“Thanks. Well, there’s one objection out of the way, then, only I don’t want you to think that I’ve hove overboard that ‘responsibility’ I was so easy and fresh about takin’ on my shoulders. It’s there yet; and I’ll see you squared with Caroline afore this v’yage is over, if I live.”
His friend frowned.
“You needn’t mind,” he said. “I prefer that you drop the whole miserable business.”
“Well, maybe, but—Jim, you’ve taken hold of these electric batteries that doctors have sometimes? It’s awful easy to grab the handles of one of those contraptions, but when you want to drop ’em you can’t. They don’t drop easy. I took hold of the handles of ’Bije’s affairs, and, though it might be pleasanter to drop ’em, I can’t—or I won’t.”
“Then you’re leaving your nephew and niece doesn’t mean that you’ve given up the guardianship?”
Captain Elisha’s jaw set squarely.
“I don’t remember sayin’ that it did,” he answered, with decision. Then, his good-nature returning, he added, “And now, Jim, I’d like your opinion of these new quarters that I may take. What do you think of ’em? Come to the window and take a look at the scenery.”
Pearson joined him at the window. The captain waved toward the clothes-lines and grinned.
“Looks as if there was some kind of jubilee, don’t it,” he observed. “Every craft in sight has strung the colors.”
Pearson laughed. Then he said: