“How much?”
“I know Mr. Foss built a vessel for Weeks and Tucker, hull and spars, and found everything, for fifteen dollars a ton, delivered at Pearson’s breast-work, in Portland.”
“Fifteen hundred dollars for the hull and spars of a vessel of a hundred tons?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m sure we could build a sloop of fifty.”
“But a sloop of fifty tons wouldn’t be of any use to carry such bulky cargoes as boards, spars, ton-timber, and molasses, which is what we must do.”
“Ye-e-e-e-s.”
Here the conversation came to an abrupt termination by Charlie’s falling asleep.
CHAPTER IV.
NEWS FROM HOME.
As the summer was drawing to a close, the evenings grew longer, and these conversations were renewed from time to time, as the boys were excited by hearing of some great slap made by an enterprising captain, or some smuggler making a fortune in one or two trips to Havana. Captain Starrett, the brother of John’s master, was an inveterate smuggler. The house was resorted to by seafaring men, masters and mates, and the boys had abundant opportunities to gain information in respect to voyages and profits.