"You leave it to me," said Sarah confidently, licking the flap of the last envelope and pressing down upon it with determination expressed in her very attitude. "Uncle Jonah's fortune is just as good as ourn." Pearl went into the front room when her evening's work was done to see if Cap'n Jonah wished anything for the night. The old mariner was sitting in a comfortable chair before the stove dressed in his blue pilot-cloth suit which he wore only on "state and date occasions," as he said himself, and with his feet thrust into a pair of gold embroidered Chinese heelless slippers. "Ahoy, my hearty!" hailed Cap'n Jonah, smiling at the girl. "It does me good to see your pretty face. Come in an' set along o' me a spell." "I've a book up in my room I want to read, Cap'n Jonah," said Pearl frankly. "If I don't read before Miz Petty comes up to bed she'll maybe take my lamp away. She says that if I read at night I'm not fit for anything the next day." "Whatever!" snapped the old mariner. "You bring your book in here, if you want, Pearly. Don't matter what Sarah Petty says. If you want to read, you read." "Oh!" gasped Pearl. "I wouldn't dare." "Ha! There's a change of wind hereabout, my gal," said Cap'n Jonah, his eyes twinkling. "While it blows fav'rable you'd better take advantage of it as I have. You're welcome to come in here any time, Pearly. 'Hem! How air you and that young Helmford gettin' on?" "Oh! Cap'n Jonah!" cried the girl, startled by the abrupt question. "Good friends, ain't you two?" queried the old man, watching her face sharply. "He's a nice feller if he has got a fool job, trainin' fishes." "He's--he's very nice," stammered Pearl. "To be sure he is," agreed Cap'n Jonah heartily. "From what I hear he comes of nice folks, though they ain't rich. Abram Silt knows about him. He'll make a nice man for some smart gal to marry." "Oh, Cap'n Jonah!" cried Pearl again, and ran out of the room with burning cheeks. She did not go near Helmford that evening. Cap'n Jonah accepted with placid mien the good things the gods gave him in the matter of improved quarters and better treatment from the Pettys. He did not know how long he could keep up the masquerade as a wealthy and successful man; but while Sarah and the others continued to deceive themselves the old seaman proposed to do or say nothing to break the charm. He slept that night as peacefully as he had in the best bedroom upstairs. With the room kept at a comfortable temperature by the fire in the base-burner, the captain's rheumatic twinges did not return. Still, when Sarah herself tapped at his door in the morning and asked him if he would have his breakfast on a tray, he accepted the offer. "Might's well take all the benefits of being in sick bay," he said to Pearl, who brought the tray. "Now some shavin' water, my gal, and I'll be purty well fixed."