Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/139

Rh "Well, I'm real pleased!" beamed the old lady. "You'd ought to ha' come sooner. Wait, now, whilst I open the door fer your pa."

When she returned with Jim, Garth must show his father all the wonderful things, and rattled off such a hasty account of savages, tea, voyages to the Horn, tom-toms, and currant wine, that Jim was left gasping.

"You'd better take an hour this evening to tell me," he said. "I'm sorry to remove you from this treasure-room, but it's growing nearer and nearer light-up time.

Garth got up and held out his hand to Mrs. Bassett, who took it in both hers and then kissed him.

"I'd like to give you one o' my granpa's things," she said, "fer you to remember me by. Yes, I'm agoin' to," she persisted, in reply to Jim's protest. "Yes, Ga'th, I want you to have it. You've got the old feelin', like I said, an' 't will mean suthin' more to you than jest a gimcrack. 'Gusta Louise, she'll never think twicet o' these things when I'm gone."

And she put into his hand the little boat that was all carved from a peach-stone, with its curly prow, and its Chinese sailors, and its exquisitely cut cargo of rice bales, anciently golden,