Keziah Coffin | Page 6

cleared out of that house. And
he never called there afterwards."
Grace smiled, but quickly grew grave.
"Now, auntie," she said, "please listen. I'm in earnest. It seems to me

that you might do quite well at dressmaking here in town, if you had a
little--well, ready money to help you at the start. I've got a few hundred
dollars in the bank, presents from uncle, and my father's insurance
money. I should love to lend it to you, and I know uncle would--"
Mrs. Coffin interrupted her.
"Cat's foot!" she exclaimed. "I hope I haven't got where I need to
borrow money yet a while. Thank you just as much, deary, but long's
I've got two hands and a mouth, I'll make the two keep t'other
reasonably full, I wouldn't wonder. No, I shan't think of it, so don't say
another word. NO."
The negative was so decided that Grace was silenced. Her
disappointment showed in her face, however, and Keziah hastened to
change the subject.
"How do you know," she observed, "but what my goin' to Boston may
be the best thing that ever happened to me? You can't tell. No use
despairin', Annabel ain't given up hope yet; why should I? Hey? Ain't
that somebody comin'?"
Her companion sprang to her feet and ran to the window. Then she
broke into a smothered laugh.
"Why, it's Kyan Pepper!" she exclaimed. "He must be coming to see
you, Aunt Keziah. And he's got on his very best Sunday clothes.
Gracious! I must be going. I didn't know you expected callers."
Keziah dropped the tack hammer and stood up.
"Kyan!" she repeated. "What in the world is that old idiot comin' here
for? To talk about the minister, I s'pose. How on earth did Laviny ever
come to let him out alone?"
Mr. Pepper, Mr. Abishai Pepper, locally called "Kyan" (Cayenne)
Pepper because of his red hair and thin red side whiskers, was one of
Trumet's "characters," and in his case the character was weak. He was

born in the village and, when a youngster, had, like every other boy of
good family in the community, cherished ambitions for a seafaring life.
His sister, Lavinia, ten years older than he, who, after the death of their
parents, had undertaken the job of "bringing up" her brother, did not
sympathize with these ambitions. Consequently, when Kyan ran away
she followed him to Boston, stalked aboard the vessel where he had
shipped, and collared him, literally and figuratively. One of the mates
venturing to offer objection, Lavinia turned upon him and gave him a
piece of her mind, to the immense delight of the crew and the loungers
on the wharf. Then she returned with the vagrant to Trumet. Old
Captain Higgins, who skippered the packet in those days, swore that
Lavinia never stopped lecturing her brother from the time they left
Boston until they dropped anchor behind the breakwater.
"I give you my word that 'twas pretty nigh a stark calm, but there was
such a steady stream of language pourin' out of the Pepper stateroom
that the draught kept the sails filled all the way home," asserted Captain
Higgins.
That was Kyan's sole venture, so far as sailoring was concerned, but he
ran away again when he was twenty-five. This time he returned of his
own accord, bringing a wife with him, one Evelyn Gott of Ostable.
Evelyn could talk a bit herself, and her first interview with Lavinia
ended with the latter's leaving the house in a rage, swearing never to set
foot in it again. This oath she broke the day of her sister-in-law's
funeral. Then she appeared, after the ceremony, her baggage on the
wagon with her. The bereaved one, who was sitting on the front stoop
of his dwelling with, so people say, a most resigned expression on his
meek countenance, looked up and saw her.
"My land! Laviny," he exclaimed, turning pale. "Where'd you come
from?"
"Never mind WHERE I come from," observed his sister promptly.
"You just be thankful I've come. If ever a body needed some one to
take care of 'em, it's you. You can tote my things right in," she added,
turning to her grinning driver, "and you, 'Bishy, go right in with 'em.
The idea of your settin' outside takin' it easy when your poor wife ain't

been buried more'n an hour!"
"But--but--Laviny," protested poor Kyan, speaking the truth
unwittingly, "I couldn't take it easy AFORE she was buried, could I?"
"Go right in," was the answer. "March!"
Abishai marched, and had marched under his sister's orders ever since.
She kept house for him, and did it well, but her one fear was that some
female might again capture him, and she watched him with an eagle
eye. He was the town