"One evening a fisher from Milford, who had succeeded in landing at Smalls in an intermission of calm weather, brought to Solway the two keepers, but one of them was a corpse. The survivor had made a coffin for his dead comrade, then, after having carried it to a corner of the gallery, he had stood it on end, attaching it firmly. Left alone he had done good service. When returned on shore he was so changed, so emaciated, that his relatives and friends could scarcely recognize him. He asserted that his comrade had died of disease; he was believed, but after this time there were always three keepers at Smalls in the place of two--a wise precaution which has since been taken for light-houses placed in similar conditions." "I ain't certain as that is very cheerful readin' for us," Captain Eph said grimly. "It's too near hittin' our own case, seein's how every one of this 'ere crew has come near bein' killed, an' if that had happened, our little Sonny would have been in a worse way than a young girl in a light not far from here, which we'll read about some other time." "Don't say that I came near dyin', Cap'n Eph," Mr. Peters cried. "I've never been as bad off as you an' Uncle Zenas believed." Sidney fancied that the first assistant was about to confess his deceit; but if such was the case, Captain Eph prevented him by saying sharply: "I don't know how a man could be in much harder sleddin' than you, Sammy, when that 'ere raft was drivin' before the wind, with the waves washin' clean over both you an' her. Uncle Zenas an' me felt mightily down at the mouth 'bout that time, for we reckoned sure you was dead." "An' I called myself all kinds of an old villain for declarin' you shouldn't have any breakfast, Sammy," Uncle Zenas said, his voice tremulous with pain. "I hope you won't lay it up agin me, for we've been in danger too often to let anything come between us, an' when I get so's I can stand on my feet, you may kick me all 'round this ledge at low water." "Don't, Uncle Zenas, don't!" Mr. Peters cried passionately. "I might'er got out of bed a good deal sooner than I did, but for sulkin', an' if I'd been a decent kind of a man, we wouldn't be havin' all this trouble now!" "Sammy!" Captain Eph cried sharply. "What do you mean by runnin' yourself down like that? Uncle Zenas an' I have summered an' wintered with you, an' know there ain't a mean bone in your body, so don't let's hear any more 'bout your bein' to blame for what happened this day. If I hadn't yelled so loud, the fat wouldn't have been spilled, an' then I shouldn't have blundered down-stairs like an old fool." Mr. Peters rose to his feet, and again Sidney felt certain he was on the point of making a confession; but once more Captain Eph checked him.