"Where is he to-day?"
"He's gone off in his boat alone. He likes to do that once in a while and nobody asks him why or wherefore."
"You are very good to him, Miss Phosie. I think it is wonderful that he should have found such a home here, when he just drifted in, absolutely unknown, and seems to belong to no one."
"We cal'late he's been long enough in this house to belong to us," said Miss Phosie a little defiantly.
"Indeed I am sure he feels so. He has often told me that no sister could do more than you for him. I know what it must mean to him for I have very few relatives myself."
"That so?"
"Aunt Cam is my nearest and dearest. I have some distant cousins, but that is all. I feel almost as if Mr. Williams were a relative. He has been so kind to us."
"That's his way, though I must say you are the first of the newcomers that he's taken any fancy to. He don't make much fuss about what he does, but little things count, Miss Whitridge."
"They surely do. Did he look just as he does now when he first came here, Miss Phosie?"
"Just about. He always wore his beard that way, close-cropped, and a short mustache. He must have been considerable over thirty when he came."