"You hear that? You see that?" demanded the captain brokenly, the
tears starting from his own eyes and finding gutters down his
cleanly shaved cheeks. "That's your answer, Elder! You have some
idea how Prudence and I longed for young company in this house, and
somebody to help and comfort us. _And we got her._
"Ida May come to us like the falling of manna in the wilderness for
them spent and wandering Israelites. She has been to us more than
ever we dared hope for. If she was our own child and had growed up
here on Wreckers' Head our own born daughter, I couldn't think no
more of her.
"And you come here and ask us to give countenance for a moment to a
half-witted girl that says she belongs here in Ida May's place, and
claiming Ida May's name. More than that, she saying that our own
girl that we love so is a liar and an impostor and altogether
bad--such as she must be if she had fooled us so. I swan! Elder, I
should think you'd have more sense." And Cap'n Ira concluded
abruptly and with a return to his usual self-control.
The silence which ensued was only broken by the old woman's sobs.
Cap'n Ira, frankly wiping his own eyes with the great silk
handkerchief which he usually flourished when he took snuff, strode
across the room and patted Prudence's withered shoulder.
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