"Just sit down at the table, auntie," said the girl. "The coffee is
made. How long do you want your eggs boiled? The water is bubbling."
"Eggs!" exclaimed Cap'n Ira. "I thought them hens of Prue's had give
up layin' altogether."
"I found some stolen nests in the barn," returned Ida May. "They
have been playing tricks on you."
It was near noon when Ida May from an upper window saw the _Seamew_
beating out of the cove on her return trip to Boston. She watched
the schooner as long as the white sails were visible. But her heart
was not wholly with the beautiful schooner. A great content filled
her soul. Afterward she bustled about, straightening up the house,
her cheerful smile always ready when the old folks spoke. They
watched her with such a feeling of thankfulness as they could not
openly express.
After dinner she started on the ironing and proved herself to be as
capable in that line as in everything else.
"Maybe she's been a shopgirl, Ira," Prudence observed in private to
her husband; "but Sarah Honey didn't neglect teaching her how to
keep any man's home neat and proper."
"Sh!" admonished Cap'n Ira. "Don't put no such ideas in the gal's
head."
"What ideas?" the old woman asked wonderingly.
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