hesitation. "I wouldn't give Hobson any of it."

"You're right I won't!" exclaimed Silas. "He's got more'n his share
already. What be you going to do with yours, when you get it?"

"I think now that I shall put it in the bank at Hammondsport," answered
Joe. "It will be safe there, and if I am careful of it, it will last me
until I get through going to school. You don't want to go to school, but
you might go into business and increase your capital."

"That's it--that's it, Joey!" exclaimed Silas, who grew enthusiastic at
once. "I never thought of that. But what sort of business? It must be
something easy, 'cause I've worked hard enough already."

"Mr. Warren says that there is no easy way of making a living," began
Joe; but his father interrupted him with an exclamation of impatience.

"What does old man Warren know about it?" he demanded. "He never had to
do a hand's turn in his life."

"But he don't know what it is to be idle, and he is busy at something
every day," said Joe. "I'll tell you what I have often thought I would
do if I had a little money, and I may do it yet, if you don't decide to
go into it. The new road that is coming through here is bound to bring a
good many people to the Beach, sooner or later. As the trout are nearly
all gone, the guests will have to devote their attention to the bass in
the lake, and consequently there will be a big demand for boats."

"So there will!" exclaimed Silas, who saw at once what Joe was trying to
get at. "That's the business I've been looking for, Joey, and it's an
easy one, too. Of course, I can let all my boats at so much an hour, and
I won't have nothing to do but sit on the beach and take in my money."

"And what'll I be doing?" inquired Dan, who had not spoken before.

"You!" cried Silas, who seemed to have forgotten that Dan was one of the
party. "You will keep on chopping cord wood, to pay you for the mean
trick you played on me this morning. You see what you made by it, don't
you? I reckon you wish you'd stayed by me now, don't you? How much will
them boats cost me, Joey?"

"I should think that ten or a dozen skiffs would be enough to begin
with," answered Joe, "and they will cost you between three and four
hundred dollars; but you would have enough left to rent a piece of
ground of Mr. Warren and put up a snug little house on it."

"Then I'll be a gentleman like the rest of 'em, won't I?" exclaimed
Silas, gleefully.

"No, you won't," said Dan, to h