'Why don't you hurra, Sam, and let it out, and not keep choking up so? I know how you feel;--shall I go it for you? Hurra, hurra, hurra!' 'Ned, what does ail you? what is the use of making such a noise?' 'Oh, nothing; only you see I want to help Sam out with some of his feelings; he is too full to hold.' Sam had to smile, and that started a tear or two, and then he tried to say something about gratitude to the boys; but Jim stopped him short. 'Now, Sam, you must not feel so; you have earned that heap of money just as much as we have ours, and we ought to thank you; for how should we ever have got along without you and your boat.' 'Oh,' said Sam, as he began to gather up his money, and looking archly at Jim, 'you would have thought out some other way, I know.' Jim had to smile a little; and Ned, throwing his arms on Sam's shoulders, and leaning over him, as he picked up the pieces of money. 'Sam Oakum, I am as glad to see you put that money in your pocket as I should be to put it into my own; and so is Jim, I know.' Sam believed every word that Ned had spoken, and after making a plan to meet together that evening, he went on his way. His pockets were heavy, but his heart was light; and as he passed the rock which had ever been memorable to him since the hour when he sat there in his despondency, and the boys came to him with this plan of enterprise, he could not but say to himself, 'What a grand thing it has been that Jim Montjoy had those thoughts.' Mr. and Mrs. Oakum were just about to sit down at their humble board as Sam entered. 'Here, father; see what the boat has done.' 'What is it, Sam?' said his mother, looking earnestly at him, her hands raised, and her countenance expressing great anxiety. Sam made no reply, but commenced unlading his pockets, and piling the money in little heaps on the table. 'It is father's; it has all come of the boat. If father had not built that boat, we never could have got all this; and now he can pay Billy Bloodgood the fifteen dollars, and then we shall not owe a single cent to any one; there is the whole of it--twenty-five dollars--don't it look nice, mother?' Mrs. Oakum let her hands drop as soon as she understood the matter; but it was only to take up her apron--they had work to do with that. While the father, overcome with the sight of such abundance, and the noble spirit of his boy, could only say, in a very trembling voice, 'God bless you, Sam.' _That_ was a happy meal, though plain and coarse. A spring of living joy was bubbling in each heart, and sparkling forth in pure and blessed thoughts towards God and man.