On one subject only did any trouble now come into the mind of Mrs. Aleshine, and she once had a little talk with me in regard to it. "I've been afeared from the very beginnin'," she said, "an' after a while I more 'n half believed it, that Elizabeth Grootenheimer was settin' her cap at the coxswain, so I just went to him an' I spoke to him plain. 'This sort o' thing won't do at all,' says I; 'an' although I haven't a doubt you see it for yourself, I thought it my dooty to speak my mind about it. There's plenty of young women in this township that would make you sailor men fust-rate wives, an' glad enough I'd be to see you all married an' settled an' gone to farmin' right here amongst us, but Elizabeth Grootenheimer won't do. Settin' aside everythin' else, if there was to be any children, they might be little coxswains, but they'd be Grootenheimers too; stone-dumb Grootenheimers; an' I tell you plain that this county can't stand no more Grootenheimers!' To which he says, says he, 'I want you to understan', ma'am, that if ever me or Jim or Bill makes up our mind to set sail for any sort of a weddin' port, we won't weigh anchor till we've got our clearance papers from you.' By which he meant that he'd ask my advice about courtin'. An' now my mind is easy, an' I can look ahead with comfort to onion-time." I found it necessary to go to Philadelphia for a day or two to attend to some business matters; and the evening before I started, the coxswain came to me and asked a favor for himself and his mates.