"Run away!" exclaimed the girl, but apparently responding not at all to his tender advances. "You wouldn't do _that_?" "I'm my own man I guess. I'd like to see anybody try to stop me. Hoh! Unless 'twas a policeman 'long o' losin' that money," added Tom, his sudden boastfulness evaporating. "You ought to go to work, Tom," Pearl said thoughtfully. "But you don't need to run away and break your mother's heart. No. Cap'n Durgin will give you a berth on the _Tryout_, you know. And if you borrow that money to pay back the Ladies Aid, you'll have to go to work to earn money to repay what you borrow." "I suppose so." "But, don't you _intend_ to?" demanded the girl sharply. "Well, I don't know as he'd want it back," said Tom slowly. "Who are you talkin' about, Tom Petty?" Pearl demanded with sudden exasperation. "Uncle Jonah." "You're not going to Cap'n Hand to borrow money, Tom Petty!" ejaculated the girl. "You got no call to. It isn't decent--and he just come here." "Well," whined Tom, "I dunno what to do then." "You'll borrow it of _me_," said Pearl decisively. "You know I've got 'most twenty dollars saved up--what with picking cranberries last fall and selling blueberries to the hotel this summer. You know I've got that money." "That don't help me none," growled Tom. "Why not?" "As long as you've got it, it don't help me," said the lout, already in a lighter mood. "I'll get it and give it to you before breakfast time," promised Pearl briskly. "But you've got to go to work and pay it back 'fore Christmas." "I ain't goin' with Cap'n Durgin, just the same," grumbled Tom. "He's a reg'lar driver." "You can work in the cranberry bogs, then. You'll earn two dollars and a half a day there," said the practical Pearl. "Well." If it was a promise, it was given under duress. Cap'n Jonah heard the screen door click again and the light tap of Pearl's heels upon the kitchen floor. The girl was coming up to bed. The old mariner felt some mixed emotions astir within him. He had a mind for a moment to call the girl into his room and talk to her "like a Dutch uncle," as he expressed it. Then he thought of Tom, and his soul was filled with disgust. Tom was worse than a fool. He had not only allowed himself to be gulled by a trick that had been in disfavor "when Adam was a boy" (so grumbled the captain), but he had run squealing to a girl about it and had worked on that girl's sympathies until she had agreed to help him out of his predicament. "And it's in my mind," muttered Cap'n Jonah, as he pulled on a stockinet nightcap a little later, and got into bed, "that the young sculpin ain't no idee of ever payin' the gal back her money if she lends it to him. He's a sweet May blossom, he is! We'll see 'bout that." But these several discoveries about the Petty household did not keep Cap'n Jonah Hand awake. * * * * *