CHAPTER XVII
ABNER TELLS A LITTLE HISTORY
As he walked home that evening Darry was figuring. Fourteen dollars was not going far when the sum required, according to the figures Mr. Quarles had written out, reached the grand total of a hundred and eleven dollars and thirty-seven cents.
He had had much more than that on board the poor old Falcon when she went to pieces, the amount of his savings for several years; but there was no use of his thinking about that.
To whom could he look for assistance?
He had not a friend, save new ones in the village; and even Mr. Keeler would be apt to decline to lend him money. Times were hard, collections very slow—he had heard this said many times of late—and to small merchants the sum of a hundred dollars means much.
Darry thought it best not to say anything just then to Mrs. Peake, though a little later he must tell her about his visit to the money lender, and deliver the message Mr. Quarles had sent to her.
He was due to cross the sound on the morrow, and perhaps it would be best to tell Abner first; he might have been making some arrangement to get someone else to assume the mortgage, and pay the lawyer off.