rt you any. Means knows what he's about. I tell you that
old fox of a Basset feels as if the dogs were after him." The Squire
was highly amused, but Jerome did not regard it as quite a laughing
matter. He wondered angrily if they were making fun of him, and would
have flown out at the whole of them, with all his young impetuosity,
had not Squire Eben restrained him.

"Easy, boy, easy," he whispered. "It won't do you any harm."

The instrument, as drawn up by Lawyer Means, also stipulated, at
Simon Basset's insistence, that the said twenty-five thousand dollars
should come into Jerome's possession within ten years from date, and
be given away by him within one month's time after his acquisition of
the same. Lawyer Means, without objection, filed carefully all
Basset's precautionary conditions; then he proceeded to make it
clearly evident, with no danger of quibble, that "in case the said
Jerome Edwards should comply with all the said conditions, the said
Doctor Seth Prescott and Simon Basset, Esquire, of Upham Corners, do
covenant and engage by these presents to remise, release, give, and
forever quitclaim, each of the aforesaid, one-quarter of the property
of which he may at the time of the acquisition by the said Jerome
Edwards of the said twenty-five thousand dollars, stand possessed, to
all those persons of adult age residing within the boundaries of the
town of Upham Corners who shall not own at the time of said
acquisition homesteads free of encumbrance and the sum of twelve
thousand dollars in bank, to be divided among the aforesaid in equal
measure.

"In witness whereof we, the said Doctor Seth Prescott and Simon
Basset, have hereunto set our hands and seals," etc.

This document, being duly signed, sealed, and delivered in the
presence of the witnesses John Jennings, Eben Merritt, Esquire, and
Cyrus Robinson, was stored away in the pocket of Lawyer Eliphalet
Means's surtout, to be later locked safely in his iron box of
valuables.

Simon Basset's writing lore was limited, being, many claimed,
confined to the ability to sign his name, and even that seemed likely
in this case to fail him. Simon Basset faltered as if he had
forgotten either his name or his spelling, and it was truly a strange
signature when done, full of sharp slants of rebellion and curves of
indecision. As for Doctor Seth Prescott, who had sat aloof, with a
fine withdrawn majesty, all through the discussion, when it was
signified to him th