"Suspicioned you'd struck a school, and gone home clean tuckered. Oh, but you're a smart one, Jude! Couldn't no other girl 'a' done it, sir, this side o' the Atlantic!" He caught up the dressed fish and bent over a fresh barrel; his voice sounded muffled and hollow to Judith. "Knew there weren't no time to spare--nobody hereabouts to help out--went at it myself all flyin',--been down here since seven o'clock." "Oh, Jemmy!" Judith trembled. The throb in her throat hurt her. "What time is it now?" she asked. A grunt issued from the barrel depths. "Time! Ain't any time now! I told you we'd got to fly!" It was almost twelve. They worked on, for the most part silently, until daylight began to redden the east. One barrel after another was headed up by Jemmy Three's tireless hands. Judith counted barrels mechanically as she toiled. "Four!" she cried. Then, "Five!" "Six!" "There'll be a good eight--you see," Jem Three said, rolling a new one into position. "You'll get a good fifty dollars, Jude; see if you don't! How's that for one haul? Ain't any other girl could 'a' done it!" "Oh, don't!" sobbed Judith suddenly. She let a little silver fellow slip to the ground, half-dressed, and went over to Jemmy Three. "Don't say another word--don't dress another fish--don't move till I tell you!" she cried. "I cant't stand it another minute! I--I thought you helped yourself to my lobsters--I _thought_ I thought it. And you've been here all night working for me--" "Oh!" cried Jemmy Three softly. But he did not stop working. "I thought that was why there were only three yesterday--I thought there'd have been fifty to-day," ran on Judith. The new daylight lighted her ashamed face redly, like a blush. "There wouldn't 'a' been but five--" said Jemmy Three, then caught himself up in confusion. The blush was on his face now. Judith's cry rang out above the sea-talk. "Then you _put some in!_" she cried, "instead of helping yourself. You put some in my traps, Jemmy Three--that's what you did! You put in _twelve!_" "Guess there's somethin' the matter with your traps, Jude," muttered the boy. "Guess they better be overhauled--guess a fellow's gotter right to go shares, ain't he?" "Jemmy Three, I'm going to hug you!" "Oh, oh--say, look out; I'm all scales!" "I had scales on my eyes, but they've fallen off now," laughed the girl tremulously. "It's worse to have scales on your eyes than all over the rest o' you. I can see things as plain as day now, and--and--you look perfectly beautiful!" "Hold on--I'm dressin' fish! The steamer's due at seven--" "I don't care if she's due this minute, I've got to talk! If she was in plain sight--if I could see her smokestack--I should have to talk. I tell you I can _see_ now, and you look splendid--splendid, and I look like a little black--blot. To think of my being up home asleep, and you working down here, dressing _my_ fish--and me thinking those mean thoughts of you! It makes me so ashamed I cant't hold my kn-knife."