"This autumn and not before!" cried Barbara, with surprise and even anguish in her voice. "Oh, my God! how am I to get over this weary time?" "It is slow work, and hands are scarce," said the carpenter. "But gold can do much, every thing, they tell me, and I have plenty," cried Barbara, with nervous eagerness. "Young man, spare nothing that can speed this work. Get more men--toil night and day. I will find means for all. Only let the ship be ready before the leaves turn from green to red." "Lady, I will do my best," answered the carpenter. "I tell you again spare nothing that money can pay for. No matter what labor costs, I will find gold to meet every demand. Jason Brown, urge this matter forward. Those who serve me I can enrich." "Yes, lady, I will do my best." "It was for this I came to-night. I waited for news that the ship was ready to sail, till delay made me heartsick, and I could tarry at rest no longer. Now, ah, me, you say wait till fall, as if it were an easy thing." "Be content, dear lady," said Goody Brown, touched by this pathetic cry of disappointment. "My old man shall go in search of workmen. He can do any thing when he's a mind to." "Thank you! thank you! See, I have brought money with me," said Barbara. "When that is gone I can find more." Barbara laid a purse, heavy with gold, on the candle stand, as she spoke. All three of the men looked at it with a thrill of superstitious dread. At last Brown spoke. "Is it English gold, honest guineas, with His Majesty's face on it?" Barbara smiled. "Certainly," she answered. "I have no other. The coin of England is current here. Why this hesitation?" Brown took up the purse and emptied a quantity of its gold into his hard palm. "Truly it is the king's head, and full weight," he muttered. Then turning more confidently to the lady, he said: "And I am to use this about the ship?" "Yes! yes!" "And crowd on all the work we can," joined in the carpenter. "Yes! yes!" "That is easy understood," observed the hired man. "I only wish that I could swing a broad axe." "Now I must go," said the lady, taking the hard hand of Goody Brown in her friendly clasp. "You have been kind to me and I can never forget it. Only help me to these shores, and see if I prove ungrateful." These words had hardly left the lady's lips when she was outside the door and moving toward the woods in a rapid walk.