"Mighty clear of you're making all the money that comes into the house," said Joe Lufkin to himself as he thrust his hand into his pocket and grasped the roll of bills he had made that day. "I've got fifty dollars that you don't know anything about."
"Bob gives me something every time I go fishing with him, and I tell you, a little comes handy sometimes," continued Hank. "You can look out for yourself. I have got other fish to fry."
"Well, then, go and fry them. I guess by the time you see your paw sent off to sea you'll wish you had paid more attention to him and less to that Bob Nellis."
Mrs. Lufkin took no part in this conversation because she saw that Hank was able to defend himself. After that there was silence in the house. Mrs. Lufkin went on with her sewing, Hank pored over his book, and Joe sat in his place and smoked and meditated. Finally the clock struck nine, and as Hank had an early start to make he bade his father and mother good-night and went to his room. Mrs. Lufkin sewed a little while longer, and then she, too, retired, and then Joe got up and began to bestir himself. He took a seat by the lamp, pulled his roll of bills from his pocket, and went over them one by one, to see that Barlow had not cheated him. They were all there.
"It's good money, too," said Joe, holding them in one hand and slapping the other over them. "Fifty dollars is a heap of money for me, now I tell you. I wonder where Bob and Ben are by this time? They're out on the ocean, and I am free from them for at least a year. Now, I guess I will go to sleep."
Without removing his clothes, Joe lay down on the lounge in the sitting-room; but slumber was quite out of the question. The immense amount of money he had in his pocket prevented that.
CHAPTER XV.
GUS HEARS THE NEWS.
For long hours Joe Lufkin lay there upon the lounge, with his left hand thrust deep into his pocket, so that he could feel the bills, and all the while he was wondering how he was going to spend his money. He wanted a boat more than anything else, and he wished more than once that he had stuck out for a hundred dollars. Nobody could buy a boat worth anything for fifty dollars; and suppose he paid the cash for it, the inquiry would naturally rise, where did he get so much money?
"I declare it seems as though I have got to keep my money, now that I have got it," said Joe, getting so nervous that he could scarcely lie still. "I never thought of the way I was going to spend it, and here I am no better off than I was before. But I've got fifty dollars, and that's more than every man can say."
Finally the cat-birds and the robins began to sing, and that admonished him that morning was coming; and in a few minutes more Hank's door opened and the boy came out. He was surprised to find his father lying there on the lounge with his clothes on, as if he hadn't been to bed at all.