The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-14
WHLIIAKER'S
 PLACE
By JOSEPH C. LINCOLN
Copyright. 1908. by D. Appleton 6 Co

'IWant the sass p 'r1l1d, ODSeFN0d the captain with conviction. "'Twas the Arabian balsam.' Ma always cured me with it, and there's nothin' fner''
 "But what in time'- began Bailey. Captain Cy glanced at the child and | then at the clock. "Don't you think you'd better turn in now, Emmie?'' he said hastily, cut ting off the remainder of the Bangs query. Its after 8, and when was little I was abed afore that.''
 Emily obediently turned, gathered up the Lady's Books and replaced them in the closet. Then she went to the hand lamp.
 the visitors. Then, coming close to the captain, she put her face up for kiss.
 As Bailey told Asaph afterward, Captain Cy b1ushed until the ends of the red lapped over at the nape of h1s neck. However, he bent and kissed the rosy lips and then quickly brushed his own with his hand.
 ''Yes, yes,'' he. stammered. Well er-good night. Pleasant dreams to y
 The girl paused at the chamber door. 'sYou won't have to unbutton my waist now,' she said. ''This is my other one, and it aint that kind"
 The door closed. The captain, with out looking at his friends, led the way to the dining room.
 Come on out here,'' he whispered. 'fWe can talk better here.''
 Naturally they wanted to know all about the girl, who she was and where she came from. Captain Cy told as much of the history of the affair as he thought necessary.
 "Poor young oneT' he concluded. t'She landed on me in the rain, soppin' wet and half sick. couldn't turn her out then-nobody could. Course it's an everlastin' outrage on me and the cheekiest thing I ever heard of. But what could I do? I was fixed a good deal like an English feller by the name of Gatenby that I used to know in South America He woke up in the middle of the night and found a boa constructor curled on the foot of his bed. Next day, when a crowd of us happened in, there was Gatenby, white as sheet, starin' down at the snake and it sound asleep. T didn't invite him. he says, but he looked so bloom in conf table 'adn't the 'eart to dis turb i'm Same way with me. The child seemed so conf table here ain't had the heart to disturb her-yet,"
 But she said she was goin' to stay,'' put in Bailey. '@You ain't goin' to keep her, are you3'
 The captains indignation was in- tense.
 "Who! Me?'' he snorted. EeWhat do you think am? ain't runnin' an or phan asylum. No, sir! I'll keep the young one a day CT so or maybe a week, and then I'll pack her off to Betsy Howes. I ain't so soft as they think I am. I'll show 'ent'
 MT. Tidditt looked thoughtful.
 She's a kind of cute little girl, ain't she?" he observed.
 Captain Cy's frown vanished, and a smile took it's place.
 That's so,'' he chuckled. ''She is now that's a fact don't knows I ever saw a cuter.'
 The girl stayed on at the Whitaker place and grew. to be more and more a part of it. At the end of the second week Captain Cy began calling her ''Bos'n.''
 ''A bos'n's a mighty handy man aboard ship" he explained, ffand
 
 first rate. And, besides, it sounds so natural. My dad called me Bos'n when l was little"
 Emily accepted the title comp1acent- 1y. She was quite contented to be called almost anything so long as she was permitted to stay with her new friend. Already the sbos'n had taken charge of the deck and the rest of the ships company. Captain Cy and Lone some, the cat, obeyed her orders.
 On the second Sunday morning after her arrival Bos'n suggested that she and Captain Cy go to church.
 Mother and always went at home" she said. 'And Auntie Oliver used to say meeting was a good thing for those that needed it
 "'Th1nk need it, do you?" asked the captain, who in shirt sleeves and slip pers had prepared for a quiet fore noon with his pipe and the Boston Transcript.
 "I don't know, sir. I heard what you said when Lonesome ate up the steak, and I thought maybe you hadn't been for a long time. I guess churches are different in South America"
 So they went to church and sat in the old Whitaker pew. The captain had been there once before, when he first returned to Bayport, but the ser mon was more somnolent than edify- ing, and he hadn't repeated the ex- pertinent The pair attracted much at tention. Fragments of conversa- ton heard by Captain Cy as they emerged into the vestibule had mo mentous consequences.
 'Kind of a pretty child, ain't she?" commented Mrs. Eben Salters, batting her false front into place under the caves of her Sunday bonnet
 Pretty enough in the face" sn1Hed Mrs. Tad Simpson, who was wearing her black silk for the first time since its third making over. Pretty enough that way, s'pose- But, my land, look at the way she's rigged-o1d dress, alarmed and patched up and all out ra