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But their speech was blunt and the three topics of conversation most popular were the fish harvest, clamming, and summer boarders. "Land sakes! is that you, Em'line Scudder? What sent you cruisin' in these waters? I thought you never got away from the Haven." "Good-day, Mrs. Eldredge. You're fairin' well? I just had to come over to Littlebridge for some fixin's.
We girls, Hetty and Em'line and I, got to laughing, and we just couldn't stop; and didn't that old thing stop the singing after one verse, and look right at us, and say she thought Christian Endeavor members should remember whose house they were in, and that the owner was there, and all that rot. I nearly died, I was so mad. Everybody looked around, and we girls choked, and got up and went out.
"I guess we could have fixed up a spade," replied the boy. "I made a spade at home, out of a piece of old board once daddy helped." "Well, skelp off with you, and make a spade now," replied the other, who wanted to be quiet and think, "and you and Em'line can dig in the sand." Emmeline was sitting nearby, stringing together some gorgeous blossoms on a tendril of liana.
One day, at dinner-time, when Sunnyside had sounded some dismal note, old Jim, good-naturedly enough, turned to him, and said: "Mr. Sunnyside, my feelings to'a'd you am very well expressed by the col'ed gen'leman who was divo'ced from his wife. Says he, 'Em'line, if I nebber see you again dat won't be any too soon." A roar of delighted appreciation went up from the double row of tables.
Cold soup warmed over." "Prissy Strong!" I just held up my hands. Then I laughed. "He needn't try for Prissy," I said. "Emmeline nipped that in the bud twenty years ago, and she'll do it again." "Em'line is an old crank," growled Thomas. He detested Emmeline Strong, and always did. "She's that, all right," I agreed, "and that is just the reason she can turn poor Prissy any way she likes.
My boarders will be 'long and I got to freshen the house up a little." "You goin' to have the same folks you had last year, Em'line?" "Oh, yes. They're real nice -for city people. I tell Barzillai " "How is Barzillai?" "Middlin'. His leg ain't never been just right since he was helpin' ice the Tryout, come two summers ago.
"Daddy!" suddenly cried Dick, sitting up in the sunlight and rubbing his eyes with his open palms. "Where are we?" "All right, Dicky, me son!" cried the old sailor, who had been standing up casting his eyes round in a vain endeavour to sight the boats. "Your daddy's as safe as if he was in hivin; he'll be wid us in a minit, an' bring another ship along with him. So you're awake, are you, Em'line?"
Purdon opened her eyes very slightly, but shut them again at her sister's quick command, "You lay still, Em'line, and drink some of this brandy." She obeyed without comment, but after a pause she opened her eyes again and looked down at the new garment which clad her.
You see, Aunt Emma brought me up, and she and Aunt Em'line don't have anything to do with each other. They were twins, and when they were girls they got edgeways over 'Niram's father, when 'Niram was a baby and his father was a young widower and come courting. Then Aunt Em'line married him, and Aunt Emma never spoke to her afterward."
The idea was evidently not new to her. "Yes, ma'am, he could. But 'Niram says he ain't the kind of man to let his wife go out working." Even while she drooped under the killing verdict of his pride she was loyal to his standards and uttered no complaint. She went on, 'Niram wants Aunt Em'line to have things the way she wants 'em, as near as he can give 'em to her and it's right she should."
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