That ought to fix it; don't you think so, ma'am ?" On the seventeenth the High Cliff House was formally opened.

It was much too early to expect "summer" boarders, but there were three of the permanent variety who had already engaged rooms.

Of these the first was Caleb Hammond, an elderly widower, and retired cranberry grower, whose wife had died fifteen years before and who had been "boarding around" in Wellmouth Centre and Trumet ever since.

Caleb was fairly well-to-do and although he had the reputation of being somewhat "close" in many matters and "sot" in his ways, he was a respected member of society.

He selected a room on the second floor--not a front room, but one on the side looking toward the Colfax estate.