at everything was in readiness for his signature
he arose, went to the desk amid a hush of attention, and signed his
name in characters like the finest copper-plate. Then he went out of
the store without a word, and the minister, forgetting his quarter of
tea, slid after him as noiselessly as his shadow.

Lawyer Means, when once out in the frosty night with his three mates,
bound at last for cards and punch, shook his long sides with husky
merriment. "I tell you," he said, "if I were worth enough, I'd give
every dollar of the twenty-five thousand to that boy before morning,
just for the sake of seeing Prescott and Basset."

"Of course, when it comes to a question of legality, that document
isn't worth the paper it's written on," the Colonel said, chuckling.

"Of course," replied the lawyer, dryly. "Basset didn't know it,
though, nor Jerome, nor scarcely a soul in the store beside."

"Doctor Prescott did."

"I suppose so, or he wouldn't have signed."

"Do you think the boy would live up to his part of the bargain?"
asked the Colonel, who, being somewhat gouty of late years, limped
slightly on the frozen ground.

"I'd stake every cent I've got in the world on it," cried Squire Eben
Merritt, striding ahead--"every cent, sir!"

"Well, there's no chance of his being put to the test," said Lamson.

"Chance!" exclaimed the lawyer. "Good heavens! You might as well talk
of his chance of inheriting the throne of the Caesars. I know the
Edwards family, and I know Jerome's mother's family, root and branch,
and there isn't five thousand dollars among them down to the sixth
cousins; and as for the boy's accumulating it himself--where are the
twenty-five thousand dollars in these parts for him to accumulate in
ten years? You might as well talk of his discovering a gold-mine in
that famous wood-lot. But I'll be damned if Basset wasn't as much
scared as if the poor fellow had been jingling the gold in his
pocket. If Jerome Edwards _does_, through the Lord or the devil, get
twenty-five thousand dollars, I hope I shall be alive to see the
fun."

"Hush," whispered John Jennings; "he is behind us, and I would not
have such a generous young heart as that think itself spoken of
lightly."

"Would he do it?" Colonel Lamson asked, short-winded and reflective.

"I'll be damned if he wouldn't!" cried the lawyer.

"By the Lord Harry, he would!" cried Squire Eben, each using his
favorite oath for confirmation of his opinion.

Jerom