`` Like Ulysses , you would ` Sail beyond the sunset and the baths Of all the western stars until you die , ' '' said Anne dreamily . `` Ulysses ? I 've read of him . Yes , that 's just how I feel -- jest how all us old sailors feel , I reckon . I 'll die on land after all , I s ` pose . Well , what is to be will be . There was old William Ford at the Glen who never went on the water in his life , 'cause he was afraid of being drowned . A fortune-teller had predicted he would be . And one day he fainted and fell with his face in the barn trough and was drowned . Must you go ? Well , come soon and come often . The doctor is to do the talking next time . He knows a heap of things I want to find out . I 'm sorter lonesome here by times . It 's been worse since Elizabeth Russell died . Her and me was such cronies . '' Captain Jim spoke with the pathos of the aged , who see their old friends slipping from them one by one -- friends whose place can never be quite filled by those of a younger generation , even of the race that knows Joseph . Anne and Gilbert promised to come soon and often . `` He 's a rare old fellow , is n't he ? '' said Gilbert , as they walked home .
`` Somehow , I ca n't reconcile his simple , kindly personality with the wild , adventurous life he has lived , '' mused XXXXX .
Anne Ford Gilbert Glen Joseph Russell Ulysses drowned fortune-teller sorter