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 CHAPTER II

HE Lydia, Cap'n 'Bijah's naptha-launch, drove her blunt bows vigorously through little slapping waves.

"They're right cur'ous folks out to the Light," explained the Captain, his arm on the tiller. "They ain't noways like the folks around these pa'ts, ner yet they bean't like the hotel folks, nuther. Pemberley's the name, Jim Pemberley. He's be'n keepin' the light more 'n four year now, an' yet thar ain't a man in Quimpawg knows anythin' 'bout whar he come from ner nawthin'. But he's a right pleasant-spoken feller to everybody. He knows his job inside out, but it don't seem's though 't was the place he belongs. A real sweet wife he's got, too, out on that air desolated rock-heap. An' the Skipper! Wal, he can't be beat!"

The Lydia skirted the gray shore, and Quimpaug was soon lost behind a rise in the coast. 14