Billy Topsail & Company Part 3

"'Tis not for _that_ I wants un cured," Jim Grimm flashed. "I'm willin' an' able for me labour. 'Tis not for that. I'm just thinkin'

all the time about seein' him run about like he used to. That's what _I_ wants."

"Doesn't you think, Jim, that we could manage it--if we tried wonderful hard?"

"'Tis accordin' t' what fur I traps, mum, afore the ice goes an' the steamer comes. I'm hopin' we'll have enough left over t' buy the cure."

"You're a good father, Jim," the mother said, at last. "I knows you'll do for the best. Leave us wait until the spring time comes."

"Ay," he agreed; "an' we'll say nar a word t' little Jimmie."

They laid hold on the hope in Hook's Kurepain. Life was brighter, then. They looked forward to the cure. The old merry, scampering Jimmie, with his shouts and laughter and gambols and pranks, was to return to them. When, as the winter dragged along, Jim Grimm brought home the fox skins from the wilderness, Jimmie fondled them, and pa.s.sed upon their quality, as to colour and size and fur. Jim Grimm and his wife exchanged smiles. Jimmie did not know that upon the quality and number of the skins, which he delighted to stroke and pat, depended his cure. Let the winter pa.s.s! Let the ice move out from the coast! Let the steamer come for the letters! Let her go and return again! _Then_ Jimmie should know.

"We'll be able t' have _one_ bottle, whatever," said the mother.

"'Twill be more than that, mum," Jim Grimm answered, confidently. "We wants our Jimmie cured."

CHAPTER IV

_In Which Jimmie Grimm Surprises a Secret, Jim Grimm makes a Rash Promise, and a Tourist From the States Discovers the Marks of Tog's Teeth_

With spring came the great disappointment. The snow melted from the hills; wild flowers blossomed where the white carpet had lain; the ice was ready to break and move out to sea with the next wind from the west. There were no more foxes to be caught. Jim Grimm bundled the skins, strapped them on his back, and took them to the storekeeper at Shelter Harbour, five miles up the coast; and when their value had been determined he came home disconsolate.

Jimmie's mother had been watching from the window. "Well?" she said, when the man came in.

"'Tis not enough," he groaned. "I'm sorry, mum; but 'tis not enough."

She said nothing, but waited for him to continue; for she feared to give him greater distress.

"'Twas a fair price he gave me," Jim Grimm continued. "I'm not complainin' o' that. But there's not enough t' do more than keep us in food, with pinchin', till we sells the fish in the fall. I'm sick, mum--I'm fair sick an' miserable along o' disappointment."

"'Tis sad t' think," said the mother, "that Jimmie's not t' be cured--after all."

"For the want o' twelve dollars!" he sighed.

They were interrupted by the clatter of Jimmie's crutches, coming in haste from the inner room. Then entered Jimmie.

"I heered what you said," he cried, his eyes blazing, his whole worn little body fairly quivering with excitement. "I heered you say 'cure.' Is I t' be cured?"

They did not answer.

"Father! Mama! Did you say I was t' be cured?"

"Hush, dear!" said the mother.

"I can't hush. I wants t' know. Father, tell me. Is I t' be cured?"

"Jim," said the mother to Jim Grimm, "tell un."

"You is!" Jim shouted, catching Jimmie in his arms, and rocking him like a baby. "You _is_ t' be cured. Debt or no debt, lad, I'll see you cured!"

The matter of credit was easily managed. The old storekeeper at Shelter Harbour did not hesitate. Credit? Of course, he would give Jim Grimm that. "Jim," said he, "I've knowed you for a long time, an' I knows you t' be a good man. I'll fit you out for the summer an' the winter, if you wants me to, an' you can take your own time about payin' the bill." And so Jim Grimm withdrew twelve dollars from the credit of his account.

They began to keep watch on the ice--to wish for a westerly gale, that the white waste might be broken and dispersed.

"Father," said Jimmie, one night, when the man was putting him to bed, "how long will it be afore that there Kurepain comes?"

"I 'low the steamer'll soon be here."

"Ay?"

"An' then she'll take the letter with the money."

"Ay?"

"An' she'll be gone about a month an' a fortnight, an' then she'll be back with----"

"The cure!" cried Jimmie, giving his father an affectionate dig in the ribs. "She'll be back with the cure!"

"Go t' sleep, lad."

"I can't," Jimmie whispered. "I can't for joy o' thinkin' o' that cure."

By and by the ice moved out, and, in good time, the steamer came. It was at the end of a bl.u.s.tering day, with the night falling thick.

Pa.s.sengers and crew alike--from the grimy stokers to the s.h.i.+vering American tourists--were relieved to learn, when the anchor went down with a splash and a rumble, that the "old man" was to "hang her down"

until the weather turned "civil."

Accompanied by the old schoolmaster, who was to lend him aid in registering the letter to the Kurepain Company, Jim Grimm went aboard in the punt. It was then dark.

"You knows a Yankee when you sees one," said he, when they reached the upper deck. "Point un out, an' I'll ask un."

"Ay, _I'm_ travelled," said the schoolmaster, importantly. "And 'twould be wise to ask about this Kurepain Company before you post the letter."

Thus it came about that Jim Grimm timidly approached two gentlemen who were chatting merrily in the lee of the wheel-house.

"Do you know the Kurepain, sir?" he asked.

"Eh? What?" the one replied.

"Hook's, sir."