"I declare, I feel as if a ten-ton weight had been lifted from the top of my head!" exclaimed the landlord.
"I feel better about it now than I should if I had stolen the hidden treasure," added Leopold.
"So do I. But I will take only twelve hundred dollars of this money; and I am satisfied that I shall be able to pay it at the end of the season."
The next day the Orion made her excursion to Rockland, and Leopold and Stumpy were invited to join the party. Rosabel and Isabel were in excellent spirits, and, as the bay was tolerably smooth, so was Charley Redmond. Stumpy, dressed in his Sunday clothes, looked more like a gentleman than usual. Mr. Redmond tried to make fun of him before the girls, but Stumpy was too much for him, and retorted so smartly that he turned the laugh upon the fop.
Rosabel's long auburn tresses floated on the breeze, and Leopold could not help looking at her all the time, thinking that she was the prettiest girl in the whole world. He was very attentive to her, and when the yacht anchored in the harbor of Rockland, she permitted him to hand her into the boat.
Stumpy, by his assiduous devotion to Miss Belle, and especially by his sharp and witty retorts upon Mr. Redmond, had won her regard, and the coxcomb had to step one side. Charley was disgusted and had to seek his companions among the older people of the party, to whom he had much to say about these "country swells."
Mr. Hamilton did his financial business in the city, disposing of the gold at two hundred and nine, as the telegraph reported the rate to be in New York.
In the afternoon the breeze freshened, and, with Leopold for a pilot, the yacht sailed up the bay, and the party enjoyed the trip till the last moment, when they landed in Rockhaven. In the evening the merchant went to Mrs. Wormbury's house, and paid her the balance of the eighteen hundred and eight dollars, which the gold had produced. With so much money in the house, the widow and her eldest son could not sleep; but early the next morning Mr. Bennington received, and gave his note for, twelve hundred dollars of it, leaving Stumpy, who was the financier on this occasion, embarrassed with six hundred more. He did not know what to do with it, and Leopold advised him to put it in Herr Schlager's safe. They went to the watch-maker's for this purpose. In front of the shop they saw Deacon Bowman engaged in an earnest conversation with Squire Moses Wormbury. Stumpy heard his grandfather say something about "bonus" as he passed him.
"There's a trade," said he to Leopold, as they entered the shop. "My beloved grandad is going to gouge the deacon out of some money, I know by the looks of him."
"Deacon Bowman looks troubled," added Leopold.