"Six dollars a month and found. I had the promise of a new hat in the fall, but I never saw it. Times has changed considerable since I was a boy."
"I should think they had," said Elizabeth, fervently.
"You see, Grandfather he owned a fleet of fishing vessels, he owned a dozen himself, and he was part owner with your grandmother's father in as many more."
"But I thought you said Grandmother's father was a—was just a sailmaker?"
"So he was, but he was a shipowner, too. He had to have an interest in a good many vessels in order to get the business of making sails for them."
"Did he make them all by himself?"
"Well, not exactly. His will was good, but he couldn't manage to fit out more than a few hundred boats single-handed."
"You laugh at me every word you say, Grandfather."
"About every other word, I should call it. He went to sea a good part of his life, but he had learned his trade at sailmaking. Boys learned a trade those days, if they was real enterprising. My father he learned the cooper's trade when he was a boy."