Brief as that note was, it was destined to change, and for the better, the plans that were slowly forming in Mr. Boyd's mind for not only himself but the other dwellers in that island home.
[CHAPTER XXV.--MR. JOHNSON'S MUNIFICENCE.]
On the following Saturday the two lads went over to the village, their principal errand being to secure a boarding-place for themselves and fathers, for it had been decided to leave the island the coming week. Then Mr. Boyd was going on to Boston to see about entering business, and also about putting the boys into some good school. Mr. Floyd had asked that his brother-in-law would so arrange the business that work might be found for him.
"I don't care so much for wages," he had explained, "as to be near you and the lads. I want you all to help me watch myself."
The young partners soon found a boarding-house where they could obtain a parlor and two sleeping-rooms, with board, at what seemed to them a reasonable figure, and promising to give their decision early the next week they left the house. On their way back to the sloop they stepped into the post-office for their mail, and were handed a letter for Mr. Boyd.
"It is from Mr. Johnson," said Budd, as he glanced at the address. "I wonder what he wants of father?"
"Nothing bad, you can be sure," replied Judd. "The day has gone by for either you or your father to fear anything from that source. I am not sure but the greatest of your triumphs has been to win him for a friend."
"He certainly is a friend now," Budd admitted, his heart going out strongly toward the man he had once counted his enemy; but he little thought what the outcome of that letter was to be.
"I presume we are taking our last sail for months, at least, in our sloop," he remarked, as they took their places in the boat and sailed off down the harbor. "She seems like a near friend to me, and I shall be sorry when we leave her."
"So shall I," assented Judd; "but still I confess I am glad we are going on with our schooling. I had hoped for nothing, however, quite as grand as we probably shall have;" and there was more truth in his words then he himself knew.