“Want to know what started you singin’ about blessin’s?  Fust I thought ‘twas the weathervane squeakin’.  What tuned you up, eh?”

Isaiah looked rather foolish, but he grinned.

“I was thinkin’ about Mary-’Gusta,” he said.

“You was, eh?  Well, she’s been a blessin’ to us, there’s no doubt about that.”

“Indeed she has,” concurred Zoeth.

But Isaiah had the final word.

“Huh!” he declared, “she’s more’n one blessin’, she’s a whole shower.  That’s what set me to singin’ about ’em.”

He departed for the kitchen once more, the falsetto rising triumphant: 

     “There shall be showers of blessin’s,
     Send ’em upon us, oh Lord!”

Captain Shad looked after him.  Then he turned to his friend and partner and said earnestly: 

“Do you know, Isaiah’s gettin’ real kind of sensible in his old age.”