The second day after this the task was completed, the saw going to its place on the nail behind the chopping-block, and the axe finding quarters near by.
"There!" said the squire: "I don't know that I ever paid for a job with greater satisfaction."
He was handling a roll of bills as he said this, and handed one of these to Dave.
"It is too much, sir."
"Oh no. That was a peculiar pile of wood, and it took a peculiar kind of merit to get the better of it. For ordinary wood," said the squire, his eyes blinking, "I should only pay an ordinary price; but this wood was something more than ordinary, and of course the price goes up. When I can do you a favour, you let me know."
That day toward sunset a dory was gently tossing at the foot of the lighthouse on Black Rocks.
"Hollo!" shouted Dave, looking up from the boat and aiming his voice at the door above.
"Oh, that you?" asked the light-keeper, quickly appearing in the doorway and looking down. "My man will be here in a jiffy and go home in your boat, as we fixed it, you know."
Dave exchanged the boat for the lighthouse, and the retiring assistant quit the lighthouse for the boat, then rowing to his home. Dave heard that night the wind humming about the lantern, saw the friendly rays beckoning from other lighthouses, heard the wash of the waves around the gray tower of stone, and felt that he had reached a home.
XIV.