,
twenty thousand dollars, and then formed with him a regular
copartnership--giving Willy an active business control.

"But the experiment, sir," added the man, emphatically, "has proved a
failure. I heard yesterday, that both mill and distillery were to be
shut up, and offered for sale."

"They did not prove as money-making as was anticipated?"

"No, not under Willy Hammond's management. He had made too many bad
acquaintances--men who clung to him because he had plenty of money at
his command, and spent it as freely as water. One-half of his time he
was away from the mill, and while there, didn't half attend to
business. I've heard it said--and I don't much doubt its truth--that
he's squandered his twenty thousand dollars, and a great deal more
besides."

"How is that possible?"

"Well; people talk, and not always at random. There's been a man
staying here, most of his time, for the last four or five years, named
Green. He does not do anything, and don't seem to have any friends in
the neighborhood. Nobody knows where he came from, and he is not at all
communicative on that head himself. Well, this man became acquainted
with young Hammond after Willy got to visiting the bar here, and
attached himself to him at once. They have, to all appearance, been
fast friends ever since; riding about, or going off on gunning or
fishing excursions almost every day, and secluding themselves somewhere
nearly every evening. That man, Green, sir, it is whispered, is a
gambler; and I believe it. Granted, and there is no longer a mystery as
to what Willy does with his own and his father's money."

I readily assented to this view of the case.

"And so assuming that Green is a gambler," said I, "he has grown
richer, in consequence of the opening of a new and more attractive
tavern in Cedarville."

"Yes, and Cedarville is so much the poorer for all his gains; for I've
never heard of his buying a foot of ground, or in any way encouraging
productive industry. He's only a blood-sucker."

"It is worse than the mere abstraction of money," I remarked; "he
corrupts his victims, at the same time that he robs them."

"True."

"Willy Hammond may not be his only victim," I suggested.

"Nor is he, in my opinion. I've been coming to this bar, nightly, for a
good many years--a sorry confession for a man to make, I must own," he
added, with a slight tinge of shame; "but so it is. Well, as I was
saying, I've been coming to this bar, nightly,