By The Sea | Page 9

been with exclusive thoughts of the boy, that he should first say
something to this old man about the daughter whom he had lost: and he
made some expressions of sympathy. The old man nodded, but said
nothing.
There was silence for two or three minutes.
The subject in order now was inevitably the boy. Captain Pelham
opened his lips to claim him; but, almost to his own surprise, he found

himself making some common remark about the affairs of the
neighborhood. It came in harsh and forced, as if it were a fragment of
conversation floated in by the breeze from the street outside. Then the
Captain waited a moment, looking out of the window.
James took his pipe from his mouth and leaned his elbows on the table.
"Why don't you go take him?" he suddenly said: "he's probably down
to the wharf. Ef you have got the claim to him, why don't you go take
him? You 've got your team here,--drive right down there and put him
in and drive off; if you 've got the right to him, why don't you go take
him? But ef you 've come for my consent, you can set there till the
chair rots beneath you."
With this, James rose and took the felt hat which was lying by him on
the table, and saying not another word, went out of the door. He went
down to the shore, and affected to busy himself with his boat.
There was nothing for Captain Pelham to do but to take his hat, untie
his horse, and drive home.
The Captain well knew that nobody in the world had a legal right to the
child until a guardian should be appointed. A plain and simple path was
open before him: it was his only path. James Parsons had proved wilful
and wrong-headed; there was nothing now but to take out letters as
guardian of the boy. Then James would acquiesce without a word.
Immediately after breakfast the Captain went down the street. He
opened his letters and attended to the first routine of business; then he
went across the way and up a flight of stairs to a lawyer's office.
If you had happened to read the county papers at about this time, you
would have seen among the legal notices two petitions, identical in
form,--the one by Joseph Pelham, the other by James Parsons,--each
applying for guardianship of Joseph Pelham, the younger of that name,
with an order upon each petition for all persons interested to come in
on the first Tuesday of the following month and show cause why the
petitioner's demand should not be granted.

The county court-house was a new brick building, of modest size,
fifteen miles from W------, and twenty miles from the village where
James Parsons lived.
There were fifteen or twenty people from different towns in attendance
when the court opened on the important first Tuesday. As one after
another transacted his affairs and went away, others would come in.
Three or four lawyers sat at tables talking with clients, or stood about
the judge's desk. There was a sprinkling of women in new mourning.
Printed papers, filled out with names and dates,--petitions and bonds
and executors' accounts,--were being handed in to the judge and
receiving his signature of approval.
The routine business was transacted first. It was almost noon when the
judge was at last free to attend to contested matters. There was a small
audience by that time,--only ten or a dozen people, some of whom were
waiting for train-time, while others, who had come upon their own
affairs, lingered now from curiosity.
The judge was a tall, spare, old-fashioned man; he had held the office
for above thirty years. He was a man of much native force, of sound
learning within the range of his judicial duties, and of strong
common-sense. He was often employed by Captain Pelham in his own
affairs, and more particularly in bank and insurance matters,--for the
probate judges are free to practise at the bar in matters not connected
with their judicial duties,--and Captain Pelham had always retained him
in important cases as counsel for the town. He had a large practice
throughout the county; he knew its people, their ideas, their traditions,
and their feelings. He understood their social organization to the core.
"Now," said the judge, laying aside some papers upon which he had
been writing, and taking off his glasses, "we will take up the two
petitions for guardianship of Joseph Pelham."
Captain Pelham and the lawyer whom he had employed took seats at a
small table before the judge; James Parsons timidly took a seat at
another. His petition had been filled out for him by one of his neighbors:
he had no counsel.

Captain Pelham's