"Just a minute, Emily. Course a mortgage is a debt, but it's a debt on
the house and land and, if worse comes to worst, the house and land can
go to pay for it. And I don't mean to borrow from a stranger, if I can
help it. I've got a relation down here on the Cape, although he's a
pretty fur-off, round-the-corner relation, third cousin, or somethin'
like that. His name's Solomon Cobb and he lives over to Trumet, about
nine mile from here, so Cap'n Bangs says. And he and Uncle Abner used
to sail together for years. He was mate aboard the schooner when
Uncle Abner died on a v'yage from Charleston home. This Cobb man is a
tight-fisted old bachelor, they say, but his milk of human kindness may
not be all skimmed. And, anyhow, he does take mortgages; that's the heft
of his business--I got that from the cap'n without tellin' him what I
wanted to know for."

Miss Howes smiled.

"You and Captain Bangs have been putting your heads together, I see,"
she said.

"Um--hm. And his head ain't all mush and seeds like a pumpkin, if I'm
any judge. The cap'n tells me that east Wellmouth needs a good summer
boardin'-house. This--this contraption we're in now is the nighest thing
there is to it, and that's as far off as dirt is from soap; you can see
that yourself. 'Cordin' to Cap'n Bangs, lots and lots of city people
would come here summers if there was a respectable, decent place to go
to. Now, Emily, why can't I give 'em such a place? Seems to me I can.
Anyhow, if I can mortgage the place to Cousin Sol Cobb I think--yes, I'm
pretty sure I shall try. Now what do you think? Is your Aunt Thankful
Barnes losin' her sense--always providin' she's ever had any to lose--or
is she gettin' to be a real business woman at last?"