aders got. They would buy the
store supplies at wholesale just as cheaply as the traders could buy
them. They would elect one of their number, who could keep accounts,
to be storekeeper. They would buy the things they needed from the
store at a reasonable price, and at the end of the year each would be
credited with his share of the profits. In other words, they would
organize a co-operative store and trading system and be their own
traders and storekeepers.

This meant breaking off from the traders with whom they had always
dealt and all hope of ever securing advance of supplies from them
again. It was a hazardous venture for the fishermen to make. They did
not understand business, but they were desperate and ready for any
chance that offered relief, and in the end they decided to do as
Doctor Grenfell suggested.

Each man was to have a certain number of shares of stock in the new
enterprise. The store would be supplied at once, and each family would
be able to get from it what was needed to live upon during the winter.
Any fish they might have on hand would be turned over to the store,
credited as cash, and sent to market at once, in a schooner to be
chartered for the purpose and this schooner would bring back to Red
Bay the winter's supplies.

A canvass then was made with the result that among the seventeen
families the entire assets available for purchasing supplies amounted
to but eighty-five dollars. This was little better than nothing.

Doctor Grenfell had faith in Skipper Tom and the others. They were
honest and hard-working folk. He knew that all they required was an
opportunity to make good. He was determined to give them the
opportunity, and he announced, without hesitation, that he would
personally lend them enough to pay for the first cargo and establish
the enterprise. Can any one wonder that the people love Grenfell? He
was the one man in the whole world that would have done this, or who
had the courage to do it. He knew well enough that he was calling down
upon his own head the wrath of the traders.

The schooner was chartered, the store was stocked and opened, and
there was enough to keep the people well-fed, well-clothed, happy and
comfortable through the first year.

In the beginning there were some of the men who were actually afraid
to have it known they were interested in the store, such was the fear
with which the traders had ruled them. They were so timid, indeed,
about the whole matter t