He is reported as having admitted that he "didn't mind dyin' so much, but hated to die such a dum mean death." While convalescent he took to smoking in bed and was burned out of house and home in consequence.

Then it was that his kind-hearted fellow citizens donated, for the furnishing of his new residence, all the cast-off bits of furniture and odds and ends from their garrets.
"Charity," observed Captain Josiah Dimick at the time, "begins at home with us Bayporters, and it generally begins up attic, that bein' nighest to heaven." Later Sylvanus sold most of the donations as "antiques" and made money enough therefrom to buy a new plush parlor set.

Miss Angeline Phinney never called on the Cahoons after that without making her appearance at the front door.

"I'll get some good out of that plush sofy I helped to pay for," declared Angeline, "if it's only to wear it out by settin' on it." There are two "antiques" in Bayport which have not yet been sold or even bid for.

One is Gabe Lumley's "depot wagon," and the other is "Dan'l Webster," the horse which draws it.