"I want - " Then the boy produced a little written slip of paper and handed it to Mr. Metcalf.

"She's summut kinky, I'll admit," put in a new voice, that of old Batt Belcher - a dry and wizened specimen of the retired fisherman species. "She jes' tells him up an' down wut she thinks, an' - wal, ole Jake ain't none too pious, an' he jes' socks it to her agin. An' so it goes."

"Yaas," said Captain Peregrine, giving this statement his own judicial assent, "the widder 'z but poorly, an' hanged ef I see how she ken weather the winter. In my opinion, suthin' orter be done for her, an' would, if she war n't prouder 'n - all persessed!"

"Pooty strong, for a perfesser!" put in Captain Jonas, with true brotherly irony.

"No, no, sonny, I do' want nuthin'," Mr. Metcalf was saying. "Tell yer ma it's a Chris'mas present from me. Thet's all right, sonny," he added encouragingly, seeing that the boy hesitated.

"Wal, ef ye go to her, she'li jest say, 'I do' want for anything',' kinder stuck-up like an' - an' wut's th' use?" demanded old Mr. Belcher.

"Terrible, terrible!" ejaculated the stranger. But his words were scarcely noticed. The sages were, one and all, looking after the child, slowly departing and gazing in perplexity at the handful of rejected coppers.

"She'll only throw the money in yer face, depend upon 't, Metcalf."

"She? Who? Whose boy is that?" demanded the stranger.

At these abrupt questions everybody turned upon him with silent scrutiny. It was several minutes before Captain Peregrine could bring himself to vouchsafe a reply.

"Yaas, he orter n't ter be out alone, sech a night ez this. But the widder's laid up with rheumatiz, I reckon. That's the Widder Hannam's child, sir." And he eyed the man somewhat curiously, evidently awaiting some confidence in return.

"Well, I should say he ought n't! Eliza Hannam's child out in this storm!" He rose hastily to his feet, stumbling over two or three boxes in his excitement. "Here, grocer, just send up to her place the biggest box of Christmas goods you can find. Oh! I'll pay you straight enough. Here's a ten-dollar bill for security! Hurry 'em along and I'll pay you double!" And, creating quite a little whirlwind among the open-mouthed veterans, he blustered forth after the child.

"Gosh all Jerus'lem!" piped out old Batt Belcher, more excited than any of his townsmen remembered ever seeing him before. "He seems kinder stirred up about suthin' er nuther."

An ominous pause, the veterans one and all wagging their heads for very emotion.

"Wal, ther's suthin' in't, for he left me this here money, an' I mus' send raound the goods," observed Nahum Metcalf, disposed to view the stranger in a favorable light.