"That will be very nice," declared Mrs. Bobbsey. "I am sure no one deserves to be made happy more than that child does, for just fancy, how she worked in that store as cash girl until her health gave way. And now she is anxious to go back to the store again. Of course she is worried about her mother, but the prize money ought to help Mrs. McLaughlin so that Nellie would not need to cut her vacation short."
"What kind of treasure was it that these men went to sea after?" Aunt
Emily asked Uncle William.
"A cargo of mahogany," Mr. Minturn replied. "You see, that wood is scarce now, a cargo is worth a fortune, and a shipload was being brought from the West Indies to New York when a storm blew the vessel out to a very dangerous point. Of course, the vessel was wrecked, and so were two others that later attempted to reach the valuable cargo. You see the wind always blows the one way there, and it is impossible to get the mahogany out of its trap. Now, George Bingham was offered fifty thousand dollars to bring that wood to port, and he decided that he could do it by towing each log around the reef by canoes. The logs are very heavy, each one is worth between eighty and one hundred dollars, but the risk meant such a reward, in case of success, that they went at it. Of course the real danger is around the wreck. Once free from that point and the remainder of the voyage would be only subject to the usual ocean storms."
"And those men were to go through the dangerous waters in little canoes!" exclaimed Aunt Emily.
"But the danger was mostly from winds to the sails of vessels," explained Uncle William. "Small craft are safest in such waters."
"And if they succeeded in bringing the mahogany in?" asked
Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Nellie would be comparatively rich, for her father went as George
Bingham's partner," finished Mr. Minturn.
So, the evening went into night, and Nellie, the Fisherman's Daughter, slept on, to dream that the song of the waves came true.