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Page 76
"Don't seem to have hindered your nourishment this morning,
Carsen. I'll go into the politics of it later. Sit down by the door and
think over your arguments till I come back."
"What good is arguments to me? In Miquelon champagne's
eighteen dollars a case and--" The skipper lurched into his seat
as an organ-prelude silenced him.
"Our new organ," said the official proudly to Cheyne.
"Cost us four thousand dollars, too. We'll have to get back to
high-license next year to pay for it. I wasn't going to let the
ministers have all the religion at their convention. Those are some
of our orphans standing up to sing. My wife taught 'em. See you
again later, Mr. Cheyne. I'm wanted on the platform."
High, clear, and true, children's voices bore down the last noise of
those settling into their places.
"O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise him and
magnify him for ever!"
The women throughout the hall leaned forward to look as the
reiterated cadences filled the air. Mrs. Cheyne, with some others,
began to breathe short; she had hardly imagined there were so
many widows in the world; and instinctively searched for Harvey.
He had found the 'We're Heres' at the back of the audience, and was
standing, as by right, between Dan and Disko. Uncle Salters,
returned the night before with Penn, from Pamlico Sound, received
him suspiciously.
"Hain't your folk gone yet?" he grunted. "What are you doin' here,
young feller?"
"O ye Seas and Floods, bless ye the Lord: praise him, and magnify
him for ever!"
"Hain't he good right?" said Dan. "He's bin there, same as the rest
of us."
"Not in them clothes," Salters snarled.
"Shut your head, Salters," said Disko. "Your bile's gone back on
you. Stay right where ye are, Harve."
Then up and spoke the orator of the occasion, another pillar of the
municipality, bidding the world welcome to Gloucester, and
incidentally pointing out wherein Gloucester excelled the rest of
the world. Then he turned to the sea-wealth of the city, and spoke
of the price that must be paid for the yearly harvest. They would
hear later the names of their lost dead one hundred and seventeen
of them. (The widows stared a little, and looked at one another
here.) Gloucester could not boast any overwhelming mills or
factories. Her sons worked for such wage as the sea gave; and they
all knew that neither Georges nor the Banks were cow-pastures.
The utmost that folk ashore could accomplish was to help the
widows and the orphans, and after a few general remarks he took
this opportunity of thanking, in the name of the city, those who had
so public-spiritedly consented to participate in the exercises of
the occasion.
"I jest despise the beggin' pieces in it," growled Disko. "It don't
give folk a fair notion of us."
"Ef folk won't be fore-handed an' put by when they've the chance,"
returned Salters, "it stands in the nature o' things they hev to be
'shamed. You take warnin' by that, young feller. Riches endureth
but for a season, ef you scatter them araound on lugsuries--
"But to lose everything, everything," said Penn. "What can you do
then? Once I"--the watery blue eyes stared up and down as if
looking for something to steady them--"once I read--in a book, I
think--of a boat where every one was run down--except some
one--and he said to me--"
"Shucks!" said Salters, cutting in. "You read a little less an' take
more int'rust in your vittles, and you'll come nearer earnin' your
keep, Penn."
Harvey, jammed among the fishermen, felt a creepy, crawly,
tingling thrill that began in the back of his neck and ended at his
boots. He was cold, too, though it was a stifling day.
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