'I don't know about that, Ned; but I think we could sell things cheaper than they have been accustomed to buy them, and, if so, they will surely come; and if we can take such little things from them as we have sold at the fort, and give them a fair price--' 'Oh, Jim, only think of it--hurra, hurra!' 'Do, Ned, stop; you will frighten all the folks.' 'What is to pay now, Ned?' 'Oh, Sam, is that you? hurra, Sam.' 'What ails him, Jim?' 'Oh, he has got into one of his tantrums again.' 'I tell you what, Sam Oakum, you don't know what Jim has been thinking about this time; it beats his _old_ thinking, I tell you.' 'Why, what is it, Ned? Come, tell.' 'Oh, Sam, Jim is going to set up a store, and do all manner of things.' Jim and Sam could stand no more; so they broke out into a hearty fit of laughter. Sam, supposing it to be a joke, took no farther notice of the matter. 'You make me laugh, Ned, whether I will or no; but I don't feel much like laughing just now.' 'Why, what's the matter, Sam?' said both boys at once. 'There has nothing happened to me; but I have just been talking with Bill Andrews--he feels pretty bad. Bill is in trouble.' 'There, Jim; I told you so. Don't you remember the day your boat was put into the water, Sam? I saw then that something was the matter with Bill.' 'I hope he has not taken to any of his old ways.' 'Oh, no, Jim; I don't think Bill will ever take to them again. But you know Bill's mother?' 'She has not turned him away, has she?' 'No, Ned, not exactly; but I am afraid he will go away.' 'Oh, Sam! don't say so, for Bill is such a clever fellow.' 'I know he is'--and Sam's eyes began to glisten, and his lip to tremble--'he is a real clever fellow; and to think how well he has behaved, and how different he is from what he once was. I should not think his mother could do so.' 'Has she been scolding him, Sam?' 'Pretty much so, Ned. You know how Bill used to let things go--almost any how--he says he did. Bill is sorry for all that; he is very sorry--I know he is. But I tell you what I believe, boys, that when we have done wrong, even if we are sorry for it, and try to do better, something or other comes up after a while to make us smart for it; perhaps we did not feel sorry enough, or may be it is to make us sorry all our lives; I suppose we ought to be. Well, as I was saying, Bill used to be much at Grizzle's, and Grizzle let him run in debt as much as he pleased.' 'I tell you what, Sam Oakum, I would not go in debt for any thing. I had rather live on raw clams and sea-weed.' 'So would I, Ned. But, as I was saying, Grizzle knew well enough that Bill's mother had land. He knew he should get his pay.' 'But don't you remember, Sam, when you and I went there last summer to engage potatoes, Bill said he only owed Grizzle a trifle?'