However, I kept on with the thinking; I had promised to do that. On Wednesday came a postcard from Jim, himself, demanding information. “When and where are you going?” he wrote. “Wire answer.” I did not wire answer. I was not going anywhere.
I thrust the card into my pocket and, turning away from the frame of letter boxes, faced Captain Cyrus Whittaker, who, like myself, had come to Simmons's for his mail. He greeted me cordially.
“Hello, Kent,” he hailed. “How are you?”
“About the same as usual, Captain,” I answered, shortly.
“That's pretty fair, by the looks. You don't look too happy, though, come to notice it. What's the matter; got bad news?”
“No. I haven't any news, good or bad.”
“That so? Then I'll give you some. Phoebe and I are going to start for California to-morrow.”
“You are? To California? Why?”
“Oh, just for instance, that's all. Time's come when I have to go somewhere, and the Yosemite and the big trees look good to me. It's this way, Kent; I like Bayport, you know that. Nobody's more in love with this old town than I am; it's my home and I mean to live and die here, if I have luck. But it don't do for me to stay here all the time. If I do I begin to be no good, like a strawberry plant that's been kept in one place too long and has quit bearin.' The only thing to do with that plant is to transplant it and let it get nourishment in a new spot. Then you can move it back by and by and it's all right. Same way with me. Every once in a while I have to be transplanted so's to freshen up. My brains need somethin' besides post-office talk and sewin'-circle gossip to keep them from shrivelin'. I was commencin' to feel the shrivel, so it's California for Phoebe and me. Better come along, Kent. You're beginnin' to shrivel a little, ain't you?”
Was it as apparent as all that? I was indignant.