As soon as the first emotion of reunion between the couple had passed,
Jolliffe explained the delay as owing to a small speculative contract,
which had produced good results.

'I was determined not to disappoint 'ee,' he said; 'and I think you'll
own that I haven't!'

With this he pulled out an enormous canvas bag, full and rotund as the
money-bag of the giant whom Jack slew, untied it, and shook the contents
out into her lap as she sat in her low chair by the fire. A mass of
sovereigns and guineas (there were guineas on the earth in those days)
fell into her lap with a sudden thud, weighing down her gown to the
floor.

'There!' said Shadrach complacently. 'I told 'ee, dear, I'd do it; and
have I done it or no?'

Somehow her face, after the first excitement of possession, did not
retain its glory.

'It is a lot of gold, indeed,' she said. 'And--is this _all_?'

'All? Why, dear Joanna, do you know you can count to three hundred in
that heap? It is a fortune!'

'Yes--yes. A fortune--judged by sea; but judged by land--'

However, she banished considerations of the money for the nonce. Soon
the boys came in, and next Sunday Shadrach returned thanks to God--this
time by the more ordinary channel of the italics in the General
Thanksgiving. But a few days after, when the question of investing the
money arose, he remarked that she did not seem so satisfied as he had
hoped.

'Well you see, Shadrach,' she answered, '_we_ count by hundreds; _they_
count by thousands' (nodding towards the other side of the Street). 'They
have set up a carriage and pair since you left.'

'O, have they?'

'My dear Shadrach, you don't know how the world moves. However, we'll do
the best we can with it. But they are rich, and we are poor still!'

The greater part of a year was desultorily spent. She moved sadly about
the house and shop, and the boys were still occupying themselves in and
around the harbour.

'Joanna,' he said, one day, 'I see by your movements that it is not
enough.'

'It is not enough,' said she. 'My boys will have to live by steering the
ships that the Lesters own; and I was once above her!'

Jolliffe was not an argumentative man, and he only murmured that he
thought he would make another voyage.

He meditated for several days, and coming home from the quay one
afternoon said suddenly:

'I could do it for 'ee, dear, in one more trip, for certain, if--if--'

'Do what, Shadrach?'

'Enable 'ee