As the family gathered around the supper table Sarah was all smiles. From somewhere a very comfortable armchair had appeared, standing at Cap'n Jonah's usual place. The old seaman hesitated when he saw the chair. What change did this portend? "Sit right down, Uncle," said Sarah Petty in honeyed accents. "Seein' as you're so kinder crippled up, I didn't know but you'd find that cheer more comfort'ble." "Whatever!" murmured Cap'n Jonah. "I was speakin' to Miz Cap'n Joab Beecher at the Ladies' Aid," went on Mrs. Petty, as the family began to eat, "and she says Cap'n Joab gits gre't relief at times when the rheumatism ketches him jest as it does you, from usin' angleworm ile. It limbers the j'ints remarkable." "Angleworm ile?" gasped Orrin. "How in nature do they git ile from fishworms? Cap'n Jonah says they bore wells for ile, an' that s'prised me. But ile from angleworms is the capsheaf." "You fill a can with angleworms--wash 'em of course--an' set it out in the sun to stew. Gradually the worms shrink to 'most nothin', and you strain off the ile. Tommy can dig some worms----" "This weather?" snorted her son. "If all the angleworms in our back garden ain't dug themselves down 'bout's far as China for the winter, then they're froze' stiff by now, if you ask _me_." "Wal, I suppose it would be best to make the ile in summer," confessed Sarah. "There's skunk ile," proposed Orrin, seeing his wife's lead and trying to follow it. "They say that's mighty good for rheumatiz, to rub it in." "Have me smellin' like a polecat!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, getting his breath at last. "Ain't that just like you, Orrin?" snapped Sarah. Orrin subsided. But Mrs. Petty was determined to put forth something that would please Cap'n Jonah and draw attention to her interest and sympathy in the master mariner. "I've been intendin' to get to it ever since the cold weather set in," she observed; "but I've been so busy that I couldn't till to-day. That upstairs room over this kitchen ain't re'lly fit for Uncle Jonah to sleep in, Orrin." "Huh?" grunted her husband, wondering where she was heading in now. "I told you I didn't think 'twould suit," went on Sarah calmly. "There ain't no heat gets up into it from here--only smells. The fire goes out in this range and the chimney gets cold 'fore mornin'. 'Tain't fit for Uncle Jonah to sleep up there." The old captain laid down his knife and fork and stared at her. Orrin looked only at his plate. Tom choked over his food. Helmford tried to cover the general confusion by starting the ball of conversation rolling with Pearl about a piece of music which was just then coming into great popularity and of which he had a record that he played on his phonograph.