Landing the Paddlefish.
New industry developed in the lower Mississippi, catching sturgeon-like fish for its roe.
By permission of Dr. Louis Hussakoff.
"I've got one," he cried. "I've got a big one!"
Every one present crowded round with cries of congratulation.
Slowly the newcomer opened his hand and revealed a large pearl almost twice the size of the gem Colin had been examining, and, therefore, if of equal purity, worth eight times as much. The finder handed it around, and in course of time it reached the boy, who scrutinized it carefully.
"Isn't it a beauty?" the newcomer cried. "And just on the very last day! I haven't a penny left in the world, and I sold my old farm to come up here. It's been getting harder and harder for me every day, and we had decided to give it all up. I hadn't a bit of hope left, and now——!"
The cottager whose pearl Colin had come down to inspect, slapped the farmer on the back, and without a trace of enviousness—for he himself had been lucky—joined in his delight. The farmer's wife had followed him more sedately, and she came in to share the general enthusiasm.