ves poor; an' all the time
I'll hev livin' water right in the middle o' my range."

His wife and daughter had carefully nursed him through the fever, as Dr.
Aylesbury called it, and for two weeks Mr. Trescott was seen by no one
else. Then from our windows Alice and I could see him about his grounds,
at work amongst his shrubbery, or busying himself with his horses and
carriages. Josie had transformed herself into a woman of business, and
every day she went to her father's office, opened his mail, and held
business consultations. Whenever it was necessary for papers to be
executed, Josie went with the lawyer and notary to the Trescott home for
the signing.

The Trescott and Tolliver business brought her into daily contact with
the Captain. He used to open the doors between their offices, and have
the mail sorted for Josie when she came in. There was something of
homage in the manner in which he received her into the office, and laid
matters of business before her. It was something larger and more
expansive than can be denoted by the word courtesy or politeness.

"Captain," she would say, with the half-amused smile with which she
always rewarded him, "here is this notice from the Grain Belt Trust
Company about the interest on twenty-five thousand dollars of bonds
which they have advanced to us. Will you please explain it?"

"Sutt'nly, Madam, sutt'nly," replied he, using a form of address which
he adopted the first time she appeared as Bill's representative in the
business, and which he never cheapened by use elsewhere. "Those bonds ah
debentures, which--"

"But what _are_ debentures, Captain?" she inquired.

"Pahdon me, my deah lady," said he, "fo' not explaining that at fuhst!
Those ah the debentures of the Trescott Development Company, fawmed to
build up Trescott's Addition. We sold those lands on credit, except fo'
a cash payment of one foath the purchase-price. This brought to us, as
you can see, Madam, a lahge amount of notes, secured by fuhst mortgages
on the Trescott's Addition properties. These notes and mortgages we
deposited with the Grain Belt Trust Company, and issued against them the
bonds of the Trescott Development Company--debentures--and the G. B. T.
people floated these bonds in the East and elsewhah. This interest
mattah was an ovahsight; I should have looked out fo' it, and not put
the G. B. T. to the trouble of advancing it; but as we have this mawnin'
on deposit with them several thousand dolla