Farnsworth lingered irresolutely a moment or two, as if there were many things concerning which he could wish to ask; but, as the woman gave him no encouragement, he turned at last and climbed the slippery, ragged path up to the church, untethered his horse, and drove slowly down the hill to the village. Cap'n Nat Hersey was just coming out of the village store, and to him Farnsworth addressed an inquiry where he might find shelter for himself and horse. "Well," the cap'n responded, with the deliberation of a man who has very little to say and his whole life to say it in, "well I dunno but ye might get a chance with Widder Bemis, an' I dunno _as_ ye could; but there ain't no harm trying, as I knows of." Further inquiry regarding the whereabouts of the domicile of the Widow Bemis led to an offer on the part of Cap'n Hersey to act as pilot to that haven. He declined, however, to take a seat in the buggy. The Cap'n had his own opinion of land-vehicles. A man might with perfect assurance trust himself in a boat; but, for his own part, the cap'n had no faith in those dangerous structures which roam about with nothing better than dry land under them. He walked along by the side of the carriage, conversing affably with the stranger under his convoy. "Isn't it a queer notion to have a woman for a sexton?" Farnsworth asked, as they wended along. "Well, yes," the captain returned reflectively. "Yes, it is sort of curious. Folks mostly speaks of it that comes here. It is curious, if ye look at it that way. But it all come about as natural as a barnacle on a keel. Old Sexton Grimwet kept getting considerable feeble, and Dele she took to helping him with his work. She was sort of cut off from folks, as ye may say, owing to having a baby and no father to show for it, and she naturally took to heaving anchor alone, or leastways along with the old man. And when the old man was took down with a languishment, she turned to and did all his work for him,--having gradually worked into it, as you may say." The cap'n paused to recover from his astonishment at having been betrayed into so long a speech; but, as the stranger had the air of expecting him to continue, he presently went on again: "There was them that wanted her turned out when old Grimwet died. Some said a woman of that character hadn't ought to have no connection with the church, even to digging its graves. But Parson Eaton he was good for 'em--I've always noticed that when these pious men gets their regular mad up they most generally have things their own way; and he preached 'em a sermon about the Samaritan woman, and Mary Magdalene, and a lot more of them disreputable Scripture women-folks, and, though he never mentioned Dele by name, they all knew what he was driving at, and they wilted. 'Twas a pitiful sight to see the girl a-digging her own father's grave up there. Me and Tom Tobey and Zenas Faston took hold and finished it for her."