Without a doubt now--it was a tangible fact--Cap'n Jonah possessed the equivalent of thirty thousand dollars. It was no mythical fortune such as Miss Sue's had been. Gossip could not increase or diminish it in the Pettys' ears. It was an incontrovertible fact--and they had cut themselves off from any share of it, whether Cap'n Jonah lived or died! "I ain't going to bother you for long, Niece Sarah," said the old man sternly as he entered. "I propose to pack my chist, and Enos Cartright will come along by an' by with his old Mehitabel, and cart it down to Mr. Silt's. Pearly is coming to pack her things, too, and Enos will take them along to Doc Ambrose's, where Pearly will stay till she an' Mr. Helmford git married." "Oh, Uncle Jonah!" murmured Sarah. "I'm sorry you got mad and air detarmined to leave us----" "That'll do for you, my gal!" exclaimed the old captain, speaking with his sternest quarterdeck manner. "You had your chance and you flung it away. Don't you, nor your'n, never expect favor of me again, for you won't get it." The blow silenced Orrin and the lout. But Sarah could not give up all. There was too much at stake. If all chance of getting a share of Cap'n Jonah's fortune was gone, there was still an attempt to be made to save something from the wreck of their hopes. "Dear Uncle Jonah," Sarah cried, wiping crocodile tears from her narrow eyes, "do not leave us in an angry sperit. I can never forgit your kindness to father and mother when I was a gal. We should have been homeless had it not been for you. And even now you can make us all--Orrin, an' Tom, an' me--all but penniless if you air so minded." "What do you mean, gal?" demanded Cap'n Jonah, eyeing her in amazement. "Why--er--you know that note poor father gave you years ago--that note for two thousand dollars. Of course, it's a long time ago it happened----" "Gal," Cap'n Jonah said quietly, drawing out his snuff box and making use of it in his usual way, "do you think I'd hold my kith an' kin--specially my own brother--to sech a hard-and-fast arrangement? Your father needed that money bad; and at that time I didn't need it. I sent it to him freely--glad I was to do it. When he sent me his note for two thousand dollars I tore it up and throwed it into the galley fire. I tell you what, I hope there isn't nothin' _petty_ about Jonah Hand!" The Mariner's Chapel was alight that evening and filled with the Shell Road folk and their friends from near and far. Only one family in the neighborhood was not represented. The Petty house was dark, and 'Liphalet, as the jolly representative of Santa Claus, had no gift in his sack marked for any of the sadly disappointed trio who had treated Cap'n Jonah so despitefully.