t indignation.

"What old hunks?"

"Why, grandad."

"What has he done?"

"Taken possession of our house; or, what amounts to the same thing, has
notified my mother that she must move out on the first of August, if the
mortgage note is not paid."

"That's rough," added Leopold.

"Rough! That isn't the word for it," protested Stumpy, warmly. "It is
mean, rascally, contemptible, infamous, infernal! I should bust the
dictionary if I expressed myself in full. If Squire Wormbury was a poor
man, or really needed the money, it would be another thing; or if he
would wait till houses and land are worth something in Rockhaven. But he
takes the time when the war has knocked everything into a cocked hat;
and nobody knows whether we are going to have any country much longer,
and nobody dares to buy a house. Confound him! he takes this time, when
the place won't fetch anything! He knows it will bring two thousand
dollars just as soon as the clouds blow over. He intends to make money
by the operation."

"Well, I don't see that you can help yourself, hard as the case is."

"I don't know that I can; but I have been trying to do something."

"What?"

"I have asked two or three to take the mortgage; but I haven't found
anybody yet. Nobody down here has any money except my grandad, and it
might as well be buried in the sea as to be in his trousers' pocket."

"Did you want to see me about this business?" asked Leopold.

"Yes."

"Do you think I could help you out?"

"That was my idea."

"That's good!" laughed Leopold. "My father can hardly keep his head
above water now. He don't know where he shall get the money to pay the
interest on his mortgage, due on the first of July. I should not be much
surprised if your grandfather had to foreclose on the Sea Cliff House."

"Of course I don't expect you to find the money for us, only to help me
in another way. But what you said about your father reminds me of
something I was going to tell you, when I saw you."

"What's that?"

"If my grandad was a decent man, I wouldn't say anything about it,"
replied Stumpy, apparently troubled with a doubt in regard to the
propriety of the revelation he was about to make.

"If there is anything private about it, don't say anything," added
Leopold, whose high sense of honor would not permit him to encourage his
friend to make an improper use of any information in his possession.

"The conversation I heard was certainly not intended for my e