CHAPTER XVIII

SARAH PETTY TRIMS HER SAILS

"Come in here, young feller," said Cap'n Jonah, speaking more jovially than usual, when Tom stuck his head in at the crooked doorway of the loft room. "It's colder than a dog's nose and my fingers air so numb I can scurce put down these figgers. Besides, I ain't so spry at 'rithmetic as I used to be."

"Why don't you come downstairs where it's warmer, Uncle Jonah?" asked Tom, for once acting as though he was a mite thoughtful for somebody's comfort besides his own. "There ain't anybody in the kitchen."

"No," said Cap'n Jonah. "Guess I won't. I calc'late I can look over these documents best right where I be."

He sat by the window, the strong box at his feet. The box was closed, but Tom's inquisitive glance noted that the padlocks were both removed. Cap'n Jonah's hands were filled with legal-looking documents, and others lay on the deep window seat beside him.

"I want you should help me list these things, Tommy boy," said the old man. "There's the stub of a pencil and a piece of paper on the table. And one thing I want to impress on your mind, young man."

"What?" asked Tom.

"You're not to say a thing to nobody 'bout this."

"Hoh?" ejaculated Tom again, staring.

"Don't tell nobody nothing about my business. What folks don't know won't never hurt 'em. If I've managed to get a little tad of money together an' invested it in payin' bonds an' stocks, best not to talk about it. Remember, 'Jonah' is a peculiar name," went on the captain impressively. "Some says it's bad luck an' some says it's good luck. Whichever it may be, I've learned by experience that if folks don't know I've got money, I don't haf to spend it. And that'll leave the more for them that comes after me an' may enjoy my savin's."

Tom could not speak. His eyes betrayed his overpowering excitement, for they stared like those of a fresh-caught fish.

"Now you take down the figgers I give you, and then we'll tot up what it amounts to. But don't you say nothin' to nobody, Tom," warned the old man again, and began to rustle the papers in his hands.

"All ready, sir," said Tom, finding his voice, and speaking more respectfully than he ever had before in his life. The power of wealth shook the lout to the foundations of his being.

"Now this here bond of the Metuchen and Cairo Railroad. It's for five hundred, an' it's supposed to pay seven an' a ha'f per cent.," murmured Cap'n Jonah. "Put down five hundred, Tom."

"Five hundred," repeated Tom, licking his lips like a hungry wolf.

"Twenty-two hundred an fifty--that's Highland and Beezboro Canal stock. It's a mighty pretty document, too," said the captain, holding the gaudily printed paper off to eye it the better. "Promises eight per cent."

"Yes, sir!" gasped Tom.

"Two hundred Peterboro Tool Company sheers, wuth on the face of 'em one thousand; but that was a long time ago," murmured Cap'n Jonah unctuously and pursing his lips. "Date of issue, 1882. Fifty year bonds. But we'll jest set down the face value of all these securities. Mebbe some of 'em's deteriorated, I dunno; but the bank folks tell me sech another lot of investments they never did see. One thousand, Tom."

"Yes, sir," responded the scribe.

One after the other Cap'n Jonah called off the amounts printed on the certificates. As the sum grew Tom Petty came close to apoplexy. His mind had never functioned before, beyond the few thousand dollars his parents, or some of the neighbors, possessed.

[Illustration: One after another Cap'n Jonah called off the amount on the certificates.]

When a man was known to possess a sum exceeding the value of his house and lot--like Cap'n Abe, the storekeeper, for instance--it was said he had "a plenty money." Miss Sue's reported fortune of forty thousand dollars was more than Tom Petty could visualize. He had always taken that story with a grain of salt.

The fortunes of the "summer folks" along The Beaches were beyond computation. It was said that I. Tapp, the Salt Water Taffy King, was so rich that he could not really tell what his income was, and he never kicked a mite when the assessors raised his taxes!

But here, before him, squinting near-sightedly at the gaudily printed certificates, was Uncle Jonah, rolling the numbers off his tongue in a way to astonish his young relative. Tom thrilled to the very marrow of his bones as the amount on the paper grew. Cap'n Jonah did not lay down the last certificate until the grand total was more than a hundred thousand dollars!

"There, Tommy boy," said the old man in high good humor. "There, Tommy boy, that'll be 'bout all," taking the paper from Tom's shaking fingers. "You're a good mathematician I don't dispute. I wanted to be sure I had the sum right. I calc'late on makin' my will some day purty soon now.

