"Why, say!" cried the girl, "I never thought about having money. Only a little. If Cap'n Jonah really had a fortune to give me I wouldn't know what to do with it. Look at Miss Sue. What does she do with all the money folks say she's got? She can only eat so much, and drink so much, and sleep in one bed at a time. Of course, she can wear better clothes than I can. But, Joe," she added roguishly and peered up into his face with sparkling eyes, "if you teach _lots_ of fishes to hatch eggs, the Government will raise your pay, and then _you_ can buy all the dresses I need or want, I am sure!" The moon drew a heavier, fleecier cloud across her face just then and hid a second couple who were locked in each other's arms on the old Shell Road. * * * * * In the brilliant sunshine of that Christmas morning Cap'n Jonah marched up the Petty lane again. And he thought as he advanced toward the house of his initial approach to the Petty domicile on the October afternoon which now seemed so long past--when he had found Pearl Holden taking down the clothes with the Petty family absent at the Harwich cattle show. "Whatever!" muttered the master mariner. "Things have changed since then, for a fac'! Why! they've changed ha'f a dozen times around--near 'bout. I ain't ne'er taken a v'y'ge yet--not even that one when I was purty nigh made into a goulash by cannibals--that's been any more excitin' than this here. "But," concluded the captain with vast satisfaction, "I have made harbor at last and dropped anchor in a safe roadstead, I do allow." Although he expected no pleasant interview with his relatives, he tramped cheerfully to the door. Nothing could greatly disturb a man who was worth thirty thousand dollars, and could get the cash any day he wanted to go to the bank and deliver up the certificate of stock of the Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company which he had carried around so long, as a keepsake more than anything else. For on the previous afternoon Cap'n Abe had insisted on calling up his friend at the Paulmouth National Bank by telephone, and this individual had confirmed the story of the sudden and phenomenal rise in value of the Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company shares. So after all, Cap'n Jonah was comfortably wealthy and need never worry about the "bite and sup" that Sarah Petty had so begrudged him. Sarah was in no aggressive mood when Cap'n Jonah came to the door on this Christmas morning. The sorely battered Tom had returned on the previous afternoon to relate the wonderful story of Cap'n Jonah's real fortune. It was more astonishing--indeed, it was a greater shock--to the Pettys than all that had gone before.