[PW] Looking for a book title

[Carole Kass]

Greetings, all!

This is my first post to Project Wombat.  I hope someone will be able to
help me find the title of a book I read many (many) years ago.  Any clues
would be most appreciated.

This was a multi-chapter book that would have been considered a fantasy
story for young adults, having to do with a carved wooden toy ship that
could transport its owner to any destination and (as the children in the
story discover) to different points in time.


The story takes place in one of those isolated quaint villages somewhere on
the coast of the British Isles.  The protagonist is a young boy who falls in
love with a toy ship that sits on the shelf in a store owned by a kindly
older gentleman who definitely has an air of mystery about him.  When the
boy asks the price of the toy ship, the gentleman answers (with the
obligatory twinkle in his eye), "All that you have, plus a little bit more."
(And something makes me think that the store is hidden from view until the
boy comes along.)

The boy does eventually come to possess the toy ship and it takes him and
his sister on many wonderful adventures.  Years pass and the boy realizes
one day that the time has come for someone else to own the toy ship.  He
returns to the shop where he originally found it and meets the same
gentleman (who hasn't aged a day) who sold it to him. He hands over the toy
ship and, in return, receives the exact amount that he paid so long ago.

Any ideas, anyone?  I probably read this in the early 1960s; I have no clue
as to when it might have been published.

It's been a lot of fun just writing this summary.  Thanks for the
opportunity.

Regards,
Carole