"That's too bad!" exclaimed Leopold, indignantly.
"Just what I thought, and that's the reason why I wanted to tell you. Squire Moses said your father's furniture was mortgaged, and that would have to be sold too. The plan of the old hunks is to get the hotel, and put Ethan into it as landlord. If he can't do it this summer, he means to do it as soon as he can. He thought if he got the house, he could buy the furniture, and set Ethan up by the middle of July, or the first of August."
"It's a mean trick," muttered Leopold.
"That's what I say; but it isn't any meaner than a thousand other things the old man does. Only think of his turning his son's wife, with three children, out of house and home! But you can tell your father all about it, Le, and perhaps he may be able to get an anchor out to windward," continued Stumpy, whose sympathy for his friend was hardly less than his fear for his mother's future.
"I'm much obliged to you for telling me, Stumpy; but I don't know that my father will be able to do anything to help himself, desperate as the case is," added Leopold.
"I hope he will."
"So do I but I have my doubts. Father said to-day that he had six calls for every dollar he got. He has mortgaged everything, so that he can't raise anything more. He said there was money enough in the large cities; that they had picked up after the first blow of the war, and some men were getting rich faster than ever; but down here everything was at a stand-still; no business, and no money. The rich folks will come down to the hotel by and by; and father says a good week, with the Sea Cliff House full, would set him all right; but he can't expect to do anything more than pay expenses, and hardly that, till the middle of July."
"It's a hard case, and Squire Moses knows it. He said if he couldn't get the house on the first of July payment, he was afraid he should not be able to get it at all for Ethan. I hope your father will be able to do something."
"I hope so. If I could find any one who would give me a hundred and fifty dollars for this boat, I would sell her quick, and hand the money over to father. It would pay his interest, into thirty dollars, and perhaps he could raise the rest, though he says he has not had twenty dollars in his hand at one time for a month. I can't exactly see why it is that when men are making money hand over fist in some parts of the country, everything is so dead in Rockhaven. The quarries have all stopped working, and the fishermen have gone to the war," said Leopold, as the Rosabel reached her landing place near the hotel, where she was carefully moored; and the boys went on shore.
"By the way, Stumpy," continued the skipper, as they walked up the steep path towards the road, "you said I might be able to do something to help your mother out of her trouble. If I can, I'm sure I should be glad to do so."