"Bless my soul and body!" he exclaimed. "Is the old gentleman crazy or is
you?"
"You forget yourself," sharply retorted Dan.
"Well, well," pursued Jack, good-naturedly, as he knocked the ashes from
his pipe and slowly refilled it. "If you hadn't have told me, I wouldn't
have believed you--well, well." He put his pipe into his mouth and hung on
it for a moment; then he took it out and spoke thoughtfully. "I reckon I've
known you from a child, haven't I, Mr. Dan?" he asked.
"That's so, Jack," responded the young man, "and if you can recommend me, I
want you to help me to a job for a week or two--then I'm off to town."
"I've known you from a child year in an' year out," went on Jack, blandly
disregarding the interruption. "From the time you was sech a
pleasant-spoken little boy that it did me good to bow to you when you rode
by with the Major. 'Thar's not another like him in the country,' I said to
Bill Bates, an' he said to me, 'Thar's not a man between here an'
Leicesterburg as ain't ready to say the same.' Then time went on an' you
got bigger, an' the year came when the crops failed an' Sairy got sick, an'
I took a mortgage on this here house--an' what should happen but that you
stepped right up an' paid it out of yo' own pocket. And you kept it from
the Major. Lord, Lord, to think the Major never knew which way the money
went."
"We won't speak of that," said Dan, throwing back his head. The thought
that the innkeeper might be going to offer him the money stung him into
anger.
Pages:
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231