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A Croesus Of Gingerbread Cove
by
“Very good,” says Pinch-a-Penny. “You’ve my word that I’ll do it…. Wind’s jumpin’ up, Tom.”
“I wants your oath. The wind will bide for that. Hold up your right hand.”
Pinch-a-Penny shivered in a blast of the gale. “I swears,” says he.
“Lads,” says Tom, “you’ll shame this man to his grave if he fails t’ pay!”
“Gettin’ dark, Tom,” says Peter.
“Ay,” says Tom; “’tis growin’ wonderful cold an’ dark out here. I knows it well. Put me ashore on the ice, lads.”
They landed Tom, then, on a near-by pan. He would have it so.
“Leave me have my way!” says he. “I’ve done a good stroke o’ business.”
Presently they took old Pinch-a-Penny aboard in Tom’s stead; and just for a minute they hung off Tom’s pan to say good-by.
“I sends my love t’ Mary an’ the children,” says he. “You’ll not fail t’ remember. She’ll know why I done this thing. Tell her ’twas a grand chance an’ I took it.”
“Ay, Tom.”
“Fetch in here close,” says Tom. “I want’s t’ talk t’ the ol’ skinflint you got aboard there. I’ll have my say, ecod, at last! Ye crab!” says he, shaking his fist in Pinch-a-Penny’s face, when the rodney got alongside. “Ye robber! Ye pinch-a-penny! Ye liar! Ye thief! I done ye! Hear me? I done ye! I vowed I’d even scores with ye afore I died. An’ I’ve done it–I’ve done it! What did ye buy? Twenty years o’ my life! What will ye pay for? Twenty years o’ my life!” And he laughed. And then he cut a caper, and come close to the edge of the pan, and shook his fist in Pinch-a-Penny’s face again. “Know what I done in St. John’s last fall?” says he. “I seen a doctor, ye crab! Know what he told me? No, ye don’t! Twenty years o’ my life this here ol’ skinflint will pay for!” he crowed. “Two thousand dollars he’ll put in the hands o’ my poor wife!”
Well, well! The rodney was moving away. And a swirl of snow shrouded poor Tom Lane. But they heard un laugh once more.
“My heart is givin’ ‘way, anyhow!” he yelled. “I didn’t have three months t’ live!”
* * * * *
Old Pinch-a-Penny Peter done what he said he would do. He laid the money in poor Mary Lane’s hands. But a queer thing happened next day. Up went the price of pork at Pinch-a-Penny’s shop! And up went the price of tea and molasses! And up went the price of flour!