ile.

"May I ask," said John, at length, "when you intend to 'take down your
sign,' as you put it?"

"Whenever you say the word," declared David, with a chuckle and a side
glance at his companion. John turned in bewilderment.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Wa'al," said David with another short laugh, "fur 's the sign 's
concerned, I s'pose we _could_ stick a new one over it, but I guess it
might 's well come down; but we'll settle that matter later on."

John still looked at the speaker in utter perplexity, until the latter
broke out into a laugh.

"Got any idee what's goin' onto the new sign?" he asked.

"You don't mean----"

"Yes, I do," declared Mr. Harum, "an' my notion 's this, an' don't you
say aye, yes, nor no till I git through," and he laid his left hand
restrainingly on John's knee.

"The new sign 'll read 'Harum & Comp'ny,' or 'Harum & Lenox,' jest as
you elect. You c'n put in what money you got an' I'll put in as much
more, which 'll make cap'tal enough in gen'ral, an' any extry money
that's needed--wa'al, up to a certain point, I guess I c'n manage. Now
putty much all the new bus'nis has come in through you, an' practically
you got the hull thing in your hands. You'll do the work about 's you're
doin' now, an' you'll draw the same sal'ry; an' after that's paid we'll
go snucks on anythin' that's left--that _is_," added David with a
chuckle, "if you feel that you c'n _stan'_ it in Homeville."

* * * * *

"I wish you was married to one of our Homeville girls, though," declared
Mr. Harum later on as they drove homeward.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Since the whooping-cough and measles of childhood the junior partner of
Harum & Company had never to his recollection had a day's illness in his
life, and he fought the attack which came upon him about the first week
in December with a sort of incredulous disgust, until one morning when
he did not appear at breakfast. He spent the next week in bed, and at
the end of that time, while he was able to be about, it was in a languid
and spiritless fashion, and he was shaken and exasperated by a
persistent cough. The season was and had been unusually inclement even
for that region, where the thermometer sometimes changes fifty degrees
in thirty-six hours; and at the time of his release from his room there
was a period of successive changes of temperature from thawing to zero
and below, a characteristic of the winter climate of Hom