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Fred wondered if there was any subject of conversation which would not suggest liquor to the captain; he even brought himself to ask if Crayme had seen the new Methodist Church at Barton since it had been finished.
Crayme, she acted as every true woman will imagine that she herself would have done under similar circumstances, and this action made it not so easy as it might otherwise have been to see just where the pen and ink were, or to prevent the precious document, when completed, from being disfigured by peculiar blots which were neither fingermarks nor ink-spots, yet which in shape and size suggested both of these indications of unneatness.
Besides, Captain Crayme was running against time with an opposition boat which had just been put upon the river, and he appreciated the necessity of having the boat's bar well stocked and freely opened to whoever along the river was influential in making or marring the reputation of steamboats.
Crayme looked appealingly. "Fred," said he, "tell me about her yourself; I'll take it as a favor." "Why, she looked like a lot of lilies and roses," said Fred, "except that you couldn't tell where one left off and the other began. As she came into the room I felt like getting down on my knees.
During the first day of the trip, Crayme made no trouble for himself or Fred; under the friendly shelter of night, the two men had a two-hour chat, which was alternately humorous, business-like, and retrospective, and then Crayme fell asleep.
Excellence" surveyed the document with evident pride, and handed it to his wife, saying: "Now, you see, you've got me so I can't ever get out of it by trying to make out that 'twas some other Sam Crayme that you reformed." "Oh husband!" said Mrs. Crayme, throwing her arms about the captain's neck, "don't talk in that dreadful business way! I'm too happy to bear it.
The conversation continued with considerable strain to Fred's amiability; but his sophistry was no match for his wife's earnestness, and he was finally compelled to promise that he would make an appeal to Crayme, with whom he had a business engagement, on the arrival of Crayme's boat, the Excellence.
"Gracious, girl, you're making it too thin; any greenhorn could sail right through that and all around it. Here, let me have it." And Crayme wrote, dictating aloud to himself as he did so, "And the party of the first part hereby agrees to do everything else that the spirit of this agreement seems to the party of the second part to indicate or imply."
Crayme, and the only reason that I can see is, their husbands drink." "I guess you're right, Ettie," said Fred. "They didn't begin their domestic tyranny in advance, as you did bless you for it." "But why don't their husbands stop?" asked Esther, too deeply interested in her subject to notice her husband's compliment. "They must see what they're doing, and how cruel it all is."
Then the captain called on Dr. White, and announced such a collection of symptoms that the doctor grew alarmed, insisted on absolute quiet, and conveyed Crayme in his own carriage to the boat, saw him into his berth, and gave to Fred Macdonald a multitude of directions and cautions, the sober recording of which upon paper was of great service in saving Fred from suffering over the Quixotic aspect which the whole project had begun, in his mind, to take on.
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