“And what,” she asked, with an air of gracious patronage, “will you call this one? Gentle Annie second, of course.” He shook his head, his sea-blue eyes fixed intrepidly on the object of his affections, who regarded him threateningly. “Can’t be any Annie second,” he returned quietly. “Now I think you make a great mistake, Captain Salter,” said Mrs. Bruce, with vigor. “For your own welfare I feel you ought to keep that name. The summer people have been attached to the Gentle Annie so long, and had such confidence in her.” Hiram nodded; but Mrs. Bruce could not catch his fixed eye as she wished, to emphasize her point. “They were right,” he answered. “She was a good craft.” “Confidence in her and you too, I should have said, of course,” went on the lady. “Yes, we sort o’ went together, pretty comfortable; but—well, I’ve lost her.” “Yes, but there’s a good-will goes with the name. You make a great mistake not to keep it. Captain Salter and the Gentle Annie; people have said it so many years and had all their sails and their picnics and clambakes with you, it’s like throwing away capital for you to take a new name for your boat. Now if you haven’t already had it put on—” “I have.” Hiram’s eyes were steady, and his lady-love was nervously fighting with the jealous wind for her cheese-cloth headdress, her face apparently flushed by the effort, and her eyes defiant. “What have you named her?” asked Mrs. Bruce, in disapproval. “The Clever Betsy.” “I don’t like it, emphatically. It seems very strange, and it will to everybody.” “Yes, at first,” rejoined Hiram imperturbably, “but you can get used to anything. It used to be Captain Salter and the Gentle Annie; but in future it’s goin’ to be Captain Salter and the Clever Betsy; and after a while that’s goin’ to seem just as natural as the other.” The speaker continued to rest his gaze on the narrow reddened countenance, which looked back furiously. Mrs. Bruce attributed his averted face to shyness, but the direction of his glance gave her an idea. “Well, I’m sure, Betsy, _you_ should be pleased,” she remarked. “One might think the boat was named for you.” “Betsy wasn’t ever clever to me,” said Hiram calmly. “She began spellin’ me down at school here when we were children, and she’s ben spellin’ me down ever since.” Mrs. Bruce looked curiously at the frowning countenance of the capable woman who had meant so much in her husband’s household. “Just like a snapdragon always,” went on Hiram slowly; “touch her and she’d fly all to pieces; and I guess you put on the finishin’ touch, takin’ her to Europe, Mrs. Bruce. She’s so toploftical to-day that she won’t scarcely speak to me.” “Betsy was a good traveler; I wouldn’t ask a better,” said Mrs. Bruce absently. The subject of the boat’s name rankled. Her desire to coerce humanity for its own good was like a fire always laid and ready to be kindled, and Hiram had applied the match.