So Mary, after considerable thought and indecision, did write, although Crawford's suggestion that her letters have no word of love in them was scrupulously followed. And so, while the summer came and went, the letters crossed and the news of the slow but certain building up of the business of Hamilton and Company was exchanged for that of Edwin Smith's steady regaining of health and strength.
And Hamilton and Company's business was reviving. Even the skeptics could see the signs. The revival began before the summer residents arrived in South Harniss, but after the latter began to come and the cottages to open, it was on in earnest. John Keith helped to give it its first big start. Mrs. Wyeth wrote him of Mary's leaving her school work to go to the rescue of Shadrach and Zoeth, and the girl's pluck and uncomplaining acceptance of the task she considered set for her made Keith's eyes twinkle with admiration as he read the letter. The family came early to South Harniss and this year he came with them. One of his first acts after arrival was to stroll down to the village and enter Hamilton and Company's store. Mary and the partners were there, of course. He shook hands with them cordially.
"Well, Captain," he said, addressing Shadrach, "how is the new hand taking hold?"
Shadrach grinned. "Hand?" he repeated. "I don't know's we've got any new hand, Mr. Keith. Ain't, have we, Zoeth?"
Zoeth did not recognize the joke. "He means Mary'-Gusta, I cal'late, Shadrach," he said. "She's doin' splendid, Mr. Keith. I don't know how we ever got along without her."
"I do," put in his partner promptly; "we didn't, that's how. But, Mr. Keith, you hadn't ought to call Mary'-Gusta a 'hand.' Zoeth and me are the hands aboard this craft. She's skipper, and engineer, and purser, and--yes, and pilot, too. And don't she make us tumble up lively when she whistles! Whew! Don't talk!"
"She is the boss, then, is she?" observed Keith.
"Boss! I guess SO! She's got US trained! Why, I've got so that I jump out of bed nights and run round the room in my sleep thinkin' she's just hollered to me there's a customer waitin'. Oh, she's a hard driver, Mary-'Gusta is. Never had a fust mate aboard drove harder'n she does. And it's havin' its effect on us, too. Look at Zoeth! He's agin' fast; he's a year older'n he was twelve months ago."
Keith laughed, Mary smiled, and Mr. Hamilton, judging by the behavior of the company that there was a joke somewhere on the premises, smiled too.
"You mustn't mind Uncle Shad, Mr. Keith," said Mary. "He talks a great deal."
"Talkin's all the exercise my face gets nowadays," declared the Captain instantly. "She keeps me so busy I don't get time to eat.
What do you think of the store, Mr. Keith? Some improvement, ain't it?"
Keith, who had already noticed the trim appearance of the store and the neat and attractive way in which the goods were displayed, expressed his hearty approval.
"And how is business?" he asked.
"Tiptop!" declared Shadrach.
"It's improvin' consider'ble," said Zoeth.
"It is a little better, but it must be far better before I am satisfied," said Mary.
"How is the cottage trade?" asked Keith.
"Why, not so very good. There aren't many cottagers here yet."
When Keith reached home he called his wife into consultation.
"Gertrude," he asked, "where do we buy our household supplies, groceries and the like?"
"In Boston, most of them. The others--those I am obliged to buy here in South Harniss--at that new store, Baker's."
"I want you to buy them all of Hamilton and Company hereafter."
"THAT old-fogy place! Why?"
"Because the partners, Captain Gould and the other old chap, are having a hard struggle to keep going and I want to help them."
Mrs. Keith tossed her head. "Humph!" she sniffed. "I know why you are so interested. It is because of that upstart girl you think is so wonderful, the one who has been boarding with Clara Wyeth."
"You're right, that's just it. She has given up her studies and her opportunities there in Boston and has come down here to help her uncles. Clara writes me that she was popular there in the school, that the best people were her friends, and you know of her summer in Europe with Letitia Pease. Letitia isn't easy to please and she is enthusiastic about Mary Lathrop. No ordinary girl could give up all that sort of thing and come back to the village where everyone knows her and go to keeping store again, and do it so cheerfully and sensibly and without a word of complaint. She deserves all the help and support we and our friends can give her. I mean to see that she has it."
Mrs. Keith looked disgusted. "You're perfectly infatuated with that girl, John Keith," she said. "It is ridiculous. If I were like some women I should be jealous."
"If I were like some men you might be. Now, Gertrude, you'll buy in future from Hamilton and Company, won't you?"
"I suppose so. When your chin sets that way I know you're going to be stubborn and I may as well give in first as last. I'll patronize your precious Mary-'Gusta, but I WON'T associate with her. You needn't ask that."
"Don't you think we might wait until she asks it first?"
"Tut! tut! Really, John, you disgust me. I wonder you don't order Sam to marry her."
"From what Clara writes he might not have needed any orders if he had received the least encouragement from her. Sam might do worse;
I imagine he probably will."
So, because John Keith's chin was set, the Keith custom shifted to Hamilton and Company. And because the Keiths were wealthy and influential, and because the head of the family saw that that influence was brought to bear upon his neighbors and acquaintances, their custom followed. Hamilton and Company put a delivery wagon--a secondhand one--out on the road, and hired a distinctly secondhand boy to drive it. And Mary and Shadrach and Zoeth and, in the evenings, the boy as well, were kept busy waiting on customers. The books showed, since the silent partner took hold, a real and tangible profit, and the collection and payment of old debts went steadily on.
