"Oh, father, father, why did they take that caul from my face ?" "That--what ?" inquired my puzzled sire.
"That caul--wasn't I born with a caul, father ?" "Now that I recall it, I believe you were," responded father, while his stern face relaxed into a smile, "and I wish to goodness they had left it on you, John; but they didn't, and that's an end of it.

What I was going to say was this.

Convinced that you will never succeed as my successor--that your unconquerable diffidence unfits you for the dry-goods trade--I have been looking around for some such situation as I have often heard you sigh for.

The old light-house keeper on Buncombe Island is dead, and I have caused you to be appointed his successor.

You will not see a human being except when supplies are brought to you, which, in the winter, will be only once in two months.
Even then your peace will not be disturbed by any sight of one of the other sex.