76 DYER'S HOLLOW. 



his nearest neighbor whose name pro- 

 claimed his Cape Cod nativity made me 

 think well not only of his neighbor, but of 

 him. There were forty -two Portuguese 

 families in Truro, he said. "There are 

 more than that in Provincetown ? " I sug- 

 gested. He shrugged his shoulders. "Yes, 

 about half the people." And pretty good 

 people they are, if such as I saw were fair 

 representatives. One boy of fourteen (un- 

 like the milkman's heir, he was very small 

 for his years, as he told me with engaging 

 simplicity) walked by my side for a mile or 

 two, and quite won my heart. A true 

 Nathanael he seemed, in whom was no guile. 

 He should never go to sea, he said ; nor was 

 he ever going to get married so long as his 

 father lived. He loved his father so much, 

 and he was the only boy, and his father 

 could n't spare him. "But didn 't your 

 father go to sea?" "Oh, yes; both my fa- 

 thers went to sea." That was a puzzle ; but 

 presently it came out that his two fathers 

 were his father and his grandfather. He 

 looked troubled for a moment when I in- 

 quired the whereabouts of the poorhouse, in 

 the direction of which we happened to be 



