After having paid all expenses and lived with maddening economy, there was scarcely anything left for the owner.

Each time the freight boats were more numerous and the transportation rates cheaper.

Ulysses with his elegant _Mare Nostrum_ could not compete with the southern captains, drunken and taciturn, eager to accept freight at any price in order to fill their miserable transports crawling across the ocean at the speed of a tortoise.
"I can do no more," he said sadly to his mate.

"I shall simply ruin my son.

If anybody will buy the _Mare Nostrum,_ I'm going to sell it." On one of his fruitless expeditions, just when he was most discouraged, some unexpected news changed the situation for him.