“I think there's some folks,” said Uncle Silas, “that their mind works all the time--runs a day gang and runs a night gang. You know how a hard sum 'll shake itself out in your head overnight; and I think it's the most natural thing that a man with a A No. I active mind always should feel sort of tired and not know what ails him. George, won't you jes' git up and hand me that pipe--you ain't doin' nothin'.” “However it was,” said Captain Bennett, “Delia saw that he was drifting to leeward, and she was worried. Well, you know when the reformation set in, that winter, and run crowded houses,--one night in the West Church and the next in the other. One night David surprised his wife by going; and he set in a back seat, and come away and said nothing; and the same the next night; and the same for seven or eight nights right along. Finally, one night, they had a pretty searching sermon,--'_Choose ye this day_,' et cetera,--and I suppose the Deacon, here, was rather expecting David to rise for prayers; but, instead of that, as soon as Amen was said, he gets right up, and off he goes, and leaves Delia there, without saying a word to her or to anybody, and goes right up to Captain Westcott's house and agrees to ship. And glad enough Captain W. was to have him, and next day off he went. Now here he is, gone two years and over, and comes home night before last; his lay 'll figure out five hundred dollars; and the biggest thing is”--here the Captain brought down his heavy hand, for emphasis, on Uncle Silas's knee--“that Delia 's kept herself and the children, and never drawn one cent against the voyage; so they've got the whole clear, and they 've been up this morning early and traded for the Callender place, and they 're going to move in to-morrow. And I guess he means business now.” “But they don't git paid off till Monday,” said Uncle Silas. “They 're all goin' up to town to be paid off then.” “Well, he moves in to-morrow, anyway,” said Captain Bennett. “Monday night, I believe, he's going to pay down what he has, and take a deed, and give a mortgage back for the balance.” But Uncle Silas gravely shook his head. “I can't indorse this runnin' in haste,” he said. “I never, in all my experience, knew a man before to buy real estate without sort of goin' up street and talkin' it over, and comparin' notes 'round generally. Now, we could have given him points down here about the Callender place.” “Oh, he's made a good trade there,” said Captain Bennett. “That all may be,” said Uncle Silas, “but it 's the principle, not the five cents, I 'm lookin' at. I should have hed more faith in his holdin' out if he hed n't jumped quite so quick. 'Slow bind, fast find,' I say.” Captain Bennett rose, and drew on a grass-cloth coat that showed his suspenders through.