“You can’t do any thing with the boat in New York,” added Loud, looking into the locker astern of the tiller. “She isn’t much of a boat; but you couldn’t even sell her there, if you wanted to.” This was a new idea to the young boatman. It had never occurred to him before, that there was any value in the old “Mud-turtle,” which had been used in Midhampton by everybody who wanted her, without hire or even thanks. He saw that the man wanted to buy her for use in bringing in his oysters. She was just the thing for that. She was old; but she was still sound, and scarcely leaked at all. He was a New-England boy, and he had an instinct for trade; and he made up his mind that Loud should not get her for nothing. “I should say that New York was a better place than this to sell a boat,” said Wade, when the man began to run down the boat, and to make it appear that she was useless to her owner. “I don’t think so. They have so many nice boats there, that an old thing like this don’t stand much chance.” “If she were only painted up, she would be as nice as any of them,” replied Wade, who remembered how handsome he thought she was when his father had put her in first-rate order two or three years before he died. “It would cost a good deal of money to fix her up; and I don’t know as she is worth it. She will do to bring up oysters from the beds in; and, if you will sell her for any fair price, I should like to buy her,” continued Loud, looking her over more carefully than before. “I didn’t think of selling her; but I will let her go, if you will give me what she’s worth,” said Wade, deeming it wise not to appear too anxious to drive a trade. “Well, what will you take for her?” asked Loud, in an indifferent way. This was a hard question for Wade to answer; but he recalled a time when his father talked of selling the boat, and he had heard the conversation on the subject. Mr. Brooks had asked seventy-five dollars for the boat; but then she had just been painted and repaired. “I will take fifty dollars for her,” replied Wade, after some hesitation; and this, he thought, would be a good figure at which to begin the trade. “Oh, get out!” exclaimed Loud, with great contempt in his manner. “She is not worth half that.” Wade did not think she was, but he did not say so: that was not the way to trade. “I know my father would not sell her for less than seventy-five; but I didn’t want to be hard, and I made her cheap to you.” “I should think you did,” said Loud with a laugh,--“fifty dollars for this old tub! I can buy a bigger and better boat here in Bridgeport for half the money.” “Well, if you can, there isn’t any law to keep you from doing so,” added Wade good-naturedly. “This boat will answer my purpose very well; and I thought, as she will be of no use to you, she might be bought cheap.” “And so she can be: what will you give for her?”