Capn Abe, Storekeeper

Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper, by
James A. Cooper

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Title: Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper
Author: James A. Cooper
Release Date: November 8, 2004 [eBook #13982]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAP'N ABE,
STOREKEEPER***
E-text prepared by Al Haines

CAP'N ABE, STOREKEEPER
A Story of Cape Cod

by
JAMES A. COOPER
1917

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
A CHOICE II. CAP'N ABE III. IN CAP'N ABE'S LIVING-ROOM IV.
THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS V. WHAT HAPPENED IN
THE NIGHT VI. BOARDED BY PIRATES VII. UNDER FIKE VIII.
SOMETHING ABOUT SALT WATER TAFFY IX. SUSPICION
HOVERS X. WHAT LOUISE THINKS XI. THE LEADING MAN
XII. THE DESCENT OF AUNT EUPHEMIA XIII. WASHY
GALLUP'S CURIOSITY XIV. A CHOICE OF CHAPERONS XV.
THE UNEXPECTED XVI. A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS XVII. THE
ODDS AGAINST HIM XVIII. SOMETHING BREAKS XIX. MUCH
ADO XX. THE SUN WORSHIPERS XXI. DISCOVERIES XXII.
SHOCKING NEWS XXIII. BETWEEN THE FIRES XXIV. GRAY
DAYS XXV. AUNT EUPHEMIA MAKES A POINT XXVI. AT
LAST XXVII. SARGASSO XXVIII. STORM CLOUDS THREATEN
XXIX. THE SCAR XXX. WHEN THE STRONG TIDES LIFT XXXI.
AN ANCHOR TO THE SOUL XXXII. ON THE ROLL OF HONOR
CHAPTER I
A CHOICE
"Of course, my dear, there is nobody but your Aunt Euphemia for you
to go to!"
"Oh, daddy-professor! Nobody? Can we rake or scrape up no other

relative on either side of the family who will take in poor little me for
the summer? You will be home in the fall, of course."
"That is the supposition," Professor Grayling replied, his lips pursed
reflectively. "No. Dear me! there seems nobody."
"But Aunt Euphemia!"
"I know, Lou, I know. She expects you, however. She writes----"
"Yes. She has it all planned," sighed Louise Grayling dejectedly.
"Every move at home or abroad Aunt Euphemia has mapped out for me.
When I am with her I am a mere automaton--only unlike a real
marionette I can feel when she pulls the strings!"
The professor shook his head. "There's--there's only your poor mother's
half-brother down on the Cape."
"What half-brother?" demanded Louise with a quick smile that matched
the professor's quizzical one.
"Why----Well, your mother, Lou, had an older half-brother, a Mr. Silt.
He keeps a store at Cardhaven. You know, I met your mother down that
way when I was hunting seaweed for the Smithsonian Institution. Your
grandmother was a Bellows and her folks lived on the Cape, too. Her
family has died out and your grandfather was dead before I married
your mother. The half-brother, this Mr. Silt--Captain Abram Silt--is the
only individual of that branch of the family left alive, I believe."
"Goodness!" gasped the girl. "What a family tree!"
Again the professor smiled whimsically. "Only a few of the branches.
But they all reach back to the first navigators of the world."
"The first navigators?"
"I do not mean to the Phoenicians," her father said. "I mean that the
world never saw braver nor more worthy sailors than those who called
the wind-swept hamlets of Cape Cod their home ports. The Silts were

all master-mariners. This Captain Abe is a bachelor, I believe. You
could not very well go there."
Louise sighed. "No; I couldn't go there--I suppose. I couldn't go
there----" Her voice wandered off into silence. Then suddenly, almost
explosively, it came back with the question: "Why couldn't I?"
"My dear Lou! What would your aunt say?" gasped the professor.
He was a tall, rather soldierly looking man--the result of military
training in his youth--with a shock of perfectly white hair and a
sweeping mustache that contrasted clearly with his pink, always cleanly
shaven cheeks and chin. Without impressing the observer with his
muscular power. Professor Grayling was a better man on a long hike
and possessed more reserve strength than many more beefy athletes.
His daughter had inherited his springy carriage and even the clean
pinkness of his complexion--always looking as though she were fresh
from her shower. But there was nothing mannish about Lou
Grayling--nothing at all, though she had other attributes of body and
mind for which to thank her father.
They were the best of chums. No father and daughter could have trod
the odd corners of the world these two had visited without becoming so
closely attached to each other that their processes of thought, as well as
their opinions in most matters, were almost in perfect harmony.
Although Mrs. Euphemia Conroth was the professor's own sister he
could appreciate Lou's attitude