"Let me go, too," interposed Rosabel.
The new yacht came up into the wind, when the Orion did so, and one of the boats of the latter conveyed Rosabel, Leopold, and Stumpy to the sloop, bringing back the mate and the man who had come with him from New York. The new Rosabel was thirty-two feet long, with a large cabin, furnished with berths, and a cook-room forward. Leopold and Stumpy were enraptured with the craft, and looked her over with the utmost delight.
They followed the Orion all day, and kept up with her, for the new Rosabel was even faster than the old one.
But our story is nearly told, and we cannot follow these pleasant parties on their excursions on the bay. Leopold and Stumpy sailed the new Rosabel the rest of the season, and the money flowed freely into their separate treasuries. The Sea Cliff House prospered beyond the expectation of the landlord, and he was abundantly able to pay off the mortgage on the hotel when it was due. Squire Moses dropped dead one day in a fit of apoplexy, and, having neglected to make a will, as he had often declared that he intended to do, his property was equally divided among his heirs. Stumpy found his mother independent by this event, but he continued to sail with Leopold in the Rosabel.
The next winter after the stirring incidents at High Rock, Leopold went to New York on a visit, and was heartily welcomed by the Hamiltons, who treated him with as much consideration as though he had been a foreign duke. Rosabel was delighted to see him, we need not add. The result of this visit was, that the merchant invited Leopold to take a position in his mercantile establishment, to which his father reluctantly consented.
Stumpy took his place as boatman for the Sea Cliff House.
Leopold gave his whole energy to business, and when he was only twenty-two he was admitted as a partner to the firm. He was a splendid-looking fellow and no one would have suspected, after noting his elegant appearance, his fine manners, and his energetic business habits that he was not an original New Yorker. Of course he made frequent visits to the house of Mr. Hamilton, and was always a welcome guest. His relations with Rosabel were of the most interesting character; and now at twenty-six, he is a happy husband, educated and wealthy, and, with his wife to nerve his soul, he stands braced against the Coming Wave of Temptation and Sin, which is always rolling in upon the pilgrim of earth.