Flood Tide

His property was spread out in the old mahogany bureau upstairs; his hat dangled from a peg in the hall; and he had exchanged his "city cloth

g to end; and now he had left her to get dinner, and he and Willie had betake

h these notions as that I have to. They get me by the throat, an' there's no shakin' 'em off. Only yesterday, fu

wa

enance opposite satisfied him, for dropping hi

or-boat, thi

no one was within hearing, he hitched the bar

kelp that's washed in by the tide after a storm, the propeller of a motor-boat is snarled up a good bit of the time. Now my scheme," he announce

ton, too,

he wheel was kept free," he m

now

ck the speed

ate!" exclaimed W

er the swing

rubbing his hands together and smiling bro

from the nail keg on which he was sitting and striding about the narrow ro

el to experiment with, I

asily enough," Bob cried

W

I'll he

eassure the inventor, and Bob laughed

oredly, "and I do not begin to have had the experience with boats that

Willie, unable wholly to con

younger ma

, "but it seemed the best I could do. As to this plan of yours, two heads are someti

. He mebbe has his peculiarities, like the rest of us. Who ain't? You'll likely find him kinder sharp-tongued at first, but he don't mean nothin' by it; and' he's quick, too-goes up like a rocket at a minute's notice. Folks down in town insist in addition that he's jealo

ught I

s motor-boat business to him," cautioned Willie, dropping his voice. "I never tell Jan

conspirators beheld a freckled face, crowned by a mass of

the presence of a stranger. "Well, how do you fi

indignation W

mention pumps in my hearin' fur six months, Janoah

smile into a grin that displayed the few

er takin' a vacation. You see we've got company. Tiny's nephew, Bob Mort

the room Jan peered inq

riosity. "Well, well! To think of some of Tiny's relations turnin' up at last! Not that

nat

t glance, for you're li

laug

y thinks

e time he could toddle. I'm glad some of you have finally got round to comin' to see her.

llie nervously, "why go diggin' up

to be coaxed away from his subject. "Why, 'twas only the other day when we was workin

, flushing. "Our whole family have treated Aun

of blame, Jan's mounting wra

the devil of a distance away-'most at the other end of the world, ain't it? You might as well live in China as Indiana. I never could see anyway what took people out of Wilton. There ain't a better spot on earth to live than right here. Yet for all that, every one of the Mo

ain business," repli

That's the way with so many folks. They go kitin' off to the city to make money enough to buy one of them automobiles. You won't ketch me with an automobile-no, nor a motor-boat, neither; nor any other of them durn things that's goin' t

ilosopher's resentment, Bob b

just as I say?" insisted Janoah Eldridge.

itizen from Indiana did not accept the challeng

outlive all us city p

of you motor-boat folks are under the sod. You see if I ain't! An' speakin' of motor-boats, Willie-I s

d Willie colored uncomfortably.

Zenas Henry out of his troubles," returned

ench he began to overturn at

e inventor, and from the inventor back to Robert Morton again. The elder man was whistling "Tenting To-night," an air that h

th of them

ell of fine weather now," remarked

y. Something was being kept from him, something of which this stranger, who had only been in the town a few hours, was cognizant. For the first time in fift

ong home," said he, moving w

just come, Jan,"

mer," Jan answered, placing the implement on the

nted to see Mr. Spence about," ve

hin' confidential to say to me-whatever he may have to say to ot

e a low

with the man?" he

shed apolo

mes. Don't you remember I told you he was kinder quick. It's just possi

k he suspect

e to fly off the handle like that a score of times a day. Don'

undertaking that they were oblivious to his absence. They worked feverishly until noon, devoured a hurried meal, and returned to the shop again, there to resume their labors. By supper t

ntor was

builder, you are. The moon might 'a' pogeed an' perigeed before I'd 'a' got as fur along as we have to-day. How you've learned all you have about boats without ever goin' n

o the old man'

business in New York to attend to," he said kindly. "But I will arrange to stick around until the job is so well under way that you won't need m

as you can, if only because you drag me int

an do that,"

y life put together. To work with somebody as has learned the right way to go ahead-it's wonderful. When me an' Jan tackle a job, we generally

saw a pitiful sadness steal into the bl

y training than I have done," he answered

tinizing him with hungering gaze. "T

val he smoke

der what in tunket's become of Jan," he speculated. "We've been so busy that he went clean out of my mind. It's queer he didn't show up again. He ain't stayed away for a

om his cha

presently remarked as an afterthought. "I could send one in th

m the workbench, tore a ragged corner f

he process wi

was finished. "I reckon that'll fetch him. We'l

hitch its way through the fields. The two men watched it jiggle along above the bushes of wild roses, through v

r poised above the tips of the stunted pines, whose feathery outlines loomed black in the dusk. From out t

moked silently, each abso

ss, with the hush of evening descending

, he reflected, than remain a few days in this sleepy little town. He liked Willie and Celestina, too; indeed, he would have been without a heart not to have appreciated their simple kindliness. Why should he hurry home? Would not his father rejoice should he be content to stay and make his aunt a short visit? There was no need to bind himself for any definite length of time; he would merely drif

es. Instead of being tiresome, his Aunt Celestina was proving a delightful acquisition, toward whom he already found himse

d genius. What a pity he had been cheated of the opportunity for cultivating it! There was something pathetic in the way he

nied this groping soul, was it not almost an obligation that, in so far as he was able

t the plan would give the gentle dreamer in the silver-gray cottage happiness, and after all happiness was not to be despised. If together he and Willie could make tangible the notion that existed in the latter

suspecting that already a factor in his destiny stronger than any of his arguments was soon to make its influe

his meditations by

ell?" demanded the inventor

ught I

Jan's," explained he. "Can

e it

string, urging the reluctant mes

ew nearer. "I wonder what's stuck in his crop! Mebbe Mis' Eldridge won't let him out.

was within easy reach. Willie raised its cover and

turned the missive over. "He's writ on the other

t come

to be busy in all his life. He don't even know the feelin'. If Janoah Eldridge is b

u suggested,

roke in Willie. "He'd simply 'a' writ Arabella; there wouldn't 'a' been need fur more. No, sir! Somethi