"Yes, sir, that's all. If you don't believe me you can search me."
This little incident will suffice to show that his father was not above going through his son's clothes to find his money. Hank had seen him do it often, and he knew that his father had searched his mother's clothing also.
"I'll take your word for it," said his father; "but it beats me how you can make so much money catching fish when you never catch any. I reckon I had best go down town now. You'll have supper ready by the time I get back, Molly?"
"Oh, yes, I'll have supper by that time," said his wife, who, when she had got through admiring her new shoes, turned her attention to the other things in the baskets. "Henry has a good many things here that don't need cooking."
Mr. Lufkin put on his hat and walked out of the house with the air of a man who had a million dollars in his pocket. It always made him feel big to know that he had some money, even though he did not make it himself. Hank watched him go through the gate, and finally went out and leaned over it to make sure that he had gone, and at last he went back to his mother.
"He is safely out of sight now, and I want you to come here and listen to me for a few minutes," said Hank, taking the groceries out of her hand and laying them on the table. "Oh, I haven't been doing any harm, you can rest assured of that; but that pearl you saw me have was worth two hundred dollars."
Paying no attention to his mother's expressions of astonishment, Hank went on and gave her a full history of the pearl and of his interview with Bob Nellis, and ended with Bob's offering to take it and sell it.
"He disposed of it just before he came up here," said Hank, "but he saw father about the house, and so took me off on one side to talk to me about going fishing. He showed me the money, and I got ten dollars of him to buy groceries with."
"Do you think there are more pearls up there?" asked his mother.
"I am sure of it. I may not find them again, but they are there. I found this one lying around loose. I was just wading across the creek to get a shot at some quails I had marked down there, and saw this stone and put it into my pocket. But, goodness me! I didn't think I had made so much out of it."