Old Cook shook his 'ead. "Though mine is next Wednesday," he ses, "and
thank you for thinking of it. No; you're just in time for the biggest
bargain in the chandlery line that anybody ever 'ad a chance of. If you
'adn't ha' come back we should have 'ad to ha' done it without you."

"Eighty pounds," ses Mrs. Cook, smiling at Charlie. "With the money
Emma's got saved and your wages this trip you'll 'ave plenty. You must
come round arter tea and 'ave a look at it."

"Little place not arf a mile from 'ere," ses old Cook. "Properly worked
up, the way Emma'll do it, it'll be a little fortune. I wish I'd had a
chance like it in my young time."

He sat shaking his 'ead to think wot he'd lost, and Charlie Tagg sat
staring at 'im and wondering wot he was to do.

"My idea is for Charlie to go for a few more v'y'ges arter they're
married while Emma works up the business," ses Mrs. Cook; "she'll be all
right with young Bill and Sarah Ann to 'elp her and keep 'er company
while he's away."

"We'll see as she ain't lonely," ses George Smith, turning to Charlie.

Charlie Tagg gave a bit of a cough and said it wanted considering. He
said it was no good doing things in a 'urry and then repenting of 'em all
the rest of your life. And 'e said he'd been given to understand that
chandlery wasn't wot it 'ad been, and some of the cleverest people 'e
knew thought that it would be worse before it was better. By the time
he'd finished they was all looking at 'im as though they couldn't believe