"Gee Whillikens!" laughed the Captain, when the stage planks had been drawn up and a plantation landing left behind. "It does my old, dried-up heart good to see all these folks so tickled over this boat. It's giving 'em more downright satisfaction than anything they've seen or done for a mighty long time. I tell you I'm glad I had a chance to show 'em what was a sho' enough boat—a boat what is a boat! Now, sir, you're from Boston, so I've been told, and I wants you to tell me, honest injun now—did you ever see anything like this boat of mine, up yonder?" He turned abruptly toward his companion, his twinkling eyes searching the face before him.
"No, Captain, I must confess I never saw anything like your boat in my part of the country; but then, we only have ships and sea-going vessels, and even on the Hudson the boats are not half as large as this."
Captain Mentdrop turned back, evidently relieved. "I'm powerful glad to hear it from one who's been up thar and knows. Are you down in these parts for long?"
"No, not very long. In fact, Captain, to be perfectly frank with you, I've come down here to be married."
The old Captain turned and inspected his companion more closely. Leaning easily against the railing, one arm thrust carelessly into an embroidered waistcoat, a suit of dark green broadcloth ornamented with large pearl buttons, and a bell crowned beaver, each detail of his costume proclaiming him a man of fashion—the stranger made a strikingly handsome picture. Apart from his well-chosen clothes, his handsome face—fair, with honest blue eyes and bright, blond hair—impressed one with a certain freshness and charm. He was a man evidently used to the niceties and refinements of life, one to whom difficulties and hardships had never come.
"So you've come way down here to get you a bride, have you?" the Captain commented, evidently satisfied with his inspection. "Something of a long trip, it strikes me. She must be a powerful exception to her kind, to draw a young blood all over this much travelling to get her."
The stranger laughed good-humouredly, his face beaming with a boyishness that was winning. "She is an exception!" he answered, "and sufficiently fascinating to make one travel any distance to win her; but, in my case, I am not going to find her—she is already with me. She has been spending several years with my family in Boston, and when we decided to be married, she wanted to come down here to have the wedding in the old home of her ancestors."
"And you come all this way—just to be married!" the Captain commented with a shrug. "But I reckon when a feller gets way off yonder, he kinder has a hankering after old places he used to know. I reckon that was the way with your gal—just had to come back and see it once more!"
The stranger was silent a moment, viewing with evident interest the stretch of wooded hills crowned by a rambling town, which was becoming visible.
"Yes, I suppose you are right," he said, reflectively. "It was the memories of her home and all the associations of childhood which had become dear to her—now that she knows how delightful they were. But after six or seven years it seems she would have forgotten all about it—particularly as she was a little girl when she left."