The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-24
CHAPTER XVIII.

T N the old days, the great days of sailing ships and merchant fleets. Bayport was a com - munity of travellers. Every ambitious man went to sea and even tually, if he lived, became a captain. Then he took his wife and, in most cases, his children with him on long voyages. To the stay at homes came letters with odd foreign stamps and postmarks. Our whatnots and parIor mantels were filled with carved bits of ivory gorgeous shells, alabaster can dlest1cks and plaster miniatures of the leaning tower at Pisa or the Coli scum at Rome. We usually began a conversation with, When my husband and were at Hongkong the last time" -or, "I remember at Mauritius they Rlways''- New Orleans and Frisco were the nearest domestic ports the mention of which was considered worth while:
 But this is so no longer. A trip to Boston is, of course, no novelty to the most of us, but when we visit New York we take care to advertise it be- forehand. And the few who avail themselves of the spring "cut rates" and go on excursions to Washington plan definite programmes for each day at the capital and discuss them with envious friends for weeks in advance. And if the prearranged program Is not scrupulously carried out we feel that we have been defrauded. It was the regret of Aunt Sophronia HaIlett's l life that on her Washington excursion she had not seen the diplomatic i corpse.'' She saw the president and 1 the monument and congress and .'the relics in the Smithsonian institution" but the corpse was not on view. Aunt Sophronia never quite got over the disappointment
 Probably no other Bayporter in re cent years has started. for Washing ton on such short notice or with so Ill defined program as Captain Cy. He went because he felt that he must go somewhere. After the conversation with Asaph he simply could not re main at home. If Phoebe Dawes called, he knew that he must see her. and if he saw her what should he say to her? He could not tell her that she must not visit the Cy Whittaker place again. If he did she would insist upon the reason. If he told her of the flown talk'' he felt sure, knowing her, that she would indignantly refuse to heed the malicious gossip. And he was firmly resolved not to permit her to compromise her life and her future by friendship with a social outcast like himself. As for anything deeper and more sacred than friendship. that was ridiculous If for a moment a remark of hers had led him to dream of such a thing it was because he was, as he had so often declared. an "old fooI.''
 So Captain Cy had resolved upon flight, and he fled to Washington be- cause the business of the, "committee of one' offered a legitimate excuse for | going there. The blunt message he had intrusted to Georgianna would, he believed. arouse Phoebe's indignation. She would not call again. And when he returned to Bos'n it would be to take up the child's fight alone. If he
 lost that fight, or when he lost it, he
 would close the Cy Whitaker place
 and leave Bayport for good.
 He had been in Washington once be fore, yeats ago. when he was first mate of a ship and had few weeks shore leave. Then he went there on a pleas
 ure trip with some seagoing friends
 and had a jolly time. But there was
 precious little jollity in the present visit. He had never felt so thoroughly
 miserable Tn order to forget he made up his mind to work his hardest to dis
 cover why the harbor appropriation
 was not to be given te Rayport. - ! - .Za h GaRtianAAA