“Father,” said John, at length, “you are real kind and good; but we solemnly agreed, when we were all together, to build this vessel ourselves, and not to run in debt. I can’t break that pledge, especially in the absence of one of the contracting parties. I don’t think it would be right.”
“No more it wouldn’t. I didn’t know that, but thought it was only a boyish notion of yours.”
“If we are losing interest, we are not paying interest: we don’t owe for her.”
It required more money to rig her, in proportion to the cost of the hull, than it would in ordinary cases, they had economized so much on the hull, she being only half fastened, and no expense having been laid out for finish or paint.
Fred calculated to raise his money by some smart stroke in business: he had no other way. John and Charlie had many plans under consideration. Charlie could build boats, John could go to work at Portland, or, as they wanted to be together, Charlie could go to Stroudwater.
But it was now October. Isaac would be at home in a year: they could not in that time earn money enough to fit her for sea, and they wanted to be able to load her with lumber from Charlie’s land, as Ben did the Ark.
After looking at the matter in every possible light, and puzzling their heads to make something out of nothing, this committee of ways and means determined to go and consult with Uncle Isaac.
After stating the case fully to him, Charlie said,—
“Suppose John goes to Portland, and I to Stroudwater, to work, and while I’m gone this winter, get Joe Griffin to cut the wood off of Indian Island, and put it on the bank, send it to Boston or Salem, that, with what we could both earn, would, I think, with what we shall save by having the canvas and sails made at home, fetch us out. If I should ever go on my place to live, I should want a sheep pasture; and that would make a nice one if it was cleared. I could keep sheep there: in the winter they could live on kelp, rock-weed, and thatch round the shores, with a very little hay, as father’s do on Griffin’s Island.”
“I shouldn’t want to do that: you’d have to give Joe fifty cents for cutting and putting it on the bank. It would bring nine shillings in Boston: that wouldn’t leave you more than two hundred and fifty dollars, at the outside.”