"And that's another thing," said the captain reflectively. "Course, Tommy, a man's own flesh and blood comes first. And I ain't one to divide up a small prop'ty among a shoal of folks. No sir! But what I said t'other night to your father and mother I meant--ev'ry word. Pearly's a good gal and she desarves good treatment. I ain't goin' to stand by an' see her used mean no more. Remember that now!

"But," concluded the captain firmly, "as long as she has a square deal here, I'm only inclined to make her what the lawyers call a 'small _be_-quest.' Something substantial; but nothin' at all like what would fall to you, Tommy, providin' I died an' left sech a sum as this," and he tapped the paper on which Tom had added up the figures.

"Course, some of these secureties air likely to seine a purty small ketch." He picked up a certain paper. Tom crowded closer to read it hungrily. "Here's this Little Sandy Oil and Coal Company. I got two thousand sheers of that. They cost me a dollar a sheer an' the prospectus said they'd go to a hundred par in time. I must confess that time ain't come yet, so I've hung onto 'em."

"A hundred per cent. rise," Tom whispered, and felt actually faint.

"But you'll mebbe see the time when the Little Sandy Company will fulfill its prognostications--yes sir! Now, go 'long with you, Tom. I'm much obleeged. I got to look over some other stuff in this little chist. Perry Baker'll be back for it day after to-morrow. I don't feel jest right havin' it out o' the bank for long."

Tom wanted to see the inside of the strong box; but there was no opportunity. He stumbled down the dark stairway and out to the barn where his father, who was a good "cold iron blacksmith," was pottering about their farm wagon. Like most Cape Cod people who had land to till, the Pettys drew seaweed and shackfish for their fertilizer pile during the winter months.

"Where in tarnation hev you been?" demanded Orrin. "I want you should help me with this felloe."

Tom looked at his farther in a stunned sort of way.

"Ketch holt here!" Orrin commanded. "What you moonin' about? What hev you been doin'?"

"I've been helpin' Uncle Jonah figger up his fortune," said Tom in a faint and faraway voice.

"His fortune!"

"Yep. His fortune," repeated the younger Petty. He told his father the exact sum to which the securities added. Orrin's mouth fell loosely open and he actually paled under his sheath of salt wind tan.

"Goshamighty!" he gasped at last. "Air you tellin' the truth, Tom Petty?"

"I wouldn't make nothin' by lyin', would I?" demanded Tom. "I knew he had plenty o' money."

"Wait till your mother hears 'bout it," sighed Orrin in a sort of ecstasy.

"You an' marm want to be mighty careful how you treat Pearly," growled Tom, shaking a threatening head. "He as much as said that he'd will it all to her out o' spite if marm an' you jawed her the way you do."

"Huh!" snorted Orrin. "How 'bout you marryin' the gal?"

"She won't marry me now, Pearly won't, so long's that Helmford feller is in the way," grumbled Tom.

"Git out!"

"You see," said his son. "I ain't dyin' to marry no girl----"

"Get her to promise to marry ye," said the scheming Orrin quickly. "That'll be enough. If Pearly once promises a thing she'll do it if the heavens fall. You know that, Tom."

"But I ain't likely to get her to promise no such thing, as long as that city chap is foolin' her," declared Tom. "But marm won't hear to puttin' him out."

"Wal," said Orrin, shrewdly, "there's more ways of killin' a cat than chokin' it to death with butter."

"Then," said his son darkly, "you see that you stand up for me if something busts. I'd jest like to get a good smash or two at that four-eyed fool!" and he doubled his fist threateningly.

"I'd be sure I could do that afore I started anything," said his father. "Helmford looks kinder like a hick'ry knot to me."

"Aw, I c'd lick him with one hand," growled Tom, the confident.

When Sarah came home from the Ladies' Aid Society her son and husband were ready for her. They met her in the lane and in the deepening twilight and with the chill December wind whining around them, they told the woman the amazing tale of Cap'n Jonah's fortune.

"A hundred thousand dollars?" commented Sarah Petty coolly. "Why, that's more'n we had any reason to expect."

"Say!" exclaimed Tom. "Jest _one_ of his investments might amount to more than that. He said so himself. The Little Sandy Oil and Coal Comp'ny. Cost him two thousand dollars for two thousand sheers, and mebbe they air wuth now a _hundred dollars apiece_!"

"Goshamighty!" ejaculated Orrin. "Them's the ile sheers he told me about, once't."

Sarah sighed ecstatically. Her face lighted with the glory of expectation.

"We'll be _rich_," she murmured.

"Hoh!" cried Tom.

"You're countin' your chickens in the aig, Sarah Petty," warned Orrin.

