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.