“Oh dear! There you go again. Profane language and bettin' on horses! WHAT'LL come next? My own brother a gambler and a prodigate! Has it come to this?”
The footsteps and voices died away. Captain Obed blew out the light and got into bed. The last words he heard that night were uttered by the “prodigate” himself on his way to his sleeping quarters. And they were spoken as a soliloquy.
“By time!” muttered Kenelm, as he shuffled slowly past the Captain's door. “By time! I—I'll do somethin' desperate!”
Next morning, when Captain Obed's hired motor car, with its owner, a Wellmouth Centre man, acting as chauffeur, rolled into the yard of the High Cliff House, a party of three came out to meet it. John Kendrick and Emily Howes were of the party and they were wrapped and ready for the trip. The captain had expected them; but the third, also dressed for the journey, was Mrs. Thankful Barnes. Thankful's plump countenance was radiant.
“I'm goin' after all,” she announced. “I'm goin' to the Fair with you, Cap'n Bangs. Now what do you think of that? . . . That is,” she added, looking at the automobile, “if you can find a place to put me.”
The captain's joy was as great as his surprise. “Place to put you!” he repeated. “If I couldn't do anything else I'd hang on behind, like a youngster to a truck wagon, afore you stayed at home. Good for you, Mrs. Thankful! But how'd you come to change your mind? Thought you couldn't leave.”
Thankful smiled happily. “I didn't change my mind, Cap'n,” she said. “Imogene changed hers. She's a real, good sacrificin' body, the girl is. When she found I'd been asked and wouldn't go, she put her foot down flat. Nothin' would do but she should stay at home today and I should go. I knew what a disappointment 'twas to her, but she just made me do it. She'll go tomorrow instead; that's the way we fixed it finally. I'm awful glad for myself, but I do feel mean about Imogene, just the same.”
A few minutes later, the auto, with John, Emily and Thankful on the rear seat and Captain Obed in front with the driver, rolled out of the yard and along the sandy road toward Wellmouth Centre. About a mile from the latter village it passed a buggy with two people in it. The pair in the buggy were Caleb Hammond and Hannah Parker.
Captain Obed chuckled. “There go the sweethearts,” he observed. “Handsome young couple, ain't they?”
The other occupants of the car joined in the laugh. Emily, in particular, was greatly amused.