Putnam patriot., 1912-09-20
cHAPTE ER |.
In Which kexiah Hears Two Pro posals and the Beginning
 of Third


 of Third.
 Trumet in a fog; fog blown in during the night by the wind from the wide Atlantic. So wet and heavy that one might taste the salt in It. So thick that houses along the main road were but dim shapes behind it's gray drapery, and only the gates and fences of the front yards were plainly in evi- dence to the passers-by. The beach plum and bayberry bushes on the dunes were spangled with beady drops. The pole on Cannon Hill, where the beacon was hoisted when the packet from Boston dropped anchor in the bay, was shiny and slippery. The new weathervane, a gilded whale, present. ed to the Regular church by Captain Zebediah Mayo, retired whaler, swan in a sea of cloud. The lichened caves of the little "Come-0uter" chapel dripped at sedate intervals. The brick walk leading to the door of Captain Elkanah Daniels's fine residence held undignified puddles in its hollows. And, through the damp stiffness, the nuttered growl of the surf, three miles away at the foot of the sandy bluffs by the lighthouse, sounded omi- nously.
 Directly opposite Captain Elkanah's front gate, on the other side or the main road, stood the little story-and- a-half house, also the captains prop ertv. which for fourteen years had been tenanted by Mrs. Keziah Cofln and Der brother, Solomon Hall, the shoemaker. But Solomon had, the month before, given up his fight with deot and illness and was sleeping qui- etly down in Trumet's most populous center the graveyard And keZiah, left alone, had decided that the rent and living expenses were more than her precarious earnings as a seam stress would warrant, and, having bar gained with the furniture dealer III Wellmouth for the sale of her house hold effects, was now busy getting them ready for the morrow. when the dealers wagon was to call She was going to Boston, where a distant and condescending rich relative had in- terested himself to the extent or ma ing her a place as sewing woman Ill a large tailoring establishment.
 The fog hung like wet blanket over the house and it's small yard' where a few venerable pear trees, too conservative In their old age to ven ture a bud even though 1t was almost May, stood bare and forlorn. The day was dismal The dismantled oihlhs room, it's tables and chairs pushed lnto a corner, and its faded ingraln carpet partially stripped from the noor' was dismal. likewise Considering all things. one might have expected ke- ziah herself to be even more dismal But, to all outward appearances sne was not. A arge portion or her thirtv-nine years of life had been passed under a wet blanket so 10 speak. and she had not permitted the depressing covering to shut out more sunshine than was absolutely neces- sary. If you can't get cream, you might as well learn to love your sas- ser of skim milk" said practical Re ziah
 She was on her knees. her ealco dress sleeves, patched and darned' put absolutely clean, rolled back, uncover ing a pair of plump. strong arms, a saucer of tacks before her, ana ldeA hammer with claw head in her hand She was taking up the carpet Graee Van Horne. Captain Eben Hammond ward, who had called to see II there was anything she might do 10 help, was removing towels, tablecioths' anu the like from the drawers in a tal "high-boy." fielding them and placing them in an old and battered trunk