"Look here Judah," the captain at last said, in desperation, "if you feel so almighty bad about it, perhaps you won't want me here. I can move, you know."
Judah turned a horrified face in his direction. "Move!" he repeated "_Don't_ talk so, Cap'n Sears. That's the one comfort I see in the whole business. Livin' right next door to 'em the way you and me do, you can always run into port here if the weather gets too squally over yonder. Yes, sir there'll always be a snug harbor under my lee when the Fair Harbor's too rugged. Eh? Ha, ha!"
Just before retiring Sears said, "There's just one thing I want you to do, Judah. You may feel--as I know you do feel--that my takin' this job is a foolish thing. But don't you let any one else know you feel that way."
Judah snorted. "Don't you worry, Cap'n Sears," he said. "If any one of them sea lawyers down to Bassett's store gets to heavin' sass at me about your takin' the hellum at the Harbor I'll shut their hatches for 'em. I'll tell 'em the old judge and Lobelia was ondecided between you and Gen'ral Grant for the job, but finally they picked you. Don't mistake me now, Cap'n. Your goin' over there is the best thing for the--the henroost that ever was or ever will be. It's you I'm thinkin' about. It ain't--well, by the crawlin' prophets, 'tain't the kind of berth you've been used to. Now is it, Cap'n Sears?"
"Maybe not, Judah," he admitted. "It is a queer berth, but it's a berth, and, unless these legs of mine get well a lot quicker than I think they will, I may be mighty thankful to have any berth at all."
He told his sister this when she called to learn if the rumor she had heard was true. She shook her head.
"Perhaps it is all right, Sears," she said. "I suppose you know best. But, somehow, I--well, I hate to think of your doin' it."
"I know. You're proud, Sarah. Well, I used to be proud too, before the ship-chandlery business and the Old Colony railroad dismasted me and left me high and dry."
She put a hand on his arm. "Don't, Sears," she pleaded. "You know why I hate to have you do it. It don't seem--it don't seem--you know what I mean."
"A man's job. I know. Judah said the same thing. I took Judge Knowles' offer because it seemed the only way I could earn my salt. If I didn't take it you and Joel might have had a poor relation to board and lodge. And you've got enough on your hands already, Sarah."