Lenox to say fur's
the bus'nis part's concerned--I might 'a' done my own regrettin' if I'd
wrote the note myself." (John said something to himself.) "'T ain't the
pleasantest thing in the world fer ye, I allow, but then you see,
bus'nis is bus'nis."

John heard David clear his throat, and there was a hiss in the open
fire. Mrs. Cullom was silent, and David resumed:

"You see, Mis' Cullom, it's like this. I ben thinkin' of this matter
fer a good while. That place ain't ben no real good to ye sence the
first year you signed that morgidge. You hain't scurcely more'n made
ends meet, let alone the int'rist, an' it's ben simply a question o'
time, an' who'd git the prop'ty in the long run fer some years. I
reckoned, same as you did, that Charley 'd mebbe come to the front--but
he hain't done it, an' 't ain't likely he ever will. Charley's a likely
'nough boy some ways, but he hain't got much 'git there' in his make-up,
not more'n enough fer one anyhow, I reckon. That's about the size on't,
ain't it?"

Mrs. Cullom murmured a feeble admission that she was "'fraid it was."

[Illustration]

"Wa'al," resumed Mr. Harum, "I see how things was goin', an' I see that
unless I played euchre, 'Zeke Swinney 'd git that prop'ty, an' whether I
wanted it myself or not, I didn't cal'late he sh'd git it anyway. He put
a spoke in my wheel once, an' I hain't forgot it. But that hain't
neither here nor there. Wa'al," after a short pause, "you know I helped
ye pull the thing along on the chance, as ye may say, that you an' your
son 'd somehow make a go on't."

"You ben very kind, so fur," said the widow faintly.

"Don't ye say that, don't ye say that," protested David. "'T wa'n't no
kindness. It was jes' bus'nis. I wa'n't takin' no chances, an' I s'pose
I might let the thing run a spell longer if I c'd see any use in't. But
the' ain't, an' so I ast ye to come up this mornin' so 't we c'd settle
the thing up without no fuss, nor trouble, nor lawyer's fees, nor
nothin'. I've got the papers all drawed, an' John--Mr. Lenox--here to
take the acknowlidgments. You hain't no objection to windin' the thing
up this mornin', have ye?"

"I s'pose I'll have to do whatever you say," replied the poor woman in a
tone of hopeless discouragement, "an' I might as well be killed to once,
as to die by inch pieces."

"All right then," said David cheerfully, ignoring her lethal
suggestion, "but before we git down to bus'nis an' signin' papers, an'
in order t