Keziah Coffin Read online

  Produced by Donald Lainson

  KEZIAH COFFIN

  by Joseph C. Lincoln

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I.-- IN WHICH KEZIAH HEARS OF TWO PROPOSALS AND THE BEGINNING OF A THIRD

  II.-- IN WHICH KEZIAH UNEARTHS A PROWLER

  III.-- IN WHICH KEZIAH ASSUMES A GUARDIANSHIP

  IV.-- IN WHICH KEZIAH'S PARSON DECIDES TO RUN IT BLINDFOLD

  V.-- IN WHICH THE PARSON CRUISES IN STRANGE WATERS

  VI.-- IN WHICH OLD FRIENDS MEET

  VII.-- IN WHICH CAPTAIN NAT PICKS UP A DERELICT

  VIII.-- IN WHICH THE PARSON AND MR. PEPPER DECLARE THEIR INDEPENDENCE

  IX.-- IN WHICH MISS DANIELS DETERMINES TO FIND OUT

  X.-- IN WHICH KEZIAH'S TROUBLES MULTIPLY

  XI.-- IN WHICH CAPEN EBEN RECEIVES A CALLER

  XII.-- IN WHICH CAPTAIN EBEN MAKES PORT

  XIII.-- IN WHICH KEZIAH BREAKS THE NEWS

  XIV.-- IN WHICH THE SEA MIST SAILS

  XV.-- IN WHICH TRUMET TALKS OF CAPTAIN NAT

  XVI-- IN WHICH THE MINISTER BOARDS THE SAN JOSE

  XVII.-- IN WHICH EBENEZER CAPEN IS SURPRISED

  XVIII.--IN WHICH KEZIAH DECIDES TO FIGHT

  XIX.-- IN WHICH A RECEPTION IS CALLED OFF

  XX.-- IN WHICH THE MINISTER RECEIVES A LETTER

  XXI.-- IN WHICH MR. STONE WASHES HIS HANDS

  XXII.-- IN WHICH KEZIAH'S PARSON PREACHES ONCE MORE

  KEZIAH COFFIN

  by Joseph C. Lincoln

  CHAPTER I

  IN WHICH KEZIAH HEARS TWO PROPOSALS AND THE BEGINNING OF A THIRD

  Trumet in a fog; a fog blown in during the night by the wind from thewide 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 behindits gray drapery, and only the gates and fences of the front yardswere plainly in evidence to the passers-by. The beach plum and bayberrybushes on the dunes were spangled with beady drops. The pole on CannonHill, where the beacon was hoisted when the packet from Boston droppedanchor in the bay, was shiny and slippery. The new weathervane, agilded whale, presented to the "Regular" church by Captain Zebedee Mayo,retired whaler, swam in a sea of cloud. The lichened eaves of the little"Come-Outer" chapel dripped at sedate intervals. The brick walk leadingto the door of Captain Elkanah Daniels's fine residence held undignifiedpuddles in its hollows. And, through the damp stillness, the mutteredgrowl of the surf, three miles away at the foot of the sandy bluffs bythe lighthouse, sounded ominously.

  Directly opposite Captain Elkanah's front gate, on the other side of themain road, stood the little story-and-a-half house, also the captain'sproperty, which for fourteen years had been tenanted by Mrs. KeziahCoffin and her brother, Solomon Hall, the shoemaker. But Solomon had,the month before, given up his fight with debt and illness and wassleeping quietly in Trumet's most populous center, the graveyard. AndKeziah, left alone, had decided that the rent and living expenses weremore than her precarious earnings as a seamstress would warrant, and,having bargained with the furniture dealer in Wellmouth for the sale ofher household effects, was now busy getting them ready for the morrow,when the dealer's wagon was to call. She was going to Boston, where adistant and condescending rich relative had interested himself to theextent of finding her a place as sewing woman in a large tailoringestablishment.

  The fog hung like a wet blanket over the house and its small yard, wherea few venerable pear trees, too conservative in their old age to venturea bud even though it was almost May, stood bare and forlorn. The day wasdismal. The dismantled dining room, its tables and chairs pushed into acorner, and its faded ingrain carpet partially stripped from the floor,was dismal, likewise. Considering all things, one might have expectedKeziah herself to be even more dismal. But, to all outward appearances,she was not. A large portion of her thirty-nine years of life had beenpassed under a wet blanket, so to speak, and she had not permittedthe depressing covering to shut out more sunshine than was absolutelynecessary. "If you can't get cream, you might as well learn to love yoursasser of skim milk," said practical Keziah.