"You leave it to me," his wife said with immense confidence. "I told you I could trim my sails to a change of wind. All you need do, Orrin, you and Tom, is to foller my lead. He's a Hand, after all, Uncle Jonah is. He don't calc'late to divide up his property if he can help it. It'll all come to us in the end."

"But Pearly, Marm?" Tom said faintly.

"Do jest as I say. Treat her nice. Make up to her. Let your Uncle Jonah see you air nice to her. That'll fix him. If he thinks she'll in the end get some of his money I guarantee he won't will her none to speak of. He's a Hand, I tell you, and they was always cautious."

"Uh-huh!" grunted Orrin, but not altogether convinced.

Once confident that Uncle Jonah was possessed of a bona fide fortune, Sarah Petty's determination would admit no possibility of defeat.

Before supper time Sarah had Orrin and Tom carry some of the heavier pieces of furniture out of the parlor. A generous walnut bureau with a good mirror was brought down from one of the upper chambers. Orrin and Sarah's own brass bed--a magnificent piece of furniture according to local report and which Sarah had kept unscarred for three years by enveloping the posts in canton flannel--was taken down and set up again in the front room. It was fitted with the best mattress in the house and with monogrammed linen. For Sarah Petty took vast pride in her household possessions. When Orrin had first been allowed to sleep in that brass bed he confessed that he "didn't feel as though he belonged in the blasted contraption!"

As the family gathered around the supper table Sarah was all smiles. From somewhere a very comfortable armchair had appeared, standing at Cap'n Jonah's usual place. The old seaman hesitated when he saw the chair. What change did this portend?

"Sit right down, Uncle," said Sarah Petty in honeyed accents. "Seein' as you're so kinder crippled up, I didn't know but you'd find that cheer more comfort'ble."

"Whatever!" murmured Cap'n Jonah.

"I was speakin' to Miz Cap'n Joab Beecher at the Ladies' Aid," went on Mrs. Petty, as the family began to eat, "and she says Cap'n Joab gits gre't relief at times when the rheumatism ketches him jest as it does you, from usin' angleworm ile. It limbers the j'ints remarkable."

"Angleworm ile?" gasped Orrin. "How in nature do they git ile from fishworms? Cap'n Jonah says they bore wells for ile, an' that s'prised me. But ile from angleworms is the capsheaf."

"You fill a can with angleworms--wash 'em of course--an' set it out in the sun to stew. Gradually the worms shrink to 'most nothin', and you strain off the ile. Tommy can dig some worms----"

"This weather?" snorted her son. "If all the angleworms in our back garden ain't dug themselves down 'bout's far as China for the winter, then they're froze' stiff by now, if you ask _me_."

"Wal, I suppose it would be best to make the ile in summer," confessed Sarah.

"There's skunk ile," proposed Orrin, seeing his wife's lead and trying to follow it. "They say that's mighty good for rheumatiz, to rub it in."

"Have me smellin' like a polecat!" ejaculated Cap'n Jonah, getting his breath at last.

"Ain't that just like you, Orrin?" snapped Sarah. Orrin subsided. But Mrs. Petty was determined to put forth something that would please Cap'n Jonah and draw attention to her interest and sympathy in the master mariner.

"I've been intendin' to get to it ever since the cold weather set in," she observed; "but I've been so busy that I couldn't till to-day. That upstairs room over this kitchen ain't re'lly fit for Uncle Jonah to sleep in, Orrin."

"Huh?" grunted her husband, wondering where she was heading in now.

"I told you I didn't think 'twould suit," went on Sarah calmly. "There ain't no heat gets up into it from here--only smells. The fire goes out in this range and the chimney gets cold 'fore mornin'. 'Tain't fit for Uncle Jonah to sleep up there."

The old captain laid down his knife and fork and stared at her. Orrin looked only at his plate. Tom choked over his food. Helmford tried to cover the general confusion by starting the ball of conversation rolling with Pearl about a piece of music which was just then coming into great popularity and of which he had a record that he played on his phonograph.

"So," Sarah continued, placid as a summer sea, "I've cleared out the front room for the winter an' set up a bed there for Uncle Jonah. After supper you an' Tom, Orrin, go up and get his chist and carry it down there. There's a fire in the base-burner, and if ye fix the dampers right ye can run a fire in it day and night, Uncle."

"Whatever!" ejaculated the master mariner.

"I'm sure you'll be much more comfort'ble in the front room, Uncle," added his niece sweetly. "We must not let the rheumatism get settled on you. You must take good care of yourself the few years you've got to remain with us."

Cap'n Jonah, Pearl, and even Helmford, were by this time speechless.