ly moved in regard to the price as he had
been in regard to catching the fish.

"I have made a big day's work for me, Le, whatever price they bring,"
said Stumpy, shortly after he had finished counting the fish. "If you
sell them at five cents apiece, I shall have five dollars and three
quarters; and that is more than I can generally earn in a week."

"I won't sell them for five cents apiece, Stumpy," replied Leopold, very
decidedly.

"If they won't bring any more than that, what are you going to do about
it?" laughed Stumpy.

"Mackerel are very scarce this season, and I don't believe they have had
any over at Rockland. If the folks in the fish market don't give me ten
cents apiece for the lot, I shall sail over there. I am almost sure I
can get ten cents for mackerel as handsome as these are. Besides, about
all I brought in yesterday were sold before sundown."

"Then I shall be eleven dollars and a half in," added Stumpy. "My mother
wants about so much to make out her interest money. If she don't pay it
we shall be turned out doors before the sun goes down on the day it is
due."

"Do you think so?" asked Leopold, with a deep expression of sympathy.

"O, I know it. My grandad is an amiable man. He don't put off till
to-morrow what can be done to-day, when anybody owes him any money."

"It seems to me I would rather go to jail than owe him a dollar."

"So would I; and I only wish my mother could pay off the mortgage!
Things have gone up in Rockhaven, and the place that cost my father
eleven hundred dollars seven years ago, is worth eighteen hundred or two
thousand now. My affectionate grandpa knows this just as well as my
mother; and if he can get the place for the seven hundred we owe him, he
will do it. He says it is too expensive a place for poor folks who
haven't got anything."

"But if the place is worth two thousand dollars, your mother will get
all over the seven hundred, when it is sold," suggested Leopold, who had
considerable knowledge of business.

[Illustration: THE BIG CATCH OF MACKEREL. Page 85.]

"The house and land are worth just what I say; or, at least, they were a
year ago, though the war has knocked things higher than a kite just now.
Nobody except my loving grandpa has got the ready cash to pay down; and
mother thinks the place wouldn't fetch much, if anything, over the
mortgage. But in time it will be worth two thousand dollars."

The arrival of the old boat at the wharf, and the comm