  She was on her knees, her calico dress sleeves, patched and darned, butabsolutely clean, rolled back, uncovering a pair of plump, strong arms,a saucer of tacks before her, and a tack hammer with a claw head inher hand. She was taking up the carpet. Grace Van Horne, Captain EbenHammond's ward, who had called to see if there was anything she might doto help, was removing towels, tablecloths, and the like from the drawersin a tall "high-boy," folding them and placing them in an old andbattered trunk. The pair had been discussing the subject which allTrumet had discussed for three weeks, namely, the "calling" to thepastorate of the "Regular" church of the Rev. John Ellery, the youngdivinity student, who was to take the place of old Parson Langley,minister in the parish for over thirty years. Discussion in the villagehad now reached a critical point, for the Reverend John was expectedby almost any coach. In those days, the days of the late fifties, therailroad down the Cape extended only as far as Sandwich; passengers madethe rest of their journey by stage. Many came direct from the city bythe packet, the little schooner, but Mr. Ellery had written that heshould probably come on the coach.

  "They say he's very nice-looking," remarked Miss Van Horne soberly,but with a MISCHIEVOUS glance under her dark lashes at Keziah. The ladyaddressed paused long enough to transfer several tacks from the floor tothe saucer, and then made answer.

  "Humph!" she observed. "A good many years ago I saw a theater show upto Boston. Don't be shocked; those circumstances we hear so much tellof--the kind you can't control--have kept me from goin' to theatersmuch, even if I wanted to. But I did see this entertainment, and a foolone 'twas, too, all singin' instead of talkin'--op'ra, I believe theycalled it. Well, as I started to say, one of the leadin' folks in it wasthe Old Harry himself, and HE was pretty good-lookin'."

  Grace laughed, even though she had been somewhat shocked.

  "Why, Aunt Keziah!" she exclaimed--those who knew Keziah Coffinbest usually called her aunt, though real nephews and nieces she hadnone--"why, Aunt Keziah! What do you mean by comparing the--the personyou just mentioned with a MINISTER!"

  "Oh, I wasn't comparin' 'em; I'll leave that for you Come-Outers to do.Drat this carpet! Seems's if I never saw such long tacks; I do believewhoever put 'em down drove 'em clean through the center of the earth andlet the Chinymen clinch 'em on t'other side. I haul up a chunk of thecellar floor with every one. Ah, hum!" with a sigh, "I cal'latethey ain't any more anxious to leave home than I am. But, far's theminister's concerned, didn't I hear of your Uncle Eben sayin' in prayermeetin' only a fortni't or so ago that all hands who wa'n't Come-Outerswere own children to Satan? Mr. Ellery must take after his father some.Surprisin', ain't it, what a family the old critter's got."

  The girl laughed again. For one brought up, since her seventh year,in the strictest of Come-Outer families, she laughed a good deal. ManyCome-Outers considered it wicked to laugh. Yet Grace did it, and herswas a laugh pleasant to hear and distinctly pleasant to see. It made herprettier than ever, a fact which, if she was aware of it, should havebeen an additional preventive, for to be pretty smacks of vanity.Perhaps she wasn't aware of it.

  "What do you think Uncle Eben would say if he heard that?" she asked.

  "Say I took after my father, too, I presume likely. Does your uncle knowyou come here to see me so often? And call me 'aunt' and all that?"

  "Of course he does. Aunt Keziah, you mustn't think Uncle Eben doesn'tsee the good in people simply because they don't believe as he does.He's as sweet and kind as--"

  "Who? Eben Hammond? Land sakes, child, don't I know it? Cap'n Eben's thesalt of the earth. I'm a Regular and always have been, but I'd be gladif my own society was seasoned with a
few like him. 'Twould taste betterto me of a Sunday." She paused, and then added quizzically: "What d'yous'pose Cap'n Elkanah and the rest of our parish committee would say ifthey heard THAT?"

  "Goodness knows! Still, I'm glad to hear you say it. And uncle says youare as good a woman as ever lived. He thinks you're misled, of course,but that some day you'll see the error of your ways."

  "Humph! I'll have to hurry up if I want to see 'em without spectacles.See my errors! Land sakes! much as I can do to see the heads of thesetacks. Takin' up carpets is as hard a test of a body's eyesight as 'tisof their religion."

  Her companion put down the tablecloth she was folding and lookedearnestly at the other woman. To an undiscerning