Peter Walker saw that Uncle Jabez was in a reminiscent mood. The occasion was ripe for stimulating the old man’s memory. “I’ve heard my grandfather tell of those good times when Mr. Treat was minister. That was before your time, Uncle Jabez. Grandfather was only eighty when he died, but he hadn’t your memory.” “No, Peter, few men have my memory, if I do say it myself. I was only a boy at the time, but I well remember the days when Mr. Samuel Osborn was minister. Ah, he was a rare man! It was not his piety that recommended him to his flock, though he was a good man, too. It was his way of doing good. He took hold of the things nearest to hand. Didn’t your grandfather ever mention how Mr. Osborn taught the people the value of peat for fuel when there was a scarcity of wood?” “He used to say something of the sort, Uncle Jabez, but he got Mr. Osborn mixed with the other minister, Mr. Webb.” “Aye, Mr. Webb was one of the best men that ever lived but he had no faculty for practical matters. He had the Middle Parish, and Mr. Osborn had the South Parish. They were always the best of friends, though their dispositions were very different. Didn’t you ever hear the story of how the ‘Whidah’ was lost and how one of the two survivors used to come to the Cape for years after in search of the pirate’s treasure?” “We heard a little of the story, Uncle Jabez, but nobody seemed to know it in full.” “I know it in full, Master Walker.” As Uncle Jabez said this the hearers became more interested and drew nearer the chimney-place. “Tell us about it, Uncle Jabez,” urged Obed Sparrow. “I have heard tell of that strange man who frequented the dunes of Wellfleet years ago. Nobody seems to know what was his end.” Uncle Jabez was nothing loth to comply, and this is how his story ran. * * * * * In those old days, my masters, Eastham was a town of great importance in the colony. From the bounds of Chatham and Harwich on the west, it took in the rest of the Cape as far as Truro. It was the famous corn-raising district of the colony, Nauset being known to the first settlers as “the granary of the Cape.” It had many men engaged in the fisheries and some went long voyages to southern lands in search of the vintage of Santa Cruz and Jamaica, bartering the spoil of the ocean for the products of the tropics. The Indians of the Nauset tribe, original owners of the soil, were rapidly vanishing from the earth, though a remnant of the nation still remained. They were a kindly race and lived in peace with the white man. After King Philip’s War, the power of the Narragansetts and the Wampanoags was broken, but the colony was still subject to frequent alarms from the French and their Indian allies, who were active in other parts of the state.