Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/160

140 shade. The old sailor ventured forth on a short tour of inspection, and actually managed to reach the bench down by the hedge  where he and Billy had sat upon the day they  became acquainted.

“It doesn’t look so bad,” he remarked complacently as he viewed his small domain. “Of course, raising flowers and garden truck is a mighty little business after you have once  followed the sea, but an old sailor likes to  have things as they should be, whether he’s  at sea or ashore. No,” he looked over the place again with a pleased smile, “no, it  doesn’t look so bad.”

One of the summer visitors came along the path to ask for some of the packets of poppyseed that Captain Saulsby, although he made  a business of selling them, always parted with  most grudingly. This woman he looked over long and severely, and asked her many searching questions before he finally drew a package  of seeds from his pocket and graciously allowed her to buy it.

“She looks to me like one of those women who would try to grow poppies in a pot,” he  said to Billy after she had gone. “I didn’t really quite trust her, but I gave her the bene-