t the door.

"Are you not the boy that brought me a letter this morning?" asked he,
looking at the new owner of the Goldwing with a scowl.

"I carried a letter to you this morning," replied Dory, not particularly
pleased with the manner of Pearl.

"Where did you get that letter?" demanded Pearl in a very lordly and
overbearing tone.

"A man gave it to me; and I promised to give it to you myself," answered
Dory. "That is the whole of it, and nothing more need be said about the
matter."

"You said you were buying this boat for another man," continued Pearl.

"I didn't say so. I have not said any thing about who I was buying her
for," replied Dory, moving towards the side of the wharf where the
Goldwing lay.

"Yes, you did! Don't lie about it," said Pearl in a very offensive way.

"I said nothing of the kind," added Dory.

"Didn't he say he was buying the Goldwing for another man, Mr. Green?"
continued Pearl, appealing to the auctioneer.

"No, he did not, Hawlinshed," answered the auctioneer. "I asked him if
he was buying the boat for himself, and he said I might make out the
receipt to him. That was all that was said about it."

"Well, it is all the same thing: he gave the inference that he was
acting for somebody else. I should like to know who you bought her for,"
persisted Pearl.

"I have bought the boat, and paid for her; and I have nothing more to
say about the matter," replied Dory sharply, as he walked towards the
boat.

"This is a matter that concerns me, and I want to know about it," added
Pearl, following the new owner of the Goldwing to the boat. "You brought
me a letter this morning; and now you have bought this boat, when I was
the only man in this vicinity that thought of such a thing as buying the
Goldwing."

"What has the boat to do with the letter?" asked Dory, who thought it
was a little strange that he had come in contact with the son of his new
friend in connection with the Goldwing.

"That is what I want to know," answered Pearl gruffly. "You see, I don't
believe that a boy like you--for you don't look like the son of a
gentleman--came over here from Burlington to buy that boat. If anybody
over there had wanted her, he wouldn't have sent a boy over here to buy
her for him."

"You can believe any thing you like about it," added Dory, as he stepped
into the standing-room of the Goldwing.

"I want to know who gave you that letter," said Pearl, pushing the
matter.

"I suppose the