The store would be supplied at once, and each family would
be able to get from it what was needed to live upon during the winter.
Any fish they might have on hand would be turned over to the store,
credited as cash, and sent to market at once, in a schooner to be
chartered for the purpose and this schooner would bring back to Red
Bay the winter's supplies.
A canvass then was made with the result that among the seventeen
families the entire assets available for purchasing supplies amounted
to but eighty-five dollars. This was little better than nothing.
Doctor Grenfell had faith in Skipper Tom and the others. They were
honest and hard-working folk. He knew that all they required was an
opportunity to make good. He was determined to give them the
opportunity, and he announced, without hesitation, that he would
personally lend them enough to pay for the first cargo and establish
the enterprise. Can any one wonder that the people love Grenfell? He
was the one man in the whole world that would have done this, or who
had the courage to do it. He knew well enough that he was calling down
upon his own head the wrath of the traders.
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