r husband when he
returned.

Squire Moses declared that people who were extravagant often "took to
drinking," and that he was not much surprised at what had happened.
Joel's wife was happy at the turn the affair had taken; and her
husband's absence was no more than she had been called upon to endure
before. She wrote several letters to him, with "all the news," and
confidently expected her husband's return in a few weeks.

Instead of his return came a letter from the captain of the vessel in
which he had sailed--a sad letter which shut out all hope for the
future. Joel had gone off in a dory to attend to the trawls; a sudden
fog had come up, so that he could not find the vessel, and his
companions, after a day's search, had been unable to discover him. A
storm had followed, and they had given him up for lost. The loss of a
man in this way on the Banks was not a very uncommon occurrence.

Months and years passed away, but nothing more was heard of Joel
Wormbury. His wife and children believed that he was buried in the
depths of the sea.

Mrs. Wormbury knew better than to apply to her hard father-in-law when
her money was exhausted; indeed, she used the very last dollar of it to
pay him the interest on the mortgage note. She went to work, taking in
washing for the rich people of the place and for the summer visitors.
Stumpy was old enough by this time to plant and take care of the garden,
and to earn a little in other ways. Though the times were always hard at
the cottage, the family had enough to eat and to wear, and the widow
contrived to save enough to pay the interest on the place, which she
dared to hope might one day belong to her children. Squire Moses never
did anything for her, declaring that, if she wanted any money, she could
sell her "fancy tables and chairs," for the house was better furnished
than his own; which was true.

The squire's wealth continued to increase, for he was so mean that he
spent only a small fraction of his interest money. He was hard and
unfeeling, and not only refused to help his son's fatherless family, but
had been heard to say that Joel by his drunken brawl, had disgraced his
name and his relations. Ethan, the keeper of the Island Hotel, seemed to
be his favorite; and people who knew him declared that he was as mean
as his father. Somebody pretended to know that the old man had made a
will, giving nearly all his property to Ethan. However this may have
been, it was certain that