around here.

"Say!" said Mr. Pollock. "You go to Cale and ask him. It don't seem to
me the old man give Pepper so long a time."

"For how long was the option to run, then?" queried Hiram, excitedly.

"Wal, I wouldn't wanter say. I don't wanter git inter trouble with no
neighbor. If Cale says a year is all right, then I'll say so, too. I
wouldn't jest trust my memory."

"But there is some doubt in your mind, Mr. Pollock?"

"There is. A good deal of doubt," the farmer assured him. "But you ask
Cale."

This was all that Hiram could get out of the elder Pollock. It was not
very comforting. The young farmer was of two minds whether he should see
Caleb Schell, or not.

But when he got back to the house for supper, and saw the doleful faces
of the three waiting there, he couldn't stand inaction.

"If you don't mind, I want to go to town tonight, Mrs. Atterson," he
told the old lady.

"All right, Hiram. I expect you've got to look out for yourself, boy.
If you can get another job, you take it. It's a 'tarnal shame you didn't
take up with that Bronson's offer when he come here after you."

"You needn't feel so," said Hiram. "You're no more at fault than I am.
This thing just happened--nobody could foretell it. And I'm just as
sorry as I can be for you, Mother Atterson."

The old woman wiped her eyes.

"Well, Hi, there's other things in this world to worry over besides
gravy, I find," she said. "Some folks is born for trouble, and mebbe
we're some of that kind."

It was not exactly Mr. Pollock's doubts that sent Hiram Strong down
to the crossroads store that evening. For the farmer had seemed so
uncertain that the boy couldn't trust to his memory at all.

No. It was Hiram's remembrance of Pepper's stammering when he spoke
about the option. He hesitated to pronounce the length of time the
option had been drawn for. Was it because he knew there was some trick
about the time-limit?

Had the real estate man fooled old Uncle Jeptha in the beginning? The
dead man had been very shrewd and careful. Everybody said so.

He was conscious and of acute mind right up to his death. If there was
an option on the farm be surely would have said something about it to
Mr. Strickland, or to some of the neighbors.

It looked to Hiram as though the old farmer must have believed that the
option had expired before the day of his death.

Had Pepper only got the old man's promise for a shorter length of time,
but substituted th