death of the man who had chosen and employed
him for the position increased his responsibility in that position,
Captain Sears worked harder than ever to earn his salary as general
manager of the Fair Harbor. He had already made some improvements in
systematizing and thereby saving money for the institution. The
groceries, flour, tea, sugar, and the rest, had heretofore been
purchased at Bassett's store in the village. He still continued to buy
certain articles of Eliphalet, principally from motives of policy and to
retain the latter's good will, but the bulk of supplies he contracted
for in Boston at the houses from which he had so often bought stores for
his ships. He could not go to the city and negotiate by word of mouth,
more was the pity, and so was obliged to make his trades by mail, but he
got bids from several firms and the results were quite worth while.
Besides groceries he bought a hogshead of corned beef, barrels of
crackers, a barrel of salt pork, and, from one of the local fishermen, a
half dozen kegs of salt mackerel. The saving altogether was a very
appreciable amount.

The Fair Harbor property included, besides the land upon which the house
was situated, several acres of wood lot timbered with pine and oak. Mrs.
Berry--or her daughter--had been accustomed to hire a man to cut and
haul such wood as was needed, from time to time, for the stoves and
fireplaces. Also, when repairs had to be done, they hired a carpenter to
make them. Sears, when he got around to it, devoted some consideration
to the wood and repair question and, after much haggling, affected a
sort of three-cornered swap. Benijah Black, the carpenter, was a
brother-in-law of Burgess Paine, who owned the local coal, wood, lumber
and grain shop by the railway station. The captain arranged that Black
should do whatever carpenter work might be needed at the Harbor and take
his pay in wood at the wood lot, selling the wood--or a part of it--to
Paine, for whom he was in debt for coal and lumber; and, also, for whom
he, Black, was building a new storage shed. It was a complicated
process, but it resulted in the Fair Harbor's getting its own firewood
cut, hauled and split for next to nothing, its repair costs cut in half,
its coal bills lessened, while Black and Paine seemed to be perfectly
satisfied. Altogether it was a good deal of a managerial triumph, as
even the manager himself was obliged to admit.

Elizabeth was loud in her praises.

"I