PAUL GOES INTO BUSINESS ON HIS OWN ACCOUNT.
Before night, all the arrangements for the next day's trip were
completed, and Paul retired at an early hour, so as to be up in season
in the morning. The excitement which his great project created in his
mind, however, would not let him sleep till he was actually exhausted
with thinking. He did not wake till five o'clock in the morning, which
made him so ashamed of himself, that he could hardly conceal his
vexation, especially as he found his mother was up, and his breakfast
was nearly ready, when he went down-stairs. But on reflection he found
he was early enough, for it would be low tide nearly an hour later than
on the preceding day.
While he was eating his breakfast, his brother John came down. It was an
unusually early hour for him to rise, and it was evident from the haste
with which he completed his toilet, after he found Paul had not gone,
that he had an idea of his own, as well as his brother.
"Mayn't I go with you, Paul?" asked he.
"You must go to school."
"Mayn't I stay away from school to-day, mother?" added he, turning
quickly to Mrs. Duncan.
"I'd rather you wouldn't, John."
"Why not, mother?" whined he.
"I don't want you to stay out of school a single day, when it can be
prevented."
"I should think I might go with Paul. I can catch as many fish as he
can."
"Paul is older than you are, and he always kept close to his school till
he left."
"I want to do something towards supporting the family, as well as he."
Mrs. Duncan laughed, and so did Paul; for however ambitious the young
gentleman might have been to bear his full share of the burden of the
family, it was too evident that his taste for boating and fishing was
the dominant motive for absenting himself from school.
"Let me go with you, Paul."
"Mother says you must go to school, and I think you had better be
there."
"Who will steer the boat while you skin the fish?" demanded John, who
had a proper idea of the value of his services, and was not at all
pleased at the thought of having them undervalued.
"I shall try to get along some way without you. I should like to have
you go, first rate, John; but I don't think you ought to stay out of
school. You will have a vacation next week, and you may go every day
then, if you want to."
"You ought to take me with you, Paul," continued John, resorting to the
persuasive, now that the argumentative had failed.
"I tell you I should like to have you go with me, if it were not for
your school."
John exhausted his store of arguments and persuasions without effect,
and then fled to his room to cry over his defeat. Paul sympathized with
his brother in his disappointment, but as the head of the family, he
could not, on principle, yield the point. Taking his jug of water and
his lunch, he left the house and hastened to the beach. The wind was
light, as on the preceding day, and it took him nearly two hours to run
down to Rock Island, for the old boat was a very heavy sailer even under
the most favorable circumstances.
Paul did not feel quite so nervous as on the day before, for he was so
confident of success that he did not feel uneasy even when he did not
get a bite for quarter of an hour. The perch were accommodating in the
main, and did not disappoint him, for at twelve o'clock--as he judged it
to be by the height of the tide--he had seven dozen in the boat, and
they were still biting as greedily as when he first commenced. He had
two lines on board, and he tried the experiment of using them both at
the same time, though without much success; for perch are fastidious,
and require a great deal of attention. While he was pulling in a fish
upon one line, the sly rogues in the brine stole his bait from the
other, and he came to the conclusion it was not best to have too many
irons in the fire at once.
Paul did not like to abandon the field while it was yielding such a rich
harvest; but he was a prudent fisherman, and not disposed to run any
risks. The tide would turn in less than two hours, and he knew it would
be impossible to run up to Bayville against both wind and tide. The old
boat was not equal to any such emergency, and he reluctantly wound up
his line and made sail for home.
The seven dozen perch were to be cleaned, and when he got fairly under
way he missed John, for it was difficult for him to skin fish and work
the boat at the same time. Seating himself in the stern he passed his
arm round the tiller,--for there was no comb to keep it in place,--and
commenced his labors. He soon found that he was working at a great
disadvantage, and he exerted his ingenuity to devise a plan for
overcoming the difficulty. Taking a small line, he made the middle of it
fast to the end of the tiller; then passing it round the cleets, he tied
the ends together. This apparatus kept the tiller in its place, and he
could change it to any required position by pulling the line. Resuming
his labors upon the fish, he found his plan worked very well, and the
perch were in readiness for market when he reached the shore. After
securing the boat, he hastened with the fish to the cottage, where his
dinner was waiting for him. His mother congratulated him upon his
success, and told him that Captain Littleton had been to see her during
his absence, and that she was entirely reconciled to his new occupation.
The most difficult part of the business, in Paul's estimation, was yet
to come--that of selling the fish. As he left the house with his
precious load of merchandise, he could not help feeling that the grand
scheme was still an experiment, for it had not been demonstrated that
Bayville would buy six or eight dozen of perch every day. It was a large
place, containing about six thousand inhabitants; and as he walked
along, he brought his mathematical knowledge into use in an attempt to
convince himself that the market was large enough to keep him busy
during the season. At the least calculation there were six hundred
families in the town, and probably a thousand. If each family would buy
a mess of perch once in ten days, it would make six hundred dozen in
that time, or sixty dozen a day; but, to make allowance for
over-estimates, he was willing to reduce the total one half, and call it
thirty dozen a day. The fisherman would supply a large portion of the
demand, but he concluded that he should have no difficulty in selling
all the perch he could catch.
