"Well," exclaimed Miss Parker, when she had finished, "you have been through enough, I should say! A reg'lar story-book adventure, ain't it? Lost in a storm and shut up in an empty house, the one you come purpose to see.It's a mercy you wa'n't either of you hurt, climbin' in that window the way you did.You might have broke your arms or your necks or somethin'.Mr.Alpheus Bassett, down to the Point--a great, strong, fleshy man, weighs close to two hundred and fifty and never sick a day in his life--he was up in the second story of his buildin' walkin' around spry as anybody--all alone, which he shouldn't have been at his age--and he stepped on a fish and away he went.And the next thing we hear he's in bed with his collar-bone.Did you ever hear anything like that in your life, Miss Howes?"It was plain that Emily never had."I--I'm afraid I don't understand," she faltered."You say he was in the second story of a building and he stepped on--on a FISH?""Yes, just a mackerel 'twas, and not a very big one, they tell me.
At first they was afraid 'twas the spine he'd broke, but it turned out to be only the collar-bone, though that's bad enough."Captain Obed burst into a laugh."'Twa'n't the mackerel's collar-bone, Miss Howes," he explained, "though I presume likely that was broke, too, if Alpheus stepped on it.He was up in the loft of his fish shanty icin' and barrelin' fish to send to Boston, and he fell downstairs.Wonder it didn't kill him."Miss Parker nodded."That's what I say," she declared."And Sarah--that's his wife--tells me the doctors are real worried because the fraction ain't ignited yet."Thankful coughed and then observed that she should think they would be.
"If you don't mind," she added, "I think it's high time all hands went to bed.It must be way along into the small hours and if we set here any longer it'll be time for breakfast.You folks must be tired, settin' up this way and I'm sure Emily and I am.If we turn in now we may have a chance to look over that precious property of mine afore we go back to South Middleboro.I don't know, though, as we haven't seen enough of it already.It don't look very promisin' to me."The captain rose from the table and, walking to the window, pushed aside the shade.
"It'll look better tomorrow--today, I should say," he observed.
"The storm's about over, and the wind's hauled to the west'ard.
We'll have a spell of fair weather now, I guess.That property of yours, Mrs.Barnes, 'll look a lot more promisin' in the sunshine.
There's no better view along shore than from the front windows of that house.'Tain't half bad, that old house ain't.All it needs is fixin' up."Good nights--good mornings, for it was after two o'clock--were said and the guests withdrew to their bedroom.Once inside, with the door shut, Thankful and Emily looked at each other and both burst out laughing.
"Oh, dear me!" gasped the former, wiping her eyes."Maybe it's mean to laugh at folks that's been as kind to us as these Parkers have been, but I never had such a job keepin' a straight face in my life.When she said she was 'debilitated' at havin' to give us ham and toast that was funny enough, but what come afterwards was funnier.The 'fraction' ain't 'ignited' yet and the doctors are worried.I should think they'd be more worried if it had."Emily shook her head."I am glad I didn't have to answer that remark, Auntie," she said."I never could have done it without disgracing myself.She is a genuine Mrs.Malaprop, isn't she?"This was a trifle too deep for Mrs.Barnes, who replied that she didn't know, she having never met the Mrs.What's-her-name to whom her cousin referred."She's a genuine curiosity, this Parker woman, if that's what you mean, Emily," she said."And so's her brother, though a different kind of one.We must get Cap'n Bangs to tell us more about 'em in the mornin'.He thinks that--that heirloom house of mine will look better in the daylight.Well, Ihope he's right; it looked hopeless enough tonight, what I could see of it.""I like that Captain Bangs," observed Emily.
"So do I.It seems as if we'd known him for ever so long.And how his salt-water talk does take me back.Seems as if I was hearin'
my father and Uncle Abner--yes, and Eben, too--speakin'.And it is so sort of good and natural to be callin' somebody 'Cap'n.' I was brought up amongst cap'ns and I guess I've missed 'em more'n Irealized.Now you must go to sleep; you'll need all the sleep you can get, and that won't be much.Good night.""Good night," said Emily, sleepily.A few minutes later she said:
"Auntie, what did become of that lantern our driver was so anxious about? The last I saw of it it was on the floor by the sofa where I was lying.But I didn't seem to remember it after the captain and Mr.Parker came."Mrs.Barnes' reply was, if not prompt, at least conclusive.
"It's over there somewhere," she said."The light went out, but it ain't likely the lantern went with it.Now you go to sleep."Miss Howes obeyed.She was asleep very soon thereafter.But Thankful lay awake, thinking and wondering--yes, and dreading.
What sort of a place was this she had inherited? She distinctly did not believe in what Hannah Parker had called "aberrations," but she had heard something--something strange and inexplicable in that little back bedroom.The groans might have been caused by the gale, but no gale spoke English, or spoke at all, for that matter.
Who, or what, was it that had said "Oh Lord!" in the darkness and solitude of that bedroom?
