“We need a number of groceries,” I replied. “I wanted to get them day before yesterday, but Mr. Jackson wouldn’t let me have them until I settled up in full. I owe him three dollars yet.”
“Well, you had better go down and get those groceries now. Let this grinding go till this afternoon or to-morrow. I want you to get me some—some tobacco.”
“I will have to pay for all I get.”
“Well, I will give you the money. Will two dollars do?”
“I need but a dollar.”
“Then here is a dollar and a quarter. Get me a quarter’s worth of plug-cut smoking. You needn’t hurry about getting back. Seeing what you’ve got on your mind you need a rest.”
In ten minutes I was off in the sloop. Mr. Norton seemed to be very anxious to have me go, but for what reason I could not determine.
“And remember you needn’t hurry back,” he called out as I hoisted the mainsail and stood off from the shore; “if any orders come in I will attend to them.”
As I moved down the shore toward the Bend I reviewed my strange situation. How much had happened in the last forty-eight hours!
I was far from satisfied with Mr. Norton—somehow I could not call him my uncle. I had expected my mother’s brother to be a different kind of a man. He would evidently make a hard guardian, and I was sure that for me there were many breakers ahead.