piled with the result of the work of the week. The sponge of
commerce, the one you buy at the drug store, is the skeleton of the
creature; the thing taken from the water is its corpse. Not until
this body has rotted away is it pleasant to live with. Day by day
the stench, like that of a charnel house, became more unbearable to
Dick. The crew seemed never to notice it, which caused the boy much
wonderment that noses had ever been given them. He was glad when a
strong wind came and swept some of the smell away instead of leaving
it to settle in chunks in every nook and cranny on the boat.

At Key West most of the crew went to their homes, but Dick was
invited to live on the sloop till he found a boat for the coast he
wanted to reach.

Cargoes sent to Key West for a market are almost always sold at
auction and the auction houses in the early morning are busy marts.
Cargoes of sponge, fruit, vegetables, lumber and other goods are
sold in lots to suit purchasers, who range from the dealer who buys
by the cargo, or the small merchant who takes a few boxes of pines,
oranges, grape-fruit, or tomatoes, to the housewife who wants a
watermelon or a bunch of bananas. On the day following their arrival
at Key West Captain Wilson handed Dick a roll of bills containing a
hundred dollars, saying to him:

"That's about your share in the cruise, Dick. The sponge hasn't been
sold yet, but you are in a hurry to get off and I reckon that's
about right."

Dick was dazed as he took the roll, but a moment later he handed it
back to the captain, saying: