. It fits in with what you told Primmie and me about travelin'—that camel driver creature and all—and yet—and yet, you know, I was surprised.”

“Surprised? Really? Yes, of course, but—but why?”

“Well, because somehow you don't look like that kind of man. I mean the kind of man who travels in all sorts of wild places and does dangerous things, you know, and—”

Galusha's desire to protest overcame his politeness. He broke in hurriedly.

“Oh, but I'm not, you know,” he cried. “I'm not really. Dear me, no!”

“But you said you had been to—to Africa, was it?—three or four times.”

“Oh, but those were my Abyssinian trips. Abyssinia isn't wild, or dangerous, any more than Egypt.”

“Oh, isn't it?”

“No, not in the least, really. Oh, dear me, no!”

“Not with darky camel drivers stealin' your—er—underclothes and goodness knows what? It sounds a little wild to ME.”

“Oh, but it isn't, I assure you. And Egypt—ah—Egypt is a wonderful country. On my most recent trip I.... May I tell you?”

He began to tell her without waiting for permission. For the next hour Martha Phipps journeyed afar, under an African sun, over desert sands, beside a river she had read of in her geography when a girl, under palm trees, amid pyramids and temples and the buried cities of a buried people. And before her skipped, figuratively speaking, the diminutive figure of Galusha Bangs, guiding, pointing, declaiming, describing, the incarnation of enthusiastic energy, as different as anything could be from the mild, dreamy little person who had sat opposite her at the supper table so short a time before.

The wooden clock on the mantel—it had wooden works and Martha wound it each night before she went to bed—banged its gong ten times. Mr. Bangs descended from Egypt as if he had fallen from a palm tree, alighting upon reality and Cape Cod with startled suddenness.

“Oh, dear me!” he cried. “What was that? Goodness me, it CAN'T be ten o'clock, can it? Oh, I must have talked you almost to death, Miss Phipps. I must have bored you to distraction, I must really. Oh, I'm SO sorry!”

Miss Martha also seemed to be coming out of a dream, or trance. She stirred in her chair.

“You haven't bored me, Mr. Bangs,” she said,

“Oh, but I must have, really. I should know better. You see.... Well, it's quite extraordinary my talking to you in this way, isn't it? I don't do it often—ah—except to other members of my profession. Why, up there in the mountains—at the place where I spent the past month or two, I scarcely talked of—ah—my work at all. And I was constantly being asked to do so. There was a dreadful—ah—that is, there was a woman who.... But I promise you I won't go on in this way again, Miss Phipps, really I won't.”

Martha drew a long breath and shook her head.

“I hope you won't promise any such thing,” she declared. “I feel as if I had been readin' the most interestin' storybook that ever was.... My, my!” she added, with a sigh. “What a curious thing life is, isn't it? There's nothin' new in that thought, of course, but it comes to us all every little while, I suppose. Just think of the difference there has been in our two lives, for instance. Here are you, Mr. Bangs, you've been everywhere, pretty nearly, and yet you're—well, you're not so very big or strong-lookin'. The average person would say I was the one best fitted to trot around the world, and all my life—or nearly all—I've been keepin' house in this little corner of East Wellmouth. That's curious, isn't it? Of course I can't see myself doin' the things you do—ridin' a camel, for instance.”

“Oh, but it is quite easy, quite,” Galusha hastened to assure her. “You could do it very well, I'm sure, Miss Phipps.”

“Maybe so, but I'm afraid I'm a little bit doubtful. I should want my camel on wheels, with a railin' around his hump. But YOU must feel lost enough down in this tame place, Mr. Bangs. The wildest thing around here is a woodchuck.”

She laughed. Galusha smiled, but he answered promptly.

“I like it here, Miss Phipps,” he said, earnestly. “I do, really. I like it very much indeed. In fact—in fact—Miss Phipps, would you mind answering a question or two?... Oh, they're not personal questions, personal to you, I mean. Really they are not. May I ask them?”

She was puzzled and looked so.

“Why, of course,” she said.

“Well... well, they're foolish questions, I suppose, for I think I know the answers already. But, you see, I want my conscience to be quite clear before making a decision.... That is, the decision is already made, but you see... oh, no, you don't see, of course, do you?”

“Why not ask your questions, Mr. Bangs?” she suggested.

“Yes—ah—thank you; yes, I will. The first one is about—ah—rest. This is a good spot for one to—ah—rest in, isn't it?”

She laughed. “Are you jokin', Mr. Bangs?” she asked. “Rest! I should say the average person would find it easier to rest here than to do anything else. But you are jokin', of course?”

“No; no, indeed, I am quite serious. Second, the air about here is—ah—good and—and fresh?”

“GOOD! Well, considerin' that most of it is blown over three or four thousand miles of salt water before it gets here it ought to be fairly good, I should say. As to its bein' fresh—well, if you were here when a February no'theaster was blowin' I'm afraid you might find it a little TOO fresh.”

“That is satisfactory, that is very satisfactory indeed. Now what was the third thing the doctor said I must have? Oh, yes, people. And I know there are people here because I have met them. And very nice people, indeed.... Oh, this is VERY satisfactory, Miss Phipps. Now my conscience is quite clear concerning my promise to the doctor and I can go on to my proposal to you.”

“Your—your WHAT?”

“My proposal—the—ah—proposition I want to make you, Miss Phipps. And I DO hope you will consider it favorably. You see, I like East Wellmouth VERY much. My doctor told me I must go where I could find fresh air, rest, and people. They are all here in East Wellmouth. And he said I must have exercise, and behold my daily walks to that most interesting old cemetery of yours. Now, you have been VERY kind to me already, Miss Phipps; could you be still more kind? Would you—ah—could you let me continue our present arrangement indefinitely—for a few months, let us say? Might I be permitted to board here with you until—well, until spring, perhaps?”

Martha Phipps leaned back in her chair. She regarded him keenly.

“Mr. Bangs,” she said, slowly, “has some one been tellin' you that I needed money and are you makin' me this offer out of—well, out of charity?”

Galusha jumped violently. He turned quite pale.

“Oh, dear, dear, dear!” he cried, in a great agitation. “Oh, dear me, dear me! No, INDEED, Miss Phipps! I am VERY sorry you should so misunderstand me. I—I—Of course I know nothing of your money affairs, nor should I presume to—to—Oh, I—I—Oh, dear!”

His distress was so keen that she was obliged to recognize it.

“All right, all right, Mr. Bangs,” she said. “It wasn't charity, I can see that. But what was it? Do I understand you to say that you like—actually like this lonesome place well enough to want to stay here all WINTER?”

“Yes—ah—yes. And it doesn't seem lonesome to me.”

“Doesn't it? Well, wait a little while.... And you really mean you want to keep on boardin' here—with me, with us?”

“Yes, if—if you will be so very kind as to permit me to do so. If you will be so good.”

“Good! To what? My soul and body!”

“No—ah—good to mine,” said Galusha.