ail, Jimmie Grimm and Bobby North aboard she swept daintily
between the tickle rocks and turned her shapely prow towards White
Bay.

There was good fishing with hook and line; and as the hold of the
little sloop was small she was soon loaded with green cod.

"I 'low I got an idea," said Billy Topsail.

Jimmie Grimm looked up.

"We'll sail for Ruddy Cove the morrow," Billy went on; "an' when we
lands our fish we'll go tradin'. There's a deal o' money in that, I'm
told; an' with what we gets for our fish we'll stock the cabin o' the
_Rescue_ and come north again t' trade in White Bay."

Donald and Jimmie were silent; the undertaking was too vast to be
comprehended in a moment.

"Let's have Archie," said Jimmie, at last.

"An' poor ol' Bagg," said Donald.

"We'll have Archie if he'll come," Billy agreed, "an' Bagg if we can
stow un away."

There was a long, long silence, during which the three boys began to
dream in an amazing way.

"Billy," Donald North asked, at last, "what you goin' t' do with your
part o' the money we'll make at tradin'?"

It was a quiet evening on the coast; and from the deck of the sloop,
where she lay in harbour, the boys looked away to a glowing sunset,
above the inland hills and wilderness.

"I don't know," Billy replied. "What you goin' t' do with your share,
Jimmie?"

"Don't know," said Jimmie, seriously. "What you goin' t' do with
yours, Donald?"

"I isn't quite made up my mind," said Donald, with an anxious frown.
"I 'low I'll wait an' see what Archie does with his."

The three boys stowed away in the little cabin of the _Rescue_ very
early that night. They were to set sail for Ruddy Cove at dawn of the
next morning.

* * * * *

Archie Armstrong, now returned from the Miquelon Islands and relieved
of his anxiety concerning that adventure by his father's letter, was
heart and soul for trading. But he scorned the little _Rescue_. It was
merely that she was too small, he was quick to add; she was trim and
fast and stout, she possessed every virtue a little craft could have,
but as for trading, on any scale that half-grown boys could tolerate,
she was far too small. If a small venture could succeed, why shouldn't
a larger one? What Archie wanted--what he determined they should
have--was a thirty-ton schooner. Nothing less would do. They must have
a thirty-ton fore-an'-after with Bill o' Burnt Bay to skipper her.
The _Heavenly Home_?