"Why does he
not buy her of me and paint her himself? The paint would hold her
together another six months, I daresay."
"Give her to me," said Ruggiero. "I will give you half of what I earn
with her."
Black Rag looked at him and laughed, not believing that he was in
earnest. But Ruggiero slowly nodded his head as though to conclude a
bargain.
"I will sell her to you," said the sailor at last. "She belonged to that
blessed soul, my brother, who was drowned--health to us--to-day is
Saturday--and I never earned anything with her since she was mine. I
will sell her cheap."
"How much? I will give you thirty francs for her."
Bastianello stared at his brother, but he made no remark while the
bargain was being made, nor even when Ruggiero finally closed for fifty
francs, paid the money down and proceeded to take possession of the old
tub at once, to the infinite and forcibly expressed regret of the lads
who had been playing with her. Then the two brothers hauled her up upon
the sloping cement slip between the pier and the bathing houses, and
turned her over. The boys swam away, and Black Rag departed with his
money.
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