Alice -- Alice -- the first baby ever born in that little house . No baby ever brought more joy ! I 've dandled her a hundred times . It was from my knee she took her first steps alone . Ca n't I see her mother 's face watching her -- and it was near sixty years ago . Is she living yet ? '' `` No , she died when I was only a boy . '' `` Oh , it does n't seem right that I should be living to hear that , '' sighed Captain Jim . `` But I 'm heart-glad to see you . It 's brought back my youth for a little while . You do n't know yet what a boon THAT is . Mistress Blythe here has the trick -- she does it quite often for me . '' Captain Jim was still more excited when he discovered that Owen Ford was what he called a `` real writing man . '' He gazed at him as at a superior being . Captain Jim knew that Anne wrote , but he had never taken that fact very seriously . Captain Jim thought women were delightful creatures , who ought to have the vote , and everything else they wanted , bless their hearts ; but he did not believe they could write . `` Jest look at A Mad Love , '' he would protest . `` A woman wrote that and jest look at it -- one hundred and three chapters when it could all have been told in ten . A writing woman never knows when to stop ; that 's the trouble . The p ` int of good writing is to know when to stop . ''
`` Mr. Ford wants XXXXX hear some of your stories , Captain Jim '' said Anne .
Anne Ca at for from in near of that to