She obeyed then. She could not have a scene there, before all those strangers. She stepped past him into the little room. He followed and closed the door. “Nat,” she said, turning to him, “why did you come? How could you be so cruel? I--” He interrupted her, but not with words. The next moment his arms were about her and she was pressed tight against the breast of his blue jacket. “Keziah,” he whispered, “I've come to take you home. Home for good. No, stay where you are and I'll tell you all about it. Praise be to God! we're off the rocks at last. All that's left is to tow you into port, and, by the everlastin', that's what I'm here for!” When Upham came up the stairs after his long interview with “the boss,” he found the door at the top closed. When he rattled the latch that door was opened by a stranger. “Are you Mr. Hallett?” asked Captain Nat briskly. “No, I'm not. Mr. Hallett is in his office on the first floor. But what--” “On the main deck, hey? Well, all right; we won't trouble him. You'll do just as well; I judge you're one of the mates of this craft. You tell Mr. Hallett that this lady here has decided not to cruise with him any longer. No fault to find, you understand, but she's got a better berth. She's goin' to ship along with me. Ain't that so, Keziah?” Keziah, pale, trembling, scarcely realizing the situation even yet, did not speak. But Captain Nat Hammond seemed to find his answer in her silence. A few minutes later, her arm in his, they descended the gloomy, dusty stairs, and emerged into the sunshine together. That afternoon Mr. Abner Stone again “washed his hands” of his poor relation--this time, as he indignantly declared, “for good and all.” CHAPTER XXII IN WHICH KEZIAH'S PARSON PREACHES ONCE MORE Time has wrought many changes in Trumet. The packet long since ceased to ply between the village and Boston, the stage has been superseded by the locomotive, the old “square-riggers,” commanded by Cape Cod men, no longer sail the seas. Along the main road the houses have changed hands. Didama Rogers peers no more from her parlor window; that parlor is now profaned by the frivolous and irreverent summer boarder. But the old residents love to talk of the days that are gone and if you happen to catch Mr. Isaac Higgins, now postmaster and a dignified member of the board of selectmen, in a reminiscent mood he will very likely tell you of the meeting of the parish committee called by its chairman, Elkanah Daniels, to oust the Rev. John Ellery from the pulpit of the Regular church.