“I couldn’t buy five pounds of very best candy with my two dollars, could I, Charlie?” asked Kenneth.
“No; but Tom could with his five, if he wanted to spend the money so,” said Charlie.
“I don’t want to spend the money so,” said Tom almost crossly. But how he did long for that candy! The boys did not understand what made him act so queer. He paid very little attention to the five lovely puppies in the stable. Even when Mr. Thornton came with the Professor, who told them how proud they ought to feel because they had found such an interesting shell-mound, praising Tom especially, he did not seem to care. All the way home he spoke scarcely a word. He was thinking of something very different from what the others were saying.
When they reached the Cove the boys asked Tom to come and play pirate after dinner. But Tom said:—
“No, I’m going to be busy this afternoon.”
“Are you going to hunt for more treasure?” asked Mr. Thornton, laughing. Tom looked queer, but shook his head.
“No,” he said. “I’ve—I’ve got an errand to attend to.” And that was all he had to say.
After dinner Tom rowed away all alone out into the bay, and he was gone until supper time. When he came back he pulled his boat up on the beach and fumbled in his pocket. He was looking for something so very small that at first he thought he had lost it. But no,—there it was, all right. It was a tiny pill box. Tom took off the cover and looked in, grinning to himself. He seemed pleased with his day’s work.
At the supper table Tom’s mother suddenly bent forward and looked at his face sharply. “Why, Tom!” she said. “Where have you been to get all bitten up so? You are covered with mosquito bites! You never got them around here. You must have been over to Mouse Island. There are lots of mosquitoes in the swamp there.”
Tom turned very red. “Yes, I rowed over to Mouse—this morning. There were two young fish-hawks in the nest on the old pine tree,” he said briefly.