Passing the house of Captain Littleton, the next was that of Major
Nettle, and he resolved to make his first attempt to sell. The
gentleman, was not at home, and the servants didn't know anything about
it; and he was just leaving when Thomas Nettle accosted him.
"What have you got, Paul?"
"Perch; do your folks want to buy any?"
"Yes, I guess they do. Where did you catch them?"
"Down at Rock Island; I am going down every day."
"Are you, though? I should like to go with you some time."
"I shall be glad to have you. I have gone into this business."
"What for?"
"Since my father died, I have to do something to help my mother,"
replied Paul, not caring to announce to his friend the whole of his
stupendous plan.
"Do you expect to do anything at this business?"
"Certainly I do; I made two dollars at it yesterday."
"Did you though?"
"Do your folks want any perch to-day?"
"I guess they do; how much a dozen?"
"Seventeen cents," replied Paul, who had decided to be moderate in his
prices.
"I will speak to my mother."
Thomas returned in a short time, and took two dozen of the fish, and
paid the money for them. Overjoyed at this success, he proceeded to the
next house; but though he was eloquent in regard to the freshness and
fineness of his wares, he could not make a trade. He met with no better
success at the next three or four places at which he called, and he
began to feel a little discouraged. But the next house in his way was a
large, genteel boarding-house, and he had the satisfaction of selling
four dozen at the price he had before fixed, though he had almost made
up his mind to let them go at ninepence. The gentleman who kept the
house was pleased to get the perch, and wanted the young fisherman to
bring him some three times a week for the present, for his boarders were
very fond of them.
Paul could scarcely contain himself for the joy he felt, as he glanced
at the only remaining dozen of his stock, and at the very next house he
disposed of them. With a dollar and nineteen cents in his pocket, he
walked towards home, proud as a lord of his success. The result of this
day's work afforded him far more satisfaction than that of the preceding
day, though the proceeds were considerably less; for he was conscious of
the influence of Captain Littleton's generosity in the transaction. But
the second day's triumph was achieved by his own unaided labor and
skill. What he had done this day was a fair specimen of what he might
hope to do in the future.
"Sold out so soon, Paul?" said his mother, as he entered the kitchen.
"Yes; I had good luck. They took four dozen at the boarding-house. I
think if I had had twenty dozen I could have sold them all. There is a
great deal of difference between perch just out of the water, fresh and
good, and perch which have been dragged about in a fish cart, under a
hot sun, for two or three days."
Mrs. Duncan fully agreed with this sage remark, and did not think it
improved any kind of fish to keep them a great while after they were
caught.
"One dollar and nineteen cents, mother; here is the money," continued
Paul, emptying the contents of the wallet into her lap. "What do you
think of the fishing business _now_, mother?"
"It has proved to be a very good business so far: but you must not
expect people to eat perch all the year round, Paul. They will get sick
of them after a while."
"Then I shall go farther off; but there are other fish besides perch,
and I don't intend to confine my operations to one kind. There are eels,
and smelts, and cod, and haddock; and if worse comes to worse, I can go
into the clam trade."
"What a boy!" laughed Mrs. Duncan. "You are so determined that I have no
doubt you will succeed."
"If I don't, it shall not be my fault," replied Paul, complacently.
"But you don't mean to follow this business all your life?"
"Why not?"
"The life of a fisherman is not the pleasantest in the world."
"That's according to one's taste. If I only had a good boat, I can't
think of anything that would suit me better."
"It is hard work."
"So much the better. You said that five dollars a week would support the
family. Now, if you have no objection, I will save up all I make over
that sum, till I get enough to buy a boat."
"Certainly, Paul; and if you give me three dollars a week, or even two,
I can get along very well."
"I shall not do that, mother. I am going to support the family, anyhow;
and I wish you wouldn't take any more bags to make."
"You mustn't think of doing too much, Paul."
"Too much! I shall be idle half the time, at this rate. Here I am, with
my day's work done at three o'clock in the afternoon. I don't want you
to do anything, mother, but take care of the house, as you always used
to do."
"There will certainly be no need of it, if you get along as well as you
expect. How much will such a boat as you want cost, Paul?"
"Well, I don't know; when I buy I want to get a first-rate one."
"How much do you think."
"Fifty to seventy-five dollars; but I won't think of such a thing yet a
while. The old one will do very well for the present. I can save up
something every week, and little by little, I shall make up enough to
get just such a boat as I want."
"You might take the money from the life insurance; for Mr. Freeman will
perhaps sell us the house, if we pay nine hundred dollars down."
"I won't do that, mother. My boat shall be bought with my own earnings."
"I will lend you the money, then."
"No, I won't get in debt."
"But a new boat would be safer."
"The old one is safe enough; all the fault I find with her is, that it
takes her so long to get down to the fishing ground."
Paul resolutely refused to run in debt, or to touch the money which had
been appropriated for the purchase of the house. He intended, when he
had time, to fix up the old boat, and rig a jib on, which he thought
would overcome his principal objection to her.
When he went to bed that night, he entered the proceeds of this day's
work in his book, and then with pardonable pride, he congratulated
himself on the sum total of the earnings of the two days.