“Mose,” said he, “if you want to go to sea, I am perfectly willing. You have a first rate chance, and ought to improve it.”
CHAPTER XIII.
A BUSY TIME.
A few mornings after this conversation, Mrs. Grimsby made her appearance in Hesper’s room. She had been listening for some time, and as soon as she heard Mr. Greyson leave, she took her hands out of the wash-tub, and came in with her arms all smoking.
“So,” she commenced, “I hear that Mose is going to sea. I shouldn’t have known it if one of the neighbors hadn’t told me. It’s rather strange, living in the same house, and doing all I can to be friendly, that everything should be kept so private. If I had been aunt Nyna, or Capt. Clark’s mother, or some of those people who set themselves up so, perhaps it would have been different. But I don’t know as I care—I am certain of one thing, that I am an honest woman, and the time will come when I shall have the place I deserve.”
“O,” said Hesper, with a smile, “I thought several times about coming in to tell you but I have been so busy with getting things ready for Mose, and finding out what he needed, that I really had no chance.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Grimsby, “if you had only come in and asked me, I could have told you all about it, for I fitted out my husband for California all myself. But howsomever, I shan’t offer my services. I know better than to throw away my good will upon those that don’t know how to prize it.”
Hesper did not answer, so Mrs. Grimsby made bold to walk about the room, examine everything, and ask a great many questions.