"He _isn't_ my uncle!" said the girl with emphasis. "He's my mother's step-brother's cousin-by-marriage, Orrin Petty is. And if I had any livin' relative in the world to go to, I'd leave here just as fast as I could travel, Washy Gallup--so there!" "Hoity-toity!" murmured Washy. "What's dragged anchor an' gone to sea on _this_ tide, I want to know? Where's Orrin?" There was a flurry of tears in the girl's voice as she uttered her emphatic speech. She jerked another starched piece from the line and crowded it with the clothespins into the basket. "He isn't at home; nor Miz Petty; nor Tom. They all went to the county fair down to Harwich." "I snum! And left you to home, did they?" ejaculated Washy, suddenly seeing a great light. "And I made this very dress to go to the fair in," confided Pearl. "Got the pattern out of the _Ladies' Home Provider_. And I picked out the very prettiest bolt of gingham Cap'n Abe had in his store. Now I've washed in it, and I'm going to iron in it. This was the day I meant to wear it, and I _have_ wore it!" She snapped her pretty teeth together on this remark and jerked back her sunbonnet so that the captain could see her face. Despite the storm upon it, it was well worth seeing, as he was confident it would be. With all her fairness of skin and almost flaxen hair, Pearl's eyes were dark, and smoldering now with indignation. The situation was too much for Washy. He had no further comment to make. But he waved an introductory hand toward the silent man in the pilot-cloth suit. "This here's Cap'n Jonah Hand, Miz Petty's uncle," he said. "He's come to visit a spell. Come up on the two-master from Chatham, and fouled my hawse at Durgin's dock. So I helped him over with his chist." "My goodness! Comp'ny?" gasped Pearl, staring wide-eyed at the broadly smiling visitor. "And there isn't a thing baked in the house but doughnuts!" [Illustration: "My goodness! Comp'ny?" gasped Pearl, staring wide-eyed at the broadly smiling visitor.] "Wal," observed Cap'n Jonah Hand, slowly, "I reckon I can fare on them, seein's I ain't set a tooth into one for many a long year. 'Way 'cross the world in Chinese waters, I took a hankerin' last year for 'fried holes,' as we used to call 'em when I was a boy. I told Ming, my Chinese cook, how they'd ought to be made, and he tackled 'em. Ming was putty nigh the bravest feller I ever did see. He'd tackle anything. "When he got through with them doughnuts you could have used 'em for grommets. They warn't nothin' fit for a man's stomach. Don't worry about feedin' me, gal. I had a snack before I got off the Chatham schooner." "You come right in, sir," said Pearl, recovering from her surprise and her natural Cape hospitality asserting itself. "You give him a hand with his chist, Washy."