k. No delay. I should begin to-morrow with something directed to
the general end.

Returning we went past Reverdy's farm. But he had finished his work and
gone to town. Accordingly we speeded up. When I arrived home I found
Reverdy already there. But he would not leave the tavern. He gave no
reason in particular. He said he was as safe there as anywhere; and it
was more convenient for him.

But there was much doing. Sarah and Zoe were mixing the ingredients of
a cake. A turkey was roasting; we were going to have a guest for supper.
Douglas, the law student, the new school teacher, was coming; and all
was delighted expectation. "For," said Mrs. Spurgeon, "I reckon we ain't
never had such a young feller before around these parts. Talk! You never
heard such talk. It flows just like the water down hill. And there never
was a friendlier soul. I never thought they raised such people up in
Yankeeland as him. You can bet he'll make his mark. He'll be a judge
before he's ten years older; and they do well to get him here. And what
I say is: where did he get his eddication? He is an orphan too, like
you, James ... raised by an uncle so far as he had a raisin'. But the
uncle fooled him. He promised him an eddication, and then went back on
it. And what does young Douglas do? He busts away. He gets awful mad and
comes west to make his fortune. Make a young feller mad, hurt him good
and plenty, and if he has the right stuff you make a man of him. I've
seen it over and over. When a young feller's mad and disappointed, if
he's got the right stuff in him, he gets more energy, like a kettle
blown off. They do, unless they sulk. Now there's other types. There was
your poppy; he warn't mad and he didn't sulk exactly, and yet there was
somethin'. He seemed to simmer and stew a little. But he left five
thousand acres of land. Maybe he was one of these here big speculators
like as is all over Illinois now, that has some kind of a different
secret, and makes a big success some other way. You can never tell. But
you see when Douglas came here he landed from Alton down here at
Winchester and went right to work makin' a few dollars at a auction
where he was a appraiser. And he worked at his trade too. For he's a
cabinet maker. Yes, sir, he has a trade. With all the books he's read he
has a trade. And now he's up here to look over the ground; for they say
he's comin' here next spring to practice law, and even then he'll be
only twenty-one."

Sur