“Poor young one,” he concluded, “she landed on to me in the rain, soppin' wet, and ha'f sick. I COULDN'T turn her out then--nobody could. Course it's an everlastin' outrage on me and the cheekiest thing ever I heard of, but what could I do? I was fixed a good deal like an English feller by the name of Gatenby that I used to know in South America. He woke up in the middle of the night and found a boa constrictor curled on the foot of his bed. Next day, when a crowd of us happened in, there was Gatenby, white as a sheet, starin' down at the snake, and it sound asleep. 'I didn't invite him,' he says, 'but he looked so bloomin' comf'table I 'adn't the 'eart to disturb 'im.' Same way with me; the child seemed so comf'table here I ain't had the heart to disturb her--yet.” “But she said she was goin' to stay,” put in Bailey. “You ain't goin' to KEEP her, are you?” The captain's indignation was intense. “Who--me?” he snorted. “What do you think I am? I ain't runnin' an orphan asylum. No, sir! I'll keep the young one a day or so--or maybe a week--and then I'll pack her off to Betsy Howes. I ain't so soft as they think I am. I'LL show 'em!” Mr. Tidditt looked thoughtful. “She's a kind of cute little girl, ain't she?” he observed. Captain Cy's frown vanished and a smile took its place. “That's so,” he chuckled. “She is, now that's a fact! I don't know's I ever saw a cuter.” CHAPTER VII CAPTAIN CY PROVES DELINQUENT A week isn't a very long time even in Bayport. True, there was once a drummer for a Boston “notion” house who sprained his ankle on the icy sidewalk in front of Simmons's, and was therefore obliged to remain in the front bedroom of the perfect boarding house for seven whole days. He is quoted as saying that next time he hoped he might break his neck. “Brother,” asked the shocked Rev. Mr. Daniels, who was calling upon the stranger, “are you prepared to face eternity?” “What?” was the energetic reply. “After a week in this town, and in this bedroom? Look here, Mister, if you want to scare me about the future you just hint that they'll put me on a straw tick in an ice chest. Anything hot and lively 'll only be tempting after this.” But to us, who live here throughout the year, a week soon passes. And the end of the week following Emily Thomas's arrival at the Cy Whittaker place found the little girl still there and apparently no nearer being shipped to Indiana than when she came. Not so near, if Mr. Tidditt's opinion counts for anything. “Gone?” he repeated scoffingly in reply to Bailey Bangs's question. “Course she ain't gone! And, what's more, she ain't goin' to go. Whit's got so already that he wouldn't part with her no more'n he'd cut off his hand.” “But he keeps SAYIN' she's got to go. Only yesterday he was tellin' how Betsy'd feel when the girl landed on her with his letter in her pocket.”