第12章

"Please to be seated, everybody," she said."Cap'n Obed, you take your reg'lar place.Mrs.Barnes, if you'll be so kind as to set here, and Miss Howes next to you.Kenelm, you set side of me.Set down, don't stand there fidgetin'.WHAT did you put on that necktie for? I told you to put on the red one."Kenelm fingered his tie."I--I cal'late I must have forgot, Hannah," he stammered."I never noticed.This one's all right, ain't it?""All right! It'll have to be.You can't change it now.But, for goodness sakes, look out it stays on.The elastic's all worn loose and it's li'ble to drop into your tea or anywheres else.Now,"with a sudden change from a family to a "company" manner, "may Iassist you to a piece of the cold ham, Miss Howes? I trust you are feelin' quite restored to yourself again?"Emily's answer being in the affirmative, their hostess continued:

"I'm so sorry to be obliged to set nothin' but cold ham and toast and tea before you," she said."If I had known you was comin' Ishould have prepared somethin' more fittin'.After such an experience as you must have been through this night to set down to ham and toast! I--I declare I feel real debilitated and ashamed to offer 'em to you."Thankful answered.

"Don't say a word, Miss Parker," she said, heartily."We're the ones that ought to be ashamed.Landin' on you this way in the middle of the night.You're awfully good to take us in at all.My cousin and I were on our way to the hotel, but Cap'n Bangs wouldn't hear of it.He's responsible for our comin' here."Miss Parker nodded.

"Cap'n Obed is the most hospital soul livin'," she said, grandly.

"He done just right.If he'd done anything else Kenelm and I would have felt hurt.I-- Look out!" with a sudden snatch at her brother's shirt front."There goes that tie.Another second and 'twould have been right in your plate."Kenelm snapped the loop of the "made" tie over his collar button.

"Don't grab at me that way, Hannah," he protested mildly."I'm kind of nervous tonight, after what I've been through.'Twouldn't have done no great harm if I had dropped it.I could pick it up again, couldn't I?""You could, but I doubt if you would.You might have ate it, you're so absent-minded.Nervous! YOU nervous! What do you think of me? Mrs.Barnes," turning to Thankful and once more resuming the "company" manner, "you'll excuse our bein' a little upset.You see, when my brother came home and said he'd seen lights movin'

around in the old Barnes' house, he frightened us all pretty near to death.All Cap'n Obed could think of was tramps, or thieves or somethin'.Nothin' would do but he must drag Kenelm right back to see who or what was in there.And I was left alone to imagine all sorts of dreadful things.Tramps I might stand.They belong to this world, anyhow.But in THAT house, at eleven o'clock at night, I-- Mrs.Barnes, do you believe in aberrations?"Thankful was nonplused."In--in which?" she asked.

"In aberrations, spirits of dead folks comin' alive again?"For just a moment Mrs.Barnes hesitated.Then she glanced at Emily, who was trying hard not to smile, and answered, with decision: "No, I don't.""Well, I don't either, so far as that goes.I never see one myself, and I've never seen anybody that has.But when Kenelm came tearin' in to say he'd seen a light in a house shut up as long as that one has been, and a house that folks--"Captain Bangs interrupted.He had been regarding Thankful closely and now he changed the subject.

"How did it happen you saw that light, Kenelm?" he asked."What was you doin' over in that direction a night like this?"Kenelm hesitated.He seemed to find it difficult to answer.

"Why--why--" he stammered, "I'd been up to the office after the mail.And--and--it was so late comin' that I give it up.I says to Lemuel Ryder, 'Lem,' I says--"His sister broke in.

"Lem Ryder!" she repeated."Was he at the post-office?""Well--well--" Kenelm's confusion was more marked than ever.

"Well--well--" he stammered, "I see him, and I says--""You see him! Where did you see him? Kenelm Parker, I don't believe you was at the postoffice at all.You was at the clubroom, that's where you was.At that clubroom, smokin' and playin' cards with that deprivated crowd of loafers and gamblers.Tell me the truth, now, wasn't you?"Mr.Parker's tie fell off then, but neither he nor his sister noticed it.

"Gamblers!" he snorted."There ain't no gamblers there.Playin' a hand or two of Californy Jack just for fun ain't gamblin'.Iwouldn't gamble, not for a million dollars."Captain Obed laughed."Neither would I," he observed."Nor for two cents, with that clubroom gang; 'twould be too much nerve strain collectin' my winnin's.I see now why you come by the Barnes' house, Kenelm.It's the nighest way home from that clubhouse.Well, I'm glad you did.Mrs.Barnes and Miss Howes would have had a long session in the dark if you hadn't.Yes, and a night at Darius Holt's hotel, which would have been a heap worse.

So you've been livin' at South Middleboro, Mrs.Barnes, have you?

Does Miss Howes live there, too?"

Thankful, very grateful for the change of topic, told of her life since her husband's death, of her long stay with Mrs.Pearson, of Emily's teaching school, and their trip aboard the depot-wagon.