“Hello, Shavin’s,” hailed Mr. Bearse, blithely.

The tall man applied the brush to the nude pine legs of the wooden sailor.  One side of those legs were modestly covered forthwith by a pair of sky-blue breeches.  The artist regarded the breeches dreamily.  Then he said: 

“Hello, Gab.”

His voice was a drawl, very deliberate, very quiet, rather soft and pleasant.  But Mr. Bearse was not pleased.

“Don’t call me that,” he snapped.

The brush was again dipped in the paint pot and the rear elevation of the pine sailor became sky-blue like the other side of him.  Then the tall man asked: 

“Call you what?”

“Gab.  That’s a divil of a name to call anybody.  Last time I was in here Cap’n Sam Hunniwell heard you call me that and I cal’lated he’d die laughin’.  Seemed to cal’late there was somethin’ specially dum funny about it.  I don’t call it funny.  Say, speakin’ of Cap’n Sam, have you heard the news about him?”

He asked the question eagerly, because it was a part of what he came there to ask.  His eagerness was not contagious.  The man on the chair put down the blue brush, took up a fresh one, dipped it in another paint pot and proceeded to garb another section of his sailor in a spotless white shirt.  Mr. Bearse grew impatient.

“Have you heard the news about Cap’n Sam?” he repeated.  “Say, Shavin’s, have you?”

The painting went serenely on, but the painter answered.

“Well, Gab,” he drawled, “I—­”

“Don’t call me Gab, I tell you.  ’Tain’t my name.”

“Sho!  Ain’t it?”

“You know well enough ’tain’t.  My name’s Gabriel.  Call me that—­ or Gabe.  I don’t like to be called out of my name.  But say, Shavin’s—­”

“Well, Gab, say it.”

“Look here, Jed Winslow, do you hear me?”

“Yes, hear you fust rate, Gabe—­now.”

Mr. Bearse’s understanding was not easily penetrated; a hint usually glanced from it like a piece of soap from a slanting cellar door, but this time the speaker’s tone and the emphasis on the “now” made a slight dent.  Gabriel’s eyes opened.

“Huh?” he grunted in astonishment, as if the possibility had never until that moment occured to him.  “Why, say, Jed, don’t you like to be called ’Shavin’s’?”

No answer.  A blue collar was added to the white shirt of the sailor.

“Don’t you, Jed?” repeated Gabe.

Mr. Winslow’s gaze was lifted from his work and his eyes turned momentarily in the direction of his caller.

“Gabe,” he drawled, “did you ever hear about the feller that was born stone deef and the Doxology?”

“Eh?  What—­ No, I never heard it.”

The eyes turned back to the wooden sailor and Mr. Winslow chose another brush.

“Neither did he,” he observed, and began to whistle what sounded like a dirge.

Mr. Bearse stared at him for at least a minute.  Then he shook his head.