Jago to fetch home salt for the
pickling. My mother, besides working at the factory, kept a
boarding-house for seamen. In this she was helped by my only sister,
a middle-aged woman and single. My mother was a widow. She kept her
house very respectable, but the business was slight, the town being
empty of men most of the year.
"In the autumn of 'ninety-eight, arriving home with salt as usual
from St. Jago, I found a stranger lodging in the house. He had come
over from Carbonear with a party of clerks, and had taken a fancy to
the place--or so he said; besides which, it had been recommended to
him for his health, which was delicate. He was a common-spoken man,
aged between fifty and sixty, and looked like a skipper that had
hauled ashore; but he never talked about the sea in my hearing, and
he never mixed with the few seamen who came to the house. He rented
a separate room and kept to it. His habits were simple enough, and
his manner very quiet and friendly, though he spoke as little as he
could help, unless to my sister. My mother liked him because he paid
his way and seemed content with whatever food was put before him.
The only thing he complained about was the cold.
"I had been at home for three weeks and a little more when one
evening, as I was passing downstairs from my bedroom in the attic,
this Mr.
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