Captain Sam’s eyes and mouth opened.  He stared at the speaker in amazement.

“You told him to volunteer?” he repeated.  “You told him to go to Boston and—­ you did?  What on earth?”

Jed’s brush moved slowly down the wooden legs of his sailor man.

“Leander and I are pretty good friends,” he explained.  “I like him and he—­er—­hum—­I’m afraid that paint’s kind of thick.  Cal’late I’ll have to thin it a little.”

Captain Sam condemned the paint to an eternal blister.

“Go on! go on!” he commanded.  “What about you and Leander?  Finish her out.  Can’t you see you’ve got my head whirlin’ like one of those windmills of yours?  Finish her out!”

Jed looked over his spectacles.

“Oh!” he said.  “Well, Leander’s been comin’ in here pretty frequent and we’ve talked about his affairs a good deal.  He’s always wanted to enlist ever since the war broke out.”

“He has?”

“Why, sartin.  Just the same as you would, or—­or I hope I would, if I was young and—­and,” with a wistful smile, “different, and likely to be any good to Uncle Sam.  Yes, Leander’s been anxious to go to war, but his dad was so set against it all and kept hollerin’ so about the boy’s bein’ needed in the store, that Leander didn’t hardly know what to do.  But then when he was drawn on the draft list he came in here and he and I had a long talk.  ’Twas yesterday, after you’d told me about bein’ put on the Board, you know.  I could see the trouble there’d be between you and Phineas and—­and—­well, you see, Sam, I just kind of wanted that boy to volunteer.  I—­I don’t know why, but—­” He looked up from his work and stared dreamily out of the window.  “I guess maybe ’twas because I’ve been wishin’ so that I could go myself—­or—­do somethin’ that was some good.  So Leander and I talked and finally he said, ‘Well, by George, I will go.’  And—­and—­well, I guess that’s all; he went, you see.”

The captain drew a long breath.

“He went,” he repeated.  “And you knew he’d gone?”

“No, I didn’t know, but I kind of guessed.”

“You guessed, and yet all the time I’ve been here you haven’t said a word about it till this minute.”

“Well, I didn’t think ‘twas much use sayin’ until I knew.”

“Well, my gracious king, Jed Winslow, you beat all my goin’ to sea!  But you’ve helped Uncle Sam to a good soldier and you’ve helped me out of a nasty row.  For my part I’m everlastin’ obliged to you, I am so.”

Jed looked pleased but very much embarrassed.

“Sho, sho,” he exclaimed, hastily, “’twan’t anything.  Oh, say,” hastily changing the subject, “I’ve got some money ’round here somewheres I thought maybe you’d take to the bank and deposit for me next time you went, if ’twan’t too much trouble.”

“Trouble?  Course ’tain’t any trouble.  Where is